All pet and working dog owners should be concerned about their animal’s health. One of the easiest way to support good health, both in the present and future is by offering your dog a healthy and nutritious diet. With a proliferation of low-quality but well-marketed pet feeds, it can be hard to understand how to improve your dog’s nutrition, but this blog will offer some simple tips to help you achieve this:

1. Good dog foods should have a significant component proportion of lean protein. Protein is the most important kind of nutrient for dogs, so it is vital that a good portion of their diet comes from sources such as lean muscle meat, fish, or organs. This can also be supplemented with small amounts of egg and dairy. Carbohydrates are often used to fill out cheaper feeds while reducing the amount of more expensive lean protein required in them. Your vet will be able to advise on what a healthy protein content should look like

2. Try introducing raw foods into your dog’s diet. While many owners only provide their dogs with a diet based on raw meats and vegetables, this is not entirely necessary if you prefer kibble-based feeds. These can be supplemented with small amounts of organ meat, raw vegetables, and other items such as fish oils. This kind of diet offers a number of benefits including reduced unhealthy additives in your dog’s diet, and more access to nutrients which can be destroyed during any preparation processes

3. Use supplements. While not a replacement for a healthy diet in and of themselves, nutritional supplementation can offer a range of health and wellbeing benefits. My Dog Nutrition’s Rejuvenate is a leading joint and coat supplement. Only using natural ingredients, it can help dogs of all ages live healthier and more fulfilled lives by providing them with nutrients that seldom occur in regular feeds.

Feeding your dog is an activity many of you will be familiar with. It is a daily ritual, but can give a number of benefits beyond simply providing nutrition. This blog will offer a brief overview of some of the benefits that can be gained from feeding your dog, as well as how you can access them:

1. Feeding allows owners to build stronger bonds with their dogs. The need for food is primal, and as dogs learn associatively, a connection is often formed with the person who they view as their main source of food. This is particularly useful as the main feeder becomes a positive association for the dog in and of their own right.

2. Feeding can be a good time to observe your dog’s overall health and wellbeing. Appetite is a general indicator of health, so if your dog is struggling to eat or appears apathetic around food then there is good chance that it is unwell. In such instances, a visit to your vet is highly recommended.

3. Feeding is a regular opportunity to train your dog. For training to be successful, a dogs need to build an association between performing desired behaviors and specific commands. Ideally, this will be through some kind of positive incentive. Because of how high-value food is to a dog, they will usually work for it. To this end, as your dog will most likely be keen to eat, it is often worth integrating small training sessions into regular feeds. This can be as simple as requiring your dog to sit or enter a short down stay before being allowed to eat, but consistency always pays off.

Traditionally, there has been a certain amount of resistance to giving puppies nutritional supplements. While supplements have always been unfairly stigmatized, this is particularly the case with puppies and younger dogs. We believe this is unfounded, and that there are many good reasons to give your puppy dog nutrition supplements.

1. Puppies are going through critical developmental life stages. As they are physically growing and maturing, they need all the help they can get to set them up for success and health as adults. Poor health in adolescence can carry forward to later life, so your puppy’s health is of paramount importance

2. Joint health can be one of the greatest determiners of a dog’s quality of life as it ages. Joint supplements can help your puppy’s joints and musculoskeletal system develop in a normal and healthy manner, setting it up for success as it ages

3. Puppies can have different nutritional needs to adult and older dogs. For example, their physical development demands high levels of calcium for bone growth. A normal diet may not provide these additional nutrients, hence why supplements are necessary

Supplements as a whole – both for humans and animals – often have a dangerous reputation. While it is certainly true that some supplements may have adverse effects if not properly administered, we do not believe this to be true of the kind of nutritional supplements we have designed, sell, and ultimately give to our own dogs.

In their truest form, supplements are only used as additions to an already healthy lifestyle and nutritional plan. Nutritional supplements support overall health and wellbeing, and may offer specific benefits such as improved joint support. Supplements are perhaps the best joint support for dogs, and are far easier to administer than injections. When mixed with foodstuffs that are particularly appealing to dogs such as fish oils or cheese paste, they are usually readily accepted.

Having said that, we would always recommend that you seek veterinary advice before introducing nutritional supplements into your dog’s diet, especially if they have any history of allergies or intolerances. If one supplement’s component parts may be undesirable, there are usually appropriate alternatives that can be found without significant difficulty.