Posts Tagged ‘Dogs Health’
Dog Health – Proper Nutrition For Your Working Dog
Dogs that lead a very active lifestyle demand a more comprehensive diet than average dogs require to ensure proper dog health.
Examples of these hard-working dogs are those that participate in agility competitions as well as those that team up with law enforcement on a search-and-rescue mission.
For the best possible dog health, these dogs require nutritional needs that are different from an average household pet.
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Most of these sporting and working dogs participate in intermediate activities as well.
These are activities that require low to moderate duration and intensity. Examples include: Competition or agility, service, search and rescue, tracking or hunting, police or guarding, detection, and even managing livestock.
Essential Nutrients For Dog Health And Your Busy Canine Athlete
Because your dog is always on the go, you need to provide him with larger doses of food and certain types of nutrients.
This is especially important in times when they are most active. A typical working dog would need about 2 – 5 times more calories than a sedentary dog.
These extra calories are converted into energy that helps your dog health and canine athlete perform better.
Four Key Nutrients For Busy Dogs and Dog Health
1. Carbohydrate: Once your dog reaches adulthood, he has no need for carbohydrates in his diet, although he is able to absorb this nutrient if eaten. Less carbohydrates in the adult dog’s diet creates better performance. Therefore, minimum amount of carbohydrates is required for the working dog or any dog that participates in any kind of activity that lasts for more than two minutes.
2. Protein: Protein contains amino acids, which are the building blocks for hormones, tissues, and enzymes. This nutrient provides energy and helps develop muscle mass for extra size and strength. Keep in mind, however, that too much protein in your dog’s diet can lead to excessive protein breakdown. A busy dog should have a diet that includes high-quality protein, enough to provide for muscle and structural repair.
3. Fats: The main source of energy for intermediate athletic dogs comes from fats. This nutrient contains about twice as much energy as carbohydrates and protein provides. Adding more fat to your dog’s diet is the best way to increase his energy and strength. A diet high in fat is more appealing to your dog while at the same time providing him with better endurance. Therefore, it is very important to supply him with adequate amount of essential fatty acids along with saturated and unsaturated fats.
4. Water: A hard-working dog normally loses more water during laborious activity so it is very important to provide him with an ample supply of water to keep him hydrated.
This is even more important for dog health when your dog is under extreme temperatures (both hot and cold weather).
Avocados: A Surprisingly Healthy Fruit For All Dogs
A useful dog health tip is that most dogs love avocados. They taste good, and they are an excellent source of fat. Fat is responsible for providing dogs with extra amount of energy and gives them healthy skin as well as an extra glow in their coat.
Strangely enough, it was the dogs themselves who led us to the idea of using the avocado as a supplement to the canine diet. It seems that avocado growers’ pet dogs were competing with the growers for any fallen fruit. The growers became curious and decided to compare the nutrients that this amazing fruit contained with those needed by canines.
According to a Veterinary professor at Iowa State University, this fruit enhances hair quality as well as skin tone, with which avocado growers have reported in their dogs is most likely due to the amount of linoleic acid of the fruit when added to the dog’s diet.
Of course, this fruit alone could not be recommended as the only nutrient source for dogs. But an avocado, in small quantities as a supplement, might be helpful if adequate amount of fat were not available from other sources.
A dog’s requirement of fat depends mostly on the amount of activity he engages in. For instance, an active working dog needs up to twenty percent fat in his diet, while the average household dog that walks a few blocks everyday needs only five to eight percent of fat in his diet. The very thin dog should get a diet rich in fat until his weight and health improve. The pregnant and nursing female dog also needs greater amounts of fat in her diet.
The majority of canine canned foods contain adequate fat to satisfy the need of an average household dog. However, if the dog is fed a diet strictly of dry meal, it might be moistened with additional sources of fat.
Avocados are an excellent source of fat for this purpose. And for canines that get most of their fat from canned foods, this tasty fruit also serves as an occasional treat. Avocados might be alternated with other occasional food supplements to add variety to the dog’s regular diet. Simply put, dogs love avocados and they are good for them!
Word Of Warning: Documented evidence suggests that some dogs, as well as other domestic animals like cats and cattle, can be severely harmed and prove fatal when they eat the avocado pit, skin, leaves, and bark of the avocado tree. Therefore, when supplementing your dog’s health and diet with avocados, make sure to only give him the meat of the fruit.
Commercial Dog Food – What’s Really In Dog Food
With the recent dog food recall causing all sorts of discussions between dog owners about the quality of the food they feed their dogs and dog health in general, it seems that very little of these conversations are actually asking the important question about whether or not pet food is nutritious enough for their animals.
Most people seem to be unhappy with the fact that the food was tainted, yet has anyone considered going deeper into the situation and really finding out what is in the food to begin with? Do you really want to know what you are feeding your dog or cat?
Peaking Into Pet Food Ingredients
The first question you should be asking yourself is whether or not the ingredients in your pet food is actually quality material. For those of you that have believed for years that the dog and cat food you have been feeding your pets are top-notch products, you may be disappointed to know that the foodstuffs which make up the base of these pet foods is extremely low grade, hardly edible, animal by-products.
These products come from the remains of whatever animals are not deemed suitable for human consumption. There are no special chicken farms, grass fed beef pastures, or anything of the sort, that is specifically utilized for pet food. These companies use whatever they can get their hands on: blood, ligaments, lungs, bones, beaks, heads, feet, etc. All of these items are converted over for several purposes, such as livestock feed, fertilizers, poultry, and of course – ingredients for pet food.
As a consumer, you cannot find this information when you read the labels. You have no idea whether or not the quality of the “beef” or “chicken” which is printed on many pet food packages is actually healthy, nutritious meat. And most people do not know the difference between whole meat and meat meal or meat byproducts.
Advertising At It’s Best
Years ago, it was common practice to feed our cats and dogs whatever food we were eating. Table scraps were considered everyday food for these animals. Somewhere along the line we have been convinced that dog and cat food produced by corporations are the best nutritional products we can feed our pets.
Our thinking today is that “my dog will not get a balanced diet if he just eats what we eat”. Once you think about it, that notion really doesn’t make any sense. How can a human get all of the nutrition they need yet a dog will become nutritionally deficient by eating the same food? Ask yourself the same question and you might just think twice before grabbing process that dog food and feeding it to your cat or dog.