Food

For humans, a source of vitamin C in the diet is literally necessary for survival. Early sailors deprived of fresh foods for extended lengths of time often suffered from scurvy

I own a beautiful German Shepherd named Xeus. He comes from very well-known, healthy, wonderful lines. Xeus is sound, has personality galore and a wonderful temperament – he’s just an all-around great German Shepherd. One Saturday in late June 1999, a really nice, hot summer day, my entire family was hanging out in our back yard, enjoying our pool, as we watched Xeus enjoy his kiddie pool. All of a sudden, Xeus jumped out of his wading pool and made a bee-line for the house. I watched him go in, thinking he was just looking for another toy to bring out, but he didn’t come back out.

A few years ago, we added a new column to the chart full of information that we publish in our annual “approved dry dog...

Most of the ingredients in freeze-dried diets are raw and/or very lightly processed. All the freeze-dried raw diets we reviewed are grain-free – not because we think grains are inappropriate in these foods; it's the food manufacturers who seem to have decided that raw feeders won't buy a product that contains any grain. Many people who feed home-prepared or commercial raw diets to their dogs when they are home replace this diet with a freeze-dried raw food when they travel, or when the dog is left with a sitter who doesn't want to deal with a fresh or frozen raw diet.

When WDJ first reviewed dog food, back in 1998, there was but a handful of companies making what we considered good foods. Seriously, I stretched to find five companies that had products that contained only good-quality ingredients - and more importantly, didn't contain unnamed animal fats and meat by-products. And just about every question I asked a pet food company was answered with, "I'm sorry that's proprietary information!"

Like us, our dogs need both physical exercise and mental stimulation. As a trainer, I see many clients who focus on physical exercise, but don't always consider the benefits of mental stimulation—what I call brain-work. One easy way to add in a bit of brain-work is to get rid of your dog's food bowl and replace it with other fun feeding options. I'm always so excited to share with my clients how fun and effective it can be to ditch the dish! Yes, that's right: Throw that traditional food bowl into the trash and get going with creative feeding.

Voss kept her dogs supplied with fresh tripe

Some low-fat recipes for dogs are excessively low in fat, providing as little as 5 to 8 GFK, with as much as seven times more starches than meat. With very few exceptions, it’s not necessary to feed such an extremely low-fat diet to dogs recovering from or prone to pancreatitis or with other forms of fat intolerance, nor is such a diet likely to be nutritionally adequate, regardless of how many supplements you add.

Although butter is not toxic to dogs, it can make them sick if they ingest large amounts.

Many raw dog food diet proponents claim that the nutrients and/or chemical composition of a raw diet keeps dogs from developing gingivitis or periodontitis. We’re not aware of any studies that have proven these claims, but the persistence of the anecdotal evidence of this phenomenon (to say nothing of its evolutionary success) suggest that there are dental benefits to a diet that includes raw, meaty bones.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) allows waste products and toxins to build up in the body as kidney function decreases. Diet can help mitigate symptoms and slow the progression of the disease.

Dogs can enjoy many traditional Thanksgiving foods. The key is to let them indulge in moderation. That’s because Thanksgiving weekend is infamous in the...