Vitamin & Mineral Sources

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Vitamin & Mineral Sources: Part 1

Vegetables: While a few vegetables may serve as natural vitamin sources, most vegetables have little value to a dog. Dogs can only digest about 30 to 50 percent of most of the vegetables eaten by man. Many of these vegetables are practically all water. What roughage they may contain can just as easily be obtained from cereal grains. Vegetables contain too little fat to be of any value as energy sources. Any plant protein they contain is likely to be of low biological value to a dog.

Fruits: Fruits are of even less value to the dog than vegetables are. The main vitamin for which fruits serve as a natural source is vitamin C, a vitamin that is not required in a healthy dog's diet. The healthy dog produces enough vitamin C from glucose to meet its MDR.

Other vitamin sources: Several other natural sources of vitamins are available to a dog owner to feed his or her dog. Some of these, like eggs, cheese, bread, and fish, have already been touched upon under other headings.

Of all methods, by far the most accurate and efficient way to provide a dog's requirement for each vitamin when compounding a diet from natural ingredients, is by using a vitamin mix. You must then calculate the exact amount to add that will provide an adequate supply of vitamins.

Mineral Sources: The minerals, like the vitamins, are best balanced in every diet by using a mineral mix in amounts calculated to supply the requirement for each mineral, and balanced to the caloric density of the diet. In natural diets most of the trace minerals are found in adequate amounts in the natural ingredients. It is important that the major minerals (calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and sodium) be balanced during diet formulation to insure that they are present in the diet in adequate amounts and in the proper ratio.

Bone meal: Bone meal contains calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium in almost the exact ratio required by a dog. As long as it is fed in a finely ground form, most of the mineral it contains will be usable by the dog. Bone meal should be added at about 1/2 ounce for every pound of raw meat put into a dog's diet. It should never be added in excess of 1/2 ounce per pound of the total diet.

Because it is inexpensive and easily available, bone meal is too often fed as the cure-all for any dietary mineral problem. This invariably leads to a greater imbalance in the mineral portion of the diet, not to its correction.

The Dog's Mechanics of Eating

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The Dog's Mechanics of Eating

Many dog owners think that every different breed of dog must be fed different, according to some sort of specification. However, the eating behavior of a dog is characteristic of the whole species, not of any individual breed, since all dogs eat the same way. As a result, there are certain general considerations that can be made when feeding any dog.

A dog is not required to eat its food the same way a man does. A dog has no hands. It's jaws are suited for biting and cutting rather than chewing. There are few “gag” reflex nerves at the back of a dog's mouth, but many in a person's throat. A dog has fewer taste buds on its tongue, but a much greater sense of smell than a man has. There are many other differences as well.

How A Dog Eats

While the eating behavior of a dog may seem strange or awkward to some dog owners, to the dog it is the most comfortable and satisfactory way of getting its food from its bowl into its stomach. The normal pattern of swallowing in a dog is often described as “bolting.” The dog picks up a piece of food with its front teeth and with a short, quick thrust of its head, tosses the piece of food back onto the top of its tongue. The piece of food is then rolled (without being chewed) to the back of the mouth. As the piece reaches the base of the tongue, a reflex causes the back of the tongue to push the food upward and backward into the esophagus. From there it is carried directly into the stomach.

When a piece of food is too large to be swallowed, the dog holds the food with its paws and uses its front teeth to tear off smaller pieces that can be swallowed. If the food is too tough to be torn, the dog will cut it into pieces small enough to be swallowed, using two specialized jaw teeth.

These teeth are called carnassial teeth and have large shearing surfaces that act like scissor blades which can cut through such tough substances as muscle, hide, gristle, and even bone. While the powerful jaw muscles of a dog are useful for cutting chunks of food into swallowing size, these muscles are used very little for actually chewing those pieces. A dog's teeth are few in number and poorly equipped for mastication.

Taking Stock Of The Quality Of Food Given To Your Dog

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Taking Stock Of The Quality Of Food Given To Your Dog

Most dog owners whose pets are household family members consider it an inconvenience to evaluate dog food. They usually feed only one or two dogs, never weigh them, and rarely keep any records on them at all. Many base their selection of a dog food solely on how well their dog eats it, not on what the food does for their dog nutritionally. Moreover, the shopper for the dog's food is usually the same individual who shops for the rest of the family's food; the housewife. From the early morning news to the final night-time talk show, the housewife is bombarded with TV commercials, newspaper ads, and magazine ads who are selling the virtues of one brand of dog food over another.

Food chosen for your dog should always be made by proper research and never by some TV commercial. Stop and consider for a moment that TV commercials and magazine ads are designed to sell you the food. So is the food's packaging and other promotions that they are concerned about. After all, your dog can't read and doesn't understand a word the ad man pitches. Just remember your dog does have to eat the food you buy and feed it.

Simply because you like your food with gravy is no reason to believe that your dog does. Just because some people say all your dog needs is meat won't stop your dog from dying from the calcium deficiency produced when it is fed an all-meat diet. You may prefer that hickory smoked flavor, but your dog prefers the essence of rotten rabbit, for example.

And, if you toss in a little extra human gravy to make sure your dog gobbles up his food without pausing for a breath, remember that how fast your dog eats a food has little to do with the nutritional value of that food. The mere fact that your dog eats a food every time it is fed is no indication whatever that the food is good for your dog. Most dogs love the all-animal-tissue foods, but an exclusive diet of nothing but meat will prove fatal.

While dogs kept as pets may fall into any number of categories, only three are important where feeding is concerned. These three categories are related to where the dog lives: exclusively outdoors, outdoors/indoors, or exclusively indoors. There are naturally some areas of overlap, but these three categories are generally easy enough to separate. Most dog owners can place their dogs into the correct category without too much difficulty when it comes to the starting point of establishing the dog's diet.

Is Your Dog Malnourished?

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Is Your Dog Malnourished?

Once upon a time the poorest fed dog in America was the farm dog left to fend for itself for food. These dogs, undernourished bags of bones, were once so common they almost became symbolic of impoverished rural America. Today vast numbers of those small farms have vanished. With them have gone the gaunt, hollow-eyed hounds that greeted every farm visitor with a hungry, ill-tempered bark.

The farmer has snored to the city, gotten a job, and become the suburbanite. With him have come his companion dogs. And, the suburbanite house-pet has replaced the farm dog as the poorest fed dog in America. Probably 75 percent of all dogs in the United States owned by private individuals are household pets.

Most of these dogs are anywhere from 10 percent to 50 percent overweight because the most frequent error made by feeders of house-pets is overfeeding. Unlike their predecessors, today's poorest fed dogs are not underfed, but overfed. The irony of it all is the fact that, while they may be overfed and overweight, they may also be undernourished! Unfortunately, there is a widespread misconception among dog owners that any dog food that comes out of a can or box that they bought at the grocery store is adequate and nourishing enough for a dog.

This belief has led politicians, sociologists, and even some nutritionists to express the opinion that most American house-pets are better fed than most Americans. While these statements may grab sensational headlines, the accuracy of such a proposition does not stand up under critical exploitation. While it certainly is true that some house-pets receive far better nourishment than some people, it is also true that many dogs in this country are woefully malnourished. Some of the dogs suffering from the greatest malnourishment are those eating the very item to which the politicians and sociologists attribute such grandiose performance-commercial dog food.

Not all, probably not even most, of the canned dog foods in this country are guilty of malnourishing a dog, but some do exist, and they are being fed. Nowhere does a dog feeder need to evaluate the food he feeds more than he does when he is feeding canned foods to a house-pet. Yet, the number of pet owners who actually feed their dogs based on their evaluation of the foods available to them is practically zero.

2 Important Dog Feeding Tips If You Have Two Or More Dogs

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2 Important Dog Feeding Tips If You Have Two Or More Dogs


Tip 1: Uneaten food should not be left around for more than 30 minutes. lf you feed only one or two dogs, removing the uneaten food within 30 minutes should offer no problem. You should begin to pick up the food containers just as soon as you have completed feeding the last dog. Pick up the feeding containers in the same order that they were put down. Don't get in such a hurry to get them, however, that you forget to record each dog's food intake.

Tip 2: Dogs should have regular elimination times. Dogs that are kept in relatively close confinement should be taken out for eliminations immediately after feeding. This will establish a regular pattern. Such a pattern promotes regular eliminations, stimulates better digestion, and increases food utilization. Perhaps equally important from the multiple dog owner's viewpoint is the fact that a regular elimination time allows you to keep your dog well-trained to know when it is time to go, and without having accidents inside.

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Gradually Changing Your Dog's Diet For Better Results

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Gradually Changing Your Dog's Diet For Better Results

lf it becomes necessary to change the time at which a dog is fed, the most satisfactory way to do so is by making gradual time changes from the old time to the new time. For example, suppose you change jobs, and start getting home an hour later than when you usually fed your dog. It is far better to start about two weeks before you make the change and feed the dog live minutes later every evening for twelve days, than to abruptly offer your dog its food 60 minutes late the first day you start the new job.

Probably the most often changed item in any dog's feeding routine is the food itself. There are occasions when circumstances dictate that you must make a change in a dog's food. Whatever the reason for making the change, if it is made too abruptly it may cause a digestive upset.

The micro-organisms growing in a dog's digestive tract become accustomed to one diet. So does the dog's digestive tract itself. An abrupt change does not allow sufficient time for either to re-accustom themselves to the new diet.

How To Feed A Guard Dog

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How To Feed A Guard Dog

Most dogs used as guard dogs are German Shepherds, with an occasional Doberman Pinscher, Boxer, or Labrador Retriever. The average weight of an adult male guard dog is about 70 pounds. None should weigh less than 50 pounds. To satisfactorily provide a guard dog with adequate amounts of energy and nutrients every day, its food should have the following three characteristics: 1) It should contain approximately 2000 calories in each pound. 2) It should have the nutrients balanced to be fed at about 40 available calories per pound of body weight. 3) The overall digestibility of the food should not be less than 80 percent.

No food exists, in normal commercial food channels, that will satisfy the characteristics just listed. While a few canned foods meet the digestibility requirements, no dry foods do. Neither type meets the caloric density or nutrient balance requirements. Soft-moist foods meet the digestibility requirements, but have even lower caloric densities than the dry foods.

The addition of fresh, or canned, meat and meat by-products to a dry food usually improves the digestibility of the protein and fat in the diet. But, because of the high water content of meat foods, their addition actually reduces the caloric density of the final diet combination.

Caloric density can be increased by the addition of corn oil. This procedure works well only when increased energy needs are minimal. With a guard dog's energy requirements, however, so much corn oil is needed that it, too, will dilute the food and nutrient deficiencies are apt to occur.

All guard dogs should be fed by strict portion control. How each dog's weight, general condition, and performance are affected by its diet can be much more accurately compared when feeding by portion control. Guard dogs whom are from a self-feeder are apt to become overweight, sluggish or unresponsive. The last two are particularly fatal to a guard dog and its mission.

Guard dogs should be fed no less than three hours, before or after, their tour of duty. To feed any closer to the tour is an invitation to bloat, torsion or other gastric distress. The danger of these diseases is further increased if the dogs are eating low-quality foods containing poorly-digested nutrients.

Feeding guard dogs is an exception to the rule that all dogs should be fed at the same hour every day. A guard dog's tour hours are subject to frequent change. Also, its meal hours must changed because feeding three hours before duty tours is more important than regular feeding hours. Actually, once their feeding routine is learned, most guard dogs will become accustomed to being fed three hours before going on duty and will adapt their behavior to cue on their feeding time the same way any dog does that is fed at the same time every day.

Feeding Your Dog Table Scraps

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Feeding Your Dog Table Scraps

Until about 20 years ago most dogs could still eke out a living on table scraps. With the advent of modern merchandising methods, both the quality and the quantity of the usable scraps has declined. Meats are sold already trimmed and boned, carefully wrapped in cellophane and cardboard, and ready for cooking without additional alterations. Frozen foods have eliminated trimmings from vegetables, and dairy and poultry products come from cartons and coolers, not cows and chickens. Everything is prepackaged in convenient quantities so that purchases can be adjusted to family appetites with almost no leftovers.

The scraps from a meal made from these pre-trimmed, pre-battered, pre-buttered, pre-cooked, and pre-packaged foods consists of only bits and pieces which are either inedible or unwanted by human beings. Such bits and pieces make neither a balanced nor an adequate diet for a dog.

The true value of today's table scraps are succinctly brought home when the dog owner who feeds his dog table scraps asks himself, ''What would I do with these scraps if I didn't own a dog?" lf his answer would be to save them in the refrigerator for his own next meal then a dog can probably eat the scraps, too. However, If he would throw the scraps into the garbage can, then he is literally feeding his dog garbage when he feeds table scraps.

There is an even greater danger in table scraps. In spite of their poor nutritional quality, table scraps frequently are quite palatable to a dog. All too often such table scraps are used with the idea of increasing the palatability of a less palatable, but better balanced, commercial food. Unless the scraps are finely chopped and blended with the commercial foods, most dogs will simply pick out the table scraps and leave the balanced food behind.

Most table scraps are fats and carbohydrates, yielding lots of calories and little else. As a consequence, the dog obtains a sizable portion of its daily caloric need from the useless scraps and loses his appetite entirely for the commercial food. By refusing to put table scraps on the food, a dog owner may feel he is forcing his dog to eat a food it does not want. But, in the long run, most dog owners will agree that it is better to starve a dog with concern than to kill it with kindness.

Energy Sources

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Energy Sources
Originally, dog owners who fed their pets natural ingredients were attempting to replace the natural diet of the dog. Natural ingredients used today are no longer the foods eaten by an animal ''naturally'' in the wild, but have become modifications of those original foodstuffs to more confinement or longer-lasting forms.

The human diet consists of a large selection of such modified natural foods, most of which have been tried for feeding a dog. Besides these human foods, there are still a few natural ingredients available to the dog owner that are not normally considered to be human foods. Examples of such foods are horse meat, hog livers, and bone meal.

Meat is, without question, the most common natural ingredient fed to a dog. It is also the most common source of protein. It is not the only source, however, nor is it the best. Eggs, milk, and plant proteins also make up a large reservoir of protein sources available to dog feeders.

All natural foods containing nutrients are energy sources, since most nutrients can become energy. Some natural foods supply more energy than others and are customarily used as energy sources. These are the foods containing the largest quantities of fats and carbohydrates. Fats are the primary energy source in any diet for a dog. Most meats come with the fat already attached, especially in the chopped and ground varieties. Fats also can be found in nature in the pure form as vegetable oils or as tallow and lard.

Carbohydrates, while not as concentrated an energy source as fats, are lower in cost. Carbohydrates are useful to dilute the protein in high-meat diets or lower the caloric density of diets containing too much fat.

Probably the most universally useful source of energy for a dog is corn oil. Corn oil supplies 9 calories in every gram, 250 calories in every ounce, 124 calories in every tablespoonful, and 62 calories in every teaspoonful. When used as the only fat in a food it also furnishes about ten times the amount of essential fatty acids needed by a dog. Corn oil is inexpensive, easily obtainable, and has a reasonably good keeping quality. Other vegetable oils that can be used satisfactorily as an energy source for a dog are olive oil, peanut oil, safflower oil and soybean oil.

Can I Feed My Dog Meat Only?

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Can I Feed My Dog Meat Only?

There are a few dog feeders who foolishly insist that meat is the only thing a dog should ever be fed. Meat alone is entirely inadequate for a dog. The foremost deficiency in a diet of meat is its lack of calcium. lf the meat is trimmed of fat there is also likely to occur a deficiency in energy. There are numerous other deficiencies, but none as dramatic as these two.

Meat, nevertheless, is the single most important source of protein fed to dogs. Thousands of tons of horse meat and beef are used each year in producing commercial dog foods. Hundreds of tons more are fed as a supplement to commercial foods or in home-made rations.

When fed as an addition to a balanced commercial food, meat can be added up to 10 percent of the weight of the mixture. When added in any greater amounts it will dilute the commercial food to the extent that the diet will no longer be balanced or adequate. When used as the sole source of protein in a home-made ration, meat should constitute at least 25 percent of the total weight of the diet. However, home-made rations should ever contain more than 75 percent of its weight as meat

All meats except pork can be fed to a dog either cooked or raw, but will usually furnish more nourishment in the raw state. Vitamins are destroyed by the heat of cooking. Fat also is driven out of meat during cooking, and unless it is poured back into the ration, it will become lost as an energy source. The only real justification for feeding a dog cooked meat in a homemade ration is because it is pork, or because the dog does not like raw meat. Dogs having a genuine dislike for raw meat are few and far between.

The nature of the animal from which the meat comes does not seem to be too important where protein is concerned. Nutritionally, most proteins from different animals seem to be about equal. For years it was contended by some dog owners that pork could not be fed to dogs. Feeding experiments do not find this to be true. In fact, pork liver is probably among the most nutritious livers commonly available to dogs. The only restriction which pork has when being fed to dogs is that it be cooked.

5 Common Natural Food Sources For Dogs

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5 Common Natural Food Sources For Dogs

Eggs: Eggs for feeding dogs can be bought by the dozen in the grocery store, by the hundreds from hatcheries or by the thousands from egg ranches.
Regardless of how many or where they are obtained, an egg should never be fed to a dog raw. Raw egg whites react with the vitamin, biotin, and prevent a dog from using it. In fact, feeding raw egg whites is the exact way scientists produce experimental biotin deficiency in a laboratory.

Milk: Much controversy has raged over feeding milk to dogs.
Milk has been accessed of causing diarrhea and other digestive upsets. While it may produce these problems in large amounts, if milk is kept to about two ounces of fluid milk or two tablespoons of dry milk per pound of food, few problems will be encountered.
The value of the milk, when fed in proper amounts, exceeds the risk of upset. Milk supplies calcium and phosphorus in the proper ratio and amounts, a host of vitamins, and also a protein which approaches the value of whole egg.

Cottage cheese: Cottage cheese is little more than the major protein fraction of milk casein. It does not have the same value as the protein of whole milk because the lactoalbumin, normally present in whole milk, has been washed away in the whey. The value of the protein in cottage cheese compares favorably with that of horse meat.
Cottage cheese offers the dog feeder an inexpensive, readily available source of quality protein for his dog.

Cheese: Another dairy product made from casein is cheese.
Cheese, unlike cottage cheese, also contains a considerable amount of fat. The fat makes cheese a valuable source of energy as well as of protein. Because they are made as human foods, and are sold in competition with other human foods, cheeses are among the more expensive protein sources for feeding dogs. For dog feeders who wish to spend the extra money, cheese is a worthwhile consideration.

Fish: Fish is not commonly used in dietary formulations for dogs, but there is no logical reason to eliminate it from consideration as a protein source for a dog. Indeed, fish protein is one of the better proteins, for the money, that a dog feeder can use. Fish, too, should always be cooked before being fed. In this case the heat destroys a chemical found in many fish that will destroy vitamin B1 (thiamine) if left unchanged.

Examining Baked And Hard Foods For Your Dog

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Examining Baked And Hard Foods For Your Dog

Examine baked and kibbled foods for the presence of burned spots on the biscuits. The presence of a single burned biscuit is not sufficient evidence alone to indicate that a food lacks nutritional adequacy. But, the presence of large numbers of burned biscuits may indicate that the food has been cooked at too high a temperature, in which case nutrients are apt to be destroyed.

Eliminate from your list any baked or kibbled food in which more than 25 percent of the biscuits have burned spots on them. Do not buy them again. If dry products are damp, soft or stale, it may mean that they have been improperly processed, gotten damp in transit, gotten damp during storage, or that they are old.

Dry products that become damp quickly deteriorate from the action of mold and eventually bacteria. Sometimes the only indication that mold is beginning to attack a dry food is the musty odor smelled when a bag is opened. At other times it may be seen as a white, hairy beard or a bluish-green or black velvety coating over the food. Any food found to be moldy should be destroyed immediately and never fed to dogs.

Can You Trust Your Dog Food Company?

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Can You Trust Your Dog Food Company?

The proper selection of a dog food is the most important thing a dog owner can do. Why then, when the procedure seems such a necessary step to proper feeding, do so many dog owners refuse to subject the food they feed to a critical evaluation before they feed it to their dog?

The answer is probably because they don't know how to. Companies making dog foods, who do know how, have traditionally provided only "feeding instructions," but never instructions for a procedure that might enable a customer to discover a product that was superior to their own.

The widely held belief that any food, simply because it is the product of the American pet food industry, is automatically adequate and nourishing to a dog, is pure myth. A feeling of security because the food has been purchased from your trusted local grocery is based on even less reality.

There is only one way to select a food that you can be confident will provide your dog with adequate nourishment. That way is to subject all of the foods available to you to a critical evaluation program. The time taken to correctly make a food evaluation is time well spent, and the procedure should never be slighted.

Nutritional Needs For Different Dog-types

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Nutritional Needs For Different Dog-types

While the first dogs were undoubtedly kept as companions, it probably did not take long to realize the working value of this newly-made friend. Even before the history of dogs was recorded, these pets were helping man for a variety of purposes, mainly to hunt for food. In those days, however, hunting was not a sport, but serious hard work.

Today the dog still helps man in his quest for food, but the nature of the job has taken on a different form. The dog still helps man to hunt, but for a different reason. Whatever the purpose or nature of the job, the performance of work always requires time expenditure of energy. As a consequence, every working dog's primary dietary need is increased energy. Whenever dietary energy is increased, those B-complex vitamins, minerals, and the water necessary for burning the energy must also be increased.

Except for this increased need for energy and the nutrients to burn it, working dogs require most nutrients at no greater levels than non-working dogs. When working dogs eat large quantities of ordinary maintenance dog foods to obtain all of the energy they need, they frequently consume some of the nutrients in excessive amounts. Paradoxically, they may also eat such large quantities that the digestibility of all the nutrients in their diet are adversely affected and some nutrients may actually be obtained in inadequate amounts.

In other cases, a working dog simply cannot, physically, eat all of a food needed to supply its energy needs. In these instances the dog suffers from the lack of total digestible energy, and loses weight. If the condition is allowed to continue, the dog will reduce its activities in order to reduce its caloric demands. If the dog is forced to continue working at the same pace, it will lose weight faster and laster, and eventually work itself to death.

Herd Dogs are the most common working dogs that are fed in the United States. Herd Dogs are dogs that wattle or protect animals use the least amount of extra energy of any of the working dogs. They seldom are required to expend energy in excess of normal activity for any duration of time. Even their short-term expenditures of energy are not very great. The only time herd dogs ever utilize large amounts of energy are when they are rounding up strays, lost or semi-wild animals running at large.

Non-Commercial Dog Foods

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Non-Commercial Dog Foods
As a dog owner you have two options on the type of food that you can provide for your dog: Commercial foods and non-commercial foods.

Non-commercial foods, as explained here, are not necessarily foods which are not associated in some manner with a commercial enterprise, nor are they foods that do not cost money. The term ''non-commercial'', as used here, refers to those foods which are not a part of the commercial pet food industry or are not sold exclusively as dog food.

Actually, the first food fed to a dog was a non-commercial food, which are leftovers of some caveman's meal. Some of the earliest records provide both descriptions and pictures of dogs being thrown food from the table. It is likely that most of these scraps that were thrown to modern dog's early ancestors were an assortment of unbalanced morsels that were unfit or unwanted by human owners. Some of the more obvious skeletal and growth defects from improper nutrition are depicted in some of the earliest drawings and figures of dogs.

For over 3000 years dogs survived an existence from the food left to them by the owners who had domesticated them. Gradually, as dog-raising became more common, elaborate formulations of natural ingredients were compounded for feeding dogs. These formulations were meticulously designed to duplicate exactly the dog's wild diet. They were carefully kept from generation to generation. A few that were inherently balanced have survived. But, for the most part, the preparation of a dog's diet from complex formulas and elaborate ingredients have disappeared in exchange for a cheaper, more practical, and far better balanced commercial foods.

Dog owners who provide non-commercial foods for their dogs claim to do so because of economy or better nutrition. Although it is possible to provide economy and a good source of nutrition from a diet of non-commercial foods, an examination of most such feeding programs quickly reveals that neither economy nor better nutrition prevail. In fact, in many occasions, the dog owner is unknowingly providing his pet with a poorer quality nourishment at a price higher than he would have to pay for commercial foods.

How To Feed A Guard Dog So Minimal Waste Is Produced

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How To Feed A Guard Dog So Minimal Waste Is Produced

Engaged in military as well as civilian occupations, guard dogs serve on sentry duty, patrol duty, shore watch, riot control, store and warehouse security and many other similar missions. Whatever the nature of their mission, all guard dogs have one thing in common: their high degree of training.

Every guard dog is trained to maintain a peak performance for the entire time it is on duty. Ordinarily this is for extended periods of time. Such sustained performance requires huge amounts of energy. The guard dog also needs large amounts of energy to cope with the extreme emotional stress that occurs while the dog is on duty. Often, during periods of sustained performance, a guard dog's energy needs exceed that of a female during lactation.

Because of this greatly increased consumption of energy, not even the dry foods, with their 1500 to 1600 calories per pound, have a caloric density high enough to satisfactorily provide all the energy needs of a guard dog. Because they are customarily fed only once daily, guard dogs must eat great quantities of these foods to meet their energy needs.

To adequately supply a guard dog with enough energy it must be fed a diet that is more concentrated than ordinary maintenance diets. Such a diet must contain a large amount of energy in a relatively small quantity of food. At the same time, it must contain all of the necessary nutrients that are balanced to the increased caloric density.

One of the major problems with civilian guard dogs that patrol within a building or shopping center mall all night is the stool that they produce. Not only do these stools present a clean-up problem, but their odor often lingers several additional hours after the stools are gone. Most customers and employees do not enjoy smelling the odor of dog stools during their donuts and coffee every morning! Some guard dogs may leave as many as two or three odoriferous stools at different locations throughout the building, each night they patrol.

To reduce this stool problem to the barest minimum, a food containing large amounts of energy, in the least quantity of dry matter possible, must be fed. This can be accomplished by increasing the digestibility of the ingredients put into the food, or by reducing the amount of indigestible dry matter. When either is done, most of the food will be digested and absorbed to be used for energy, while only a small amount will remain to become stool. What's more, when the digestibility of the proteins and carbohydrates is improved, the odor of the small quantity of stool that is produced will be considerably less.

Feeding Requirements for Guide Dogs And Dogs “On The Go”

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Feeding Requirements for Guide Dogs And Dogs “On The Go”

Like hunting dogs, dogs that are on-the-go are consistently moving. These dogs come from the “round-tip” family as they were typically used to round up animals. Unlike hunting dogs, however, round-up dogs seldom get a chance to rest every couple of hours. They work continuously until they have recovered all the strays, brought in the last maverick, or are called off by their owners. As a consequence round-up dogs burn tremendous amounts of energy every day they are working. Many of them are performing at the upper limits of a dog's capabilities and endurance.

Always leaving food out and having these dogs self-feed more desirable than portion control. By allowing the dog to establish its own daily intake it will do a far better job of determining how much it needs, in relation to how hard it is working, than you could ever do.

Dogs that are on ordinary herd duty can be fed any time that is convenient to the herdsman. Like all working dogs, they should be fed twice daily, if at all possible. For herd dogs, about half of the daily needs should be fed at each meal. Round-up dogs should be fed their morning meal at least an hour before they begin, if that's possible, and should always be allowed to rest an hour or so at the end of the day before being fed their evening meal.

Guide Dogs

These are the dogs that act as a blind person's eyes. Much of their expenditure of energy depends on the activity of their masters. Active persons will have active dogs. In addition, psychological stress and tension play a role in the requirements for energy in guide dogs. Consequently, even guide dogs with owners who are reasonably inactive have a greater need for energy than dogs of the same breed that live as house pets.

Most guide dogs, like any other dog, must have their food intake adjusted to maintain their individual body weight. The convenience of the food is almost as important as its quality where guide dogs are concerned. Elaborate mixing of ingredients, or even moderate combinations, become impossible tasks for people who cannot see to read a scale or level a tablespoon. A single-food diet is most desirable for guide dogs, and the foods of higher caloric density (1600 to 2000 calories per pound) give the least trouble for the greatest performance.

Feeding guide dogs is best done by using portion control. It poses the least problem for a blind owner to simply measure out a fixed amount of food at each meal and throw away any food remaining uneaten. By having a sighted person weigh his dog at regular intervals, a blind master can make a judgment as to whether or not his dog's food should be increased or decreased for the next interval.

Animal Fats & Carbohydrates For Dogs

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Animal Fats & Carbohydrates For Dogs

Animal Fats: While most animal fats contain just as many calories as vegetable oils, only two contain essential fatty acids in amounts sufficient to supply a dog's needs. These are the fat of the pig, commonly called lard, and horse fat. The tallow of beef and mutton should never be used as the sole source of energy for a dog because of their low content of essential fatty acids. Animal fats contain about 126 calories in every tablespoonful.

Cereal grains: One of the major sources of carbohydrates, both for dogs and man, is the cereal grains. The useful carbohydrate in these grains is predominantly starch. Starch can also be purchased in pure form, and contains about 29 calories per tablespoon, or about 464 calories per cup. Other sources of carbohydrate energy from cereal grains can be obtained from dry and cooked breakfast cereals, boiled rice, hominy grits, corn meal, and in the milled form, such as flour. Cereal grain products should never constitute more than about 50 percent of the dry matter of a dog's diet.

Potatoes: Except for the fact that potatoes have more water in them, the amount of carbohydrates in potatoes is almost the same as in the cereal grains. Potatoes can be used interchangeably with those cereals that are fed in the boiled state. Like cereals, potatoes should never constitute more than 50 percent of the dry matter of the diet.

Bread: As a source of carbohydrates in a diet, white or whole wheat bread ranks among the better ''natural'' foods available to a dog feeder. It usually is fortified with vitamins and minerals, is palatable to most dogs, and is always available and inexpensive. Some dog owners who feed their pets natural ingredients insist that bread should be toasted before being fed to a dog. While such a practice makes the slices easier to crumble and mix with the rest of the diet, the starches in bread have already been subjected to cooking and about all toasting does is to enhance the texture of the bread.

Specialty flour products: A carbohydrate source frequently overlooked by a dog owner is the specialty product made from flour noodles, macaroni, and spaghetti. These have an energy content comparable to other cereal grain products. And, like rice and hot cereals, they have the advantage of being able to be added dry to a food, then being cooked after the water has been added. This gives the capability of mixing a large amount of dry food at one time, then adding water and cooking small amounts as it is needed.

Inspecting Your Dog's Semi-Moist Food Packaging

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Inspecting Your Dog's Semi-Moist Food Packaging

You owe it to your dog to thoroughly inspect and check the dog food that you buy for him. If you are purchasing semi-moist dog foods that come wrapped in cellophane then be sure to follow the simple guidelines below.

The cellophane should be soft and pliable, and it should not be off color. Pillow-pouched bags should contain a small amount of air that does not escape under moderate pressure. A careful inspection should also be made through the unopened wrapper for any dull or furry, gray or black spots; or for any shiny or moist, whitish or yellowish spots. The first is mold growth, the second bacteria.

Soft-moist foods are not subjected to high heat and many species of both mold and bacteria remain viable in soft-moist foods. A little water is all either needs to get started, and away they go, held in check only by the inhibitors within the soft-moist food.

Once the visual inspection of the wrappers and wrapped surface of the food has been made, tear open the cellophane. Observe all odors at the time of opening the wrapper. Pick up a piece of the food and squeeze it. Regardless of the type, it should be soft, spongy, and tender. It should have a slight lubricated feel, but should not feel moist on the surface.

How To Evaluate Your Dog's Food

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How To Evaluate Your Dog's Food

Evaluating a dog food is a simple and straight-forward procedure of comparing certain characteristics of one food with those of other types of foods that are available to feed your dog. Regardless of whatever procedure you learn and use in order to effectively evaluate your dog's needs should have enough built-in flexibility that innovative dog feeders can adapt it to best fit your own situation and further reduce their margin of error.

When making an evaluation, the four characteristics of a satisfactory dog food, discussed below, should be used as the minimum standards that any food must meet. These four basic standards are:

1) A food should contain sufficient energy for daily activity.

2) A food should contain adequate nutrients, in proper relationship to each other.

3) A food should contain ingredients that are usable by a dog.

4) A food should be acceptable in a sufficient quantity to fully supply items 1 and items 2 above.