If you’ve got a dog, then it provides you with loyalty, companionship, motivation for exercise, security and love. Your side of the bargain is keeping your newest, best friend as healthy and happy as possible.
One of the biggest, most important ways in which you can influence your dog’s wellbeing is through their diet! You control what your dog eats (mostly: lots of dogs are keen and curious foragers and might find any number of tempting morsels in parks, on benches and discarded in hedges) and if you can feed them a healthier diet, then you can solve problems, improve behaviour, and make life easier and better for both pet and owner. If you’re regularly wondering “why does my dog keep being sick?” then it might be time to reassess their diet.
The Basics
There are some basic points it helps to consider when you’re picking food for your dog. Is it for the right age group and is it nutritionally complete?
Dogs have different nutritional needs at different ages: a puppy needs very different things from their food as they grow than an adult dog, and especially than a senior dog trying to maintain its health in the later years of life. If you want to ensure your dog is getting what they need from their food, then make sure you know what stage of life they’re in, and check the labelling on their food to ensure it’s right for your dog.
means the food contains all the nutrients your dog’s body needs to be healthy. If your dog’s food isn’t labelled ‘nutritionally complete’ then you need to be looking into what extras and supplements you might need to provide to ensure your dog is healthy. It’s easier to ensure your chosen dog food is nutritionally complete than to try to compensate for one that isn’t.
Dog Dietary Supplements
Look online, and you might well believe there are as many dietary supplements available for dogs as for humans. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, and easy too to spend a lot of money while losing track of exactly what you’re trying to achieve.
Bear in mind that, as with supplements for humans, outside the field of medicine, there are few guarantees about what works and what doesn’t. It’s best to bear in mind precisely what problem you want to solve (whether it’s improving their coat quality, relieving anxiety, boosting their immune system or increasing their iron levels), and seek the advice of a vet or other expert about what will help you reach that solution through your dog’s diet.