I’ve been researching dog food lately, and I’m going to share a simple test for determining whether your dog food is any good.  But first, I’ll start with my newest pet peeve…

This is a great food. Grain-free and plenty of meat.

Which Dog Food?  Answer the Dang Question!

It bugs me when I hit the computer to research something and I end up visiting websites that encourage me to do my own research. When I Google “Best Stapler,” I’m not looking for encouragement to “ask yourself what you are really looking for in a stapler.” I just want to see: “It’s the PaperJaw 3000.”  Search for “Best Dog Food” and you will find lots of websites that go on about the attributes of good dog food, but they never tell you what to buy! I’m not going to do that. If you’re interested in my opinion, I’ll give it to you — see the pictures for the foods I use and recommend, and click on them for more info.

Most Dog Food is Nasty

I believe that most supermarket dog food is made out of bad stuff. The ingredient list for Kibbles ‘n Bits, for example, includes corn syrup. I feel sorry for dogs that are being fed sugar as part of their daily diet, and I would expect that whatever money their owners are saving on dog food, they will end up spending at the vet. In short, I believe it only makes sense to consider so-called “super premium” brands, and so I’m only looking at those. Fair-warning: good dog food is significantly more expensive than bad dog food, but the bag lasts longer because you’ll use less per serving, and you’ll end up saving money on vet bills.

My favorite dog food: anything from Orijen.

Variety is Bad: Common Nonsense

How did we all get convinced that we should buy one dog food and stick with it for years and years? I think it’s nonsense. When fueled with constant variety, dogs enjoy rock-solid digestive systems and happily handle whatever quality foods you throw at them. In contrast, if you make your dog eat the same thing every day, month-in and month-out, of course he’s going to get diarrhea if you suddenly change foods. But the problem is not that you switched foods; it’s that you don’t switch enough. I change foods every time I buy a bag. I don’t bother with that gradual blending business either, and my guys are consistently fine with it. (Note: if your dog has been eating the same food for years, his digestive system probably isn’t so rock-solid anymore, so in that case you should introduce new foods gradually at first.)

A Simple Test for Quality: Your food should have a meat or fish followed by the word “meal” before any non-meat ingredient appears in the list. Leave a comment and let us know if your dog food passes the test.

Other Stuff I Learned

After reading a good book on the subject and studying several websites, as well as talking to my vet and a leading veterinary neurologist at MSPCA/Angell, I’ve settled on the following beliefs. Everything here is “in my opinion.”

1. Grain-free foods make sense. Wolves don’t eat corn, wheat, and rice, so your dog shouldn’t either. By the way, I noticed that my dogs both scratched a fair amount before I removed grains from their diet; now they rarely do.
2. Raw dog foods are in fashion now, but they are too risky. Raw ground meat can contain scary bacteria, so you’re rolling the dice every time you handle them. Too, that same bacteria can survive in your dog’s waste, so the risk lingers.
3. Read the ingredient list and look for meat. Ingredients appear in order by weight, and anything that appears after “salt” can be ignored, since it’s present in very small amount.
   

   Natura's EVO line is grain-free and a great choice.

4. Speaking of ingredients, with kibble, the word “meal,” (as in “chicken meal,” “bison meal,” “salmon meal”) is a good thing. Since ingredients are listed in order of weight, and since all ingredients are ultimately dried into meal in the process of creating the kibble, weighing them wet (before they are meal) is an easy way to make them appear artificially higher in the ingredient list.
5. A Simple Test for Quality: Your food should have a meat or fish followed by the word “meal” before any non-meat ingredient appears in the list. In the table below, notice that Orijen passes the test with item #2 (“chicken meal”) appearing before any non-meat ingredient, and Kibbles ‘n Bits fails the test right off the bat with corn as its #1 ingredient. Does your dog food pass the test?  Leave us a comment and let us know!
6. Add meat and vegetables to your dogs diet. Apples, cooked broccoli, chicken, roast beef — all great. Whatever leftover meat or vegetables you have around; consider throwing it in there. But first, familiarize yourself with the list of foods that are poisonous to canines.
7. Canned pumpkin is a high-fber ingredient that is widely recommended as a good thing to add to your dog’s meal. I use it a lot.
8. Feed less. I’m puzzled by the suggested serving amounts I see on the dog food bags — they are too high by a lot. If I followed them, my dogs would be fat. The best foods are more nutritious and calorie dense, so you need less.
9. Don’t free feed. If your dog isn’t eating all the food you leave for him right away, something’s off, and it’s possible that he’s bored with the food, or the quality isn’t good enough. See “Common Nonsense” above, and in any case, if he doesn’t eat it in 5 minutes, pick it up.

The Top Ten Ingredients from Two Very Different Dog Foods

Does Your Dog Food Pass the Test?

Good dog foods pass the test (see item #5 above.) Does your dog food pass or fail?  Leave a comment and let us know!

Thanks to all who came out during a snow day to my talk at the Sherborn Library last week!  If you were there, feel free to leave a comment or question below.  For those who missed it, I will be giving a repeat performance at the Framingham Library on February 17th at 7PM. The topic is everything you need to know to raise a great dog, and I’ll include demonstrations with my dogs and video clips of techniques you should practice with your own dog.  See flyer for details.

Many folks struggle with the dog-dog introduction.  The clip below shows one of the ways I do it.  Several things to notice:

1. The absence of formal commands. I minimize the use of “sit” and “heel” and other formal command-response techniques with my dogs. I do communicate with them using voice and hand signals, but it is only to reinforce the learned behaviors they already know.  In the video, I tell Grace to “wait” because I sensed she needed a reminder, but she probably would have done it on her own, which is the idea.
2. High expectations. I don’t focus on, or stare at, my dogs.  I expect them to behave and I mostly ignore them when I am interacting with others. If they don’t behave, my priority is to correct them immediately.
3. The imaginary line. I maintain a line that runs to my immediate left and right at all times. Throughout our walks, my dogs have to stay behind the line unless I give them permission otherwise.  When Maeby (in the red coat) sits, she is respecting the line.
4. Off-leash control. This takes time to achieve, but it is worth it.
5. Safety. Before I let my dogs greet this new dog, I determined that the new dog is not dangerous. I also wanted to let the approaching family know that my dogs are safe for dogs and kids. If I didn’t feel comfortable, I would not have sent my dogs ahead to say hello.

Take a look at this Golden walking with his owners. What’s wrong with this picture? Some people would say, “He’s pulling on the leash.  He needs to be trained.”  And that idea — that the principal remedy for a poorly-behaved dog is training —  is a common one, but it’s wrong.  I want to dispel the myth here because it causes a lot of owners to miss an exciting bigger picture, which is:  The best remedy for most dog problems is not training, it’s to change the dog’s environment.

Back to the picture. If you had to circle the most important part, what would you choose? The woman’s clenched grip? The taught leash?  Some owners look in the wrong place for the solution.  For example, some people with pulling dogs switch to a choke or prong collar. We’ve all seen it. Now we have the same pulling dog, except now he’s gasping for air.

So, what’s the right answer? The dog’s brain. Look at that dog’s eyes and expression. You can almost see him thinking, “I’m leading this show, and I’ve got my followers behind me where they belong.”  The reason he is pulling is because his owners have created an environment that tells the dog’s mind that he is leading this walk, and so he’s behaving 100% appropriately by fulfilling that role with vigor.  Amazingly, when you change his environment and therefore what’s going on in his brain, he’ll stop pulling immediately.  That’s the big point.  The dog in this picture already knows how to walk politely, and he will demonstrate that immediately for anyone who changes his brain.  He doesn’t need to be trained.

A recent client of mine also has a Golden Retriever with the pulling problem. In fact, he pulled so hard she was worried about damage to her elbows, or worse, being seriously hurt if he pulled her down the stairs some icy day this winter.  When we initially spoke on the phone, her expectation was that her dog needed to be trained, and to her credit she was ready to work on the problem for as many weeks or months as necessary.  When she told me about her dog’s otherwise polite demeanor, I hinted that she could expect much faster progress.  In the end, she took up the challenge and solved the problem completely in 75 minutes. Here’s what she wrote to me after our session:

I want to tell you that you have amazingly transformed me and my dog… mostly me I guess. Walking has become enjoyable and less hazardous now that I’m in charge. If I had only known it was this easy I would have taken some lessons from you long before… Thank you so much…I find it remarkable that we were able to erase the bad habits in such a short time!

So, how do you change the dog’s environment and brain? In a case of leash-pulling, the piece of the environment that needs changing is you. Forget the dog; your challenge is to change yourself.

The Big Six: Your dog already knows how to walk politely, he just can't do it for you until you master these six concepts.

Since you want him to follow instead of pull, you need to demonstrate that you are someone worthy of following. In the dog world, that boils down to six separate concepts for you to master, starting with your energy and ending with the actual way you walk. Understanding the big six is the part that takes 75 minutes, and I’ll be writing future posts on some of them in detail.  If you want me to email those posts to you automatically, be sure to subscribe by following this easy two-step process.

I talk to a lot of people about their dogs, and in general, I believe owners have good instincts about what’s going on in their dog’s head. However, there is one exception. It’s a topic that is so frequently and fundamentally misunderstood, that I thought I should talk about it here. And, before I go too far, I should say that I think it is partly Snoopy’s fault.

Also, I have added a poll to the website (over there on the right) so you can anonymously brag or confess about whether you had it right or wrong in your own mind all along. Ready?  Here is my assertion:

Excitement is not a sign of happiness. It’s a sign of instability.

That’s right, I believe dog owners commonly misunderstand excitement. When a dog is wagging and jumping and barking and vibrating, it’s a negative thing that should be addressed. Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not a sign that the dog is happy. A happy dog is a calm dog.

I blamed Snoopy because we grew up with him dancing excitedly (on two feet!) whenever he was really happy. Could that be where this myth started? Or, could it be that since excitement is normally a positive thing in the human world that we assume it’s positive for dogs as well?  Either way, many people have a hard time buying into this one, so here’s some color:

1. Dogs that demonstrate excitement in front of a calm pack — by jumping up on their owners, for example — will noticeably agitate members of the pack, and occassionally they will even be attacked for it.  The other dogs know.

2. In the canine psychology bible “The Dog’s Mind,” author Bruce Fogle lists excitement in the same chapter as fears, phobias, and anxiety. He says, “We are responsible for much of our dog’s activity and can sometimes create problems of excitability though our own behavior.”  Amen, brother.

3. Check out what the author says about excitement on the Dog Breed Info Center. Scroll down to the seventh paragraph.

Also, I’d like to distinguish play (which is good,) from excitement. When a dog is playing, and especially if he is doing it athletically and enthusiastically, we sometimes think of that as excitement. I agree that there is some grey area there, but to quote Samuel Johnson, “the fact of dusk does not mean there’s no difference between night and day.” There is a difference between play and excitement, and if we look carefully, we’ll see it evidenced in our dogs state of mind. Balanced dogs are relaxed when they exercise; unbalanced dogs are not.

When you behave excitedly towards your dog, do you imagine that you are communicating something meaningful?

And finally, what about our role? When your dog greets you after you’ve been gone all day, do you encourage her to be excited? Are you thinking that by behaving excitedly yourself, you are communicating something meaningful to her? I encourage you to re-examine that belief and greet your dog as her pack members would: be curious and social and let her come use her nose to see where you have been, but minimize excited behaviors like squealing or clapping. You’ll make more sense to her, and you’ll be reminding yourself about the real meaning of excitement in the canine world.

Take the poll. Leave a comment. This is one where folks commonly disagree, and I’d love to hear what you think!

P.S.  I still love Snoopy.

10. Stop Picking Up Your Little Dog

I see many owners of small dogs who, when faced with a challenging situation such as an approaching larger dog, immediately swoop in and lift their dog to safety.  I think it’s a bad habit.   No matter the size, your dog is the same species — and has a similar brain to — Canis lupus, the grey wolf. In a wolf’s world, there is no such thing as a rescue airlift. Just like us, dogs learn from challenging situations, so unless there’s real danger you should let them have the experience.  Similar advice for bigger dogs: don’t pull them away from every challenge.

9. Lose the Harness

Unless your dog is being attached to a sled, he doesn’t need a harness. Harnesses condition dogs to pull, which is one of several reasons that collars are better. I’ve heard owners say, “He pulls so much on the collar, I’m afraid I’m going to hurt his neck.”  You won’t.

8. Nice Yards Are Not a Substitute for Daily Walks

Wolves walk every day, and so should your dog.  You can have the baddest backyard in town, but your dog still won’t be satisfied hanging out there for two reasons: 1) Her nature is to be with her pack, and 2) it’s boring.  All dogs need significant exercise almost every day, and unfortunately hanging out in the yard doesn’t count.

7. There’s Something Better Than Letting Him Run

Many folks believe that letting your dog run free in the woods is about the best thing you can do for him.  I agree that it is great fun, but there’s something that’s more important.  Great dogs know how to walk as a member of a pack — behind or alongside their leader — and they can learn to do that on-leashin the woods. Next time you’ve got a power hike planned, consider leaving your dog on-leash for the whole thing. Practice keeping him at your side using short, quick corrections to the side when he goes ahead. When he settles in, you’ll notice he goes into a head-down, trance-like state that resembles a wolf walking in a pack. The physical exercise is as good as the off-leash type, but the mental exercise is better: it’s canine meditation. Added bonus: walking like that is how your dog comes to see you as his leader.

6. Be On the Same Page As Your Spouse

No matter how great your dog philosophy, if you and your spouse are executing separate plans, the best grade you can get together is a C+.

5. Lower Your Voice

Volume is worse than meaningless to dogs. The louder you get, the less significant you become. Experiment with silence and very soft commands. Most dogs hear everything.

4. Don’t Repeat Yourself

Okay, I guess you may have heard this one before, but it bears repeating.  Cassie, come. Come. Cassie! Come. Come on, Cassie, right now. Cassie, come! Come girl, come!  If you aren’t prepared to enforce a command after the first time you give it, then don’t give it. If you say “Come,” and she doesn’t, then go get her and bring her to the spot where you said it. After 100 times, she’ll learn that the first one means something.

3. Stop Anticipating Problems

Dogs pick up on extremely subtle queues. If you are envisioning a dog problem, you tense up a little. When that happens, your posture changes, you stop talking or you talk louder, you stare more, and your breathing changes. Picking up on all these obvious clues, your dog behavior changes for the worse, reflecting your tension. If, instead, you relax when the unexpected occurs, your dog will pick up on that and his behavior will be improved by it. If he does do something wrong, react immediately as it happens and calmly correct him.

2. Get Eye Contact Before You Give Food.

Eye contact = respect. If you don’t get it, you’re the waiter.

1. Challenge Your Reasoning When You Leave Your Dog Behind

Some dogs spend way too much time in their own house and yard, and families grow accustomed to leaving them behind, even when it is not necessary. When was the last time you took your dog along when you went to the supermarket? Do you have a teenager who could walk your dog around the parking lot while you shop? Dogs love new experiences like that, and it can be entertaining to teach them about shopping carts and respecting traffic and greeting the dog lovers who will come up to pet him. Too, your teenager will get experience talking to adults when they ask, “What breed is that?”

What are your favorite lesser-known dog tips?  I’d love to see them: Leave a comment and let me know!

Gunner is a 9-year-old mix whose engaging Lab-like personality has a temporary layer of dog-dog and dog-owner aggression layered on top.  Gunner’s owner and I have been meeting to work on removing that layer, and so far his progress has been exciting.

In our first meetings, we worked on the common problem of “chaos at the front door.” She wrote:

…I am thrilled with my progress. I had [a friend] come to the door and the old usual behavior started. I made my noise and [...] in short order Gunner backed off. I did resort to using a “cuff” gesture and he growled for a nanosecond until I hissed again…. then sat patiently until I greeted my friend. NO high frequency energy. He was chilled behind the line of my territory, and after a bit I did go and pat him. I was delighted…

Recently, we met again to practice dog-dog encounters in the woods, and the session started off a little rough: the first dog we tried to introduce provoked a strong reaction from Gunner with lots of lunging and growling. We decided to use a pack walk with my two dogs to re-acquaint him with social behavior. It was amazing how quickly he let go of the aggression. We spent an hour walking and swimming in the woods with the dogs on-leash and off. Here’s a picture of Gunner’s owner handling all three dogs like a pro. Notice her confidence and how all three leashes are loose! Wonderful progress.

Note: Don't put your dog in the front seat like this if you have an airbag that could inflate in an accident.

The other day I was driving along with Maeby in the front seat. A big rabbit dashed in front of the car and I hit the brakes pretty hard. Maeby tried to keep her balance but ended up awkwardly crumpled in the footwell. Although she was unhurt, I felt bad about it, and after reading this article: Canine Car Safety, I went out to Pet World and got some good canine seat belts.

I’m getting better at connecting them up, and we are still getting used to them, but I’m determined to make them part of our routine.  Now, when I hit the brakes, it’s reassuring to see them held firmly by the belts. Makes me think maybe the kids should be wearing seatbelts too.

]]> http://www.dogway.com/?feed=rss2&p=238 3 http://www.dogway.com/?p=238 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/dogway/~3/YzkrtYE3DdE/ http://www.dogway.com/?p=245#comments Wed, 09 Jun 2010 00:49:08 +0000 Doug Parizeau http://dougparizeau.com/?p=245

Did you ever give your dog a command just as she began to scratch herself?  Then you get to stand there awkwardly while you wait for her to finish?  It happens to me occasionally, and for some reason it never occurred to me that I was being intentionally blown off.  Here’s a great article with a new theory on what all the scratching is about:

http://www.thatmutt.com/2010/06/04/dog-body-language-scratching/

Here’s a clip from an interesting email I just got.

I wondered if there is anything to be done for a highly anxious dog/owner. My friend’s Weimeraner is a great dog but super anxious. Shakes like crazy if there are a lot of people around, hates fireworks and pees upon greeting a lot. I love her, very sweet but seems to suffer all summer long with all the people at the lake. Is that something that could change or is that biochemical do you think?

Add a comment and let us know what you would do. I’ll be posting my reply as well.