raw%20dog%20food - search results

Vet visits can be stressful for the beings on both ends of the leash! As my dog sits in the waiting room, awash in trepidation, I, too, am often worried about what decisions I'll need to make regarding diagnostic testing, what it's all going to cost, and the pros and cons of every possible scenario – all while battling an overall concern for my dog's physical and emotional health. Veterinary care is a necessary part of responsible dog ownership, and, fortunately, a little pro-active planning and thoughtful training can help reduce vet-related anxiety for both dogs and their owners. The following tips will help prepare you and your dog for your next trip to the vet's office.

The companies that appear on the Whole Dog Journal “Approved Foods” list offer products that meet Whole Dog Journal's basic dog food selection criteria: they contain good ingredients, they don’t contain any “red flag” ingredients, and their makers are reasonably transparent about their manufacturing and formulation. This dog food list is a start – meant to give you examples of companies with better-quality products than those found in grocery and big-box stores, and lower-end pet supply stores. The list purposely contains products that range in quality and cost, from “wildly expensive” to “not cheap.” Inexpensive foods will not meet our selection criteria, because it’s impossible to make a low-cost dog food that contains superior ingredients.

It used to drive me crazy when my parents used to say it, but, gee, time is going by faster than ever – and it never ever goes faster than when I'm gathering information for a dog food review (our annual examination of dry dog food will appear in next month's issue). So many products to examine, from so many companies! And this on top of ordering, fitting, sending back, re-ordering, re-fitting, and photographing a dozen front-clip harnesses for an upcoming review of those. Product reviews are the most time-consuming thing I do!

My dog has learned to demand having her teeth brushed! I read that coconut oil was very good for dogs. About a year ago, I started using it to brush my dog's teeth. Every night for the past year, our 2-year-old dog Lila will come to me and paw my leg while staring straight into my eyes, about an hour after her dinner meal. She will not leave me alone until I say, Ready for your teeth to be brushed?" She looks at me

Pet food companies don't have to prove that their products contain the minimum amounts of all the nutrients that are considered essential for dogs before labeling and selling their foods as complete and balanced" diets. In fact

but may also stock lower-quality

The following pet food companies not only offer wet dog foods that meet our ingredient selection criteria, but also provided Whole Dog Journal with independent, third-party laboratory nutritional analyses of their dog foods – analyses confirming that their canned dog foods are not just formulated to meet

I'm incredibly lucky, because my 10-month-old pit bull-mix, Woody, has a special friend, one who is almost exactly the same age. Samson belongs to one of my best friends, so our pups get to play together and walk together when my friend and I get together to walk or talk. We took our youngsters to puppy kindergarten 1 and 2 together, and this weekend, we will be taking them together on a walk that raises money for a local shelter.

The funny thing about the relationship between our two adolescent dogs? How unlikely it is, given that Woody weighs about 60 pounds, and Samson just barely tips the scales at four pounds, after he's eaten breakfast and before he goes out to poop!

We can prioritize giving dogs as solid a genetic background as possible. Temperament should be the highest priority in breeding, closely followed by physical health. Animals with questionable temperaments should not be allowed to pass on behavioral problems, either through their genes, through stress hormones in the uterus, or through modeling fearful behavior to their puppies in early life. Temperament is more important than preserving stellar conformation or spectacular performance; in fact, in breeds with small gene pools, bringing in genetic diversity from outside the breed is preferable to breeding dogs with questionable temperaments.

Years ago, a new acquaintance asked me about the bag I wore on a belt around my waist. She saw me taking dog treats out of the bag and feeding them, one after another after another, to my then-young dog, Otto. I was in the process of teaching Otto to ignore squirrels in trees, pigeons in the street, and cats on the edge of the riverside trail we walked each day, and the tactic required a lot of treats. My new friend wanted to know if I always wore the bag; surely, since Otto seemed so well-behaved to her, I didn't need to have it with me all the time? Ah, yes, but would Otto be so well behaved if I had no treats? At that point in time, so early in our relationship – no!

Fear-related aggression most frequently appears between the ages of eight to 18 months, as a young dog reaches maturity. This may be because increased boldness tends to come with maturity. But it's also likely because, over time, aggressive responses are reinforced; the scary stimulus (most often a human, when we're talking about aggression issues) backs off. Initially, a fearful pup generally tries to hide from scary humans by moving away, perhaps crawling under a chair.

Poor agreement was found between visual breed assignments and DNA results in 14 of the 20 dogs (70 percent). Moreover, there was low inter-rater reliability, meaning that the dog experts did not show a high level of agreement regarding breed assignments to the 20 dogs. More than half of the evaluators agreed on the predominant breed in only seven of the 20 dogs (35 percent). These results provide evidence that physical appearance is not a reliable method for breed identification.