Before you go shopping for some new dog foods, make sure you are familiar with the products you already feed your dog. Start by looking for the ingredients, guaranteed analysis,and nutritional adequacy statement.
The beginning of your dog food buying journey actually starts with what you feed your dog right now. You are feeding your dog something already, correct? Good! In order to make choices that will maintain or, better yet, improve your dog’s health, you need to know what’s in the food you already feed him. Otherwise, how can you make sound comparisons to new products? The first steps are:
1. Go look at the bag of food you are feeding your dog – and bring a pen and paper, or your cell phone, with you. Write down (or take a picture of) the ingredients list and the “guaranteed analysis” – the place on the label that lists how much protein and fat the food contains (among other things).
2. Make sure you know what the major ingredients are in your dog’s food; don’t just go by the name of the food. A food that says it’s the company’s “Chicken and Rice Variety” may also contain fish meal, for example. That’s fine, unless fish makes your dog itchy!
Also, don’t take for granted that the formula of a food that suits your dog particularly well is the same as it’s always been; manufacturers often change their formulas from year to year, based on ingredient availability and cost. Many of us with dogs who are allergic to or intolerant of certain ingredients have been unpleasantly surprised by our dogs breaking out in hives or itching, only to discover (too late) that the ingredients of a formerly “safe” food have been changed and now contain an ingredient that is problematic for our dog.
3. Now ask yourself a question: Are you happy with your dog’s condition? Is his weight perfect? Or is he too fat or too thin? (By the way, we wouldn’t take your vet’s silence on this matter as a sign that your dog is perfect; in our experience, few vets choose to get into this matter with their clients unless/until a dog is morbidly obese or super thin and bony. And we’ve seen vets show far more concern over thin, fit dogs than fat, unfit dogs. Go figure.)
If you are pretty sure your dog is over his healthy weight, you should start your search for new foods with products that contain less fat – or, at most, the same amount of fat – that’s in the food you give him now. To put it differently: If you think he is overweight or on his way there, don’t buy a food that contains even more fat than what you feed him now.
In contrast, if you think your dog is too thin and has a hard time gaining weight, you probably should consider some foods that contain more fat than what you feed him currently.
If your dog is at an ideal weight, you should look for foods that contain around the same amount of fat and protein as you feed him now.
4. One more question: Does your dog have any health problems? Recurrent diarrhea or loose stools? Constant flatulence? Chronic itching? Excessive shedding? Ear infections? If so, consider looking for foods that contain different protein and carbohydrate sources than those found in the foods you currently feed. In order to do so, before you go shopping, you need to know what’s in the products you regularly feed your dog.
If, let’s say, your dog has terrible diarrhea or chronic ear infections and you ordinarily feed him foods that contain chicken and rice, look for foods that contain no chicken or rice – perhaps ones that contain beef and barley, for instance.
You should also be aware of whether your dog has a predisposition to a health problem that can be precipitated or aggravated by diets with certain characteristics, so you can avoid foods with those attributes.
For example, Bedlington Terriers, Doberman Pinschers, West Highland White Terriers, Skye Terriers, and Labrador Retrievers are susceptible to copper storage hepatopathy; they should be fed diets with low levels of copper – as close as possible to the minimum required by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles.
READY TO SHOP
At this point, you should be much more knowledgeable about your dog’s current food than you were previously; you should also know what details to look for on the labels of some new foods to try. Now you’re ready to shop! Just don’t forget to bring the notes or pictures you took of your dog’s current food ingredients, GA, and AAFCO statement for comparison.
It helps to bring a record of what you already feed your dog when you're ready to shop for some new foods. Make sure you have time to read labels and compare the nutritional adequacy statement and nutrient levels.
We know that many of you subscribe to Whole Dog Journal in order to learn about dog food. We’re also aware that, more specifically, many of you are hoping that we will tell you which foods are best; you want to know what you should be buying to feed your dog.
Well, we have some good news and some bad news for you!
First, the good news. We are going to tell you a lot about dry dog food: what to look for (traits of good foods), what to look out for (traits of low-quality foods), what information that appears in giant letters or starbursts on the label is completely useless, what tiny-print information on the label is critically important, and more.
Now for the bad news. We can’t tell you which products will be “best” for your dog, any more than we could tell you what foods would be “best” for you or your children.
Dogs are individuals, just like us. Some of us can eat junk food for years on end without suffering any signs of ill health – no indigestion, diabetes, heart disease, or cancer. For others, a single trip through a fast-food lane will cause almost immediate gastrointestinal upset.
Well, dogs are the same. We probably all know someone with a 15-year-old Labrador who has been fed Ol’ Roy (one of the cheapest of the low-quality foods) his whole life; we don’t hear as much about the dogs who were fed the same diet and died at age 8 looking like they were 15. And some dogs are fed diets of the very highest quality and have all sorts of health problems anyway.
The bottom line: One-size-fits-all recommendations don’t work when it comes to diet. You have to feed the individual what works for him. It’s wonderful when you have more than one dog and they can both digest and thrive on the same variety of food, but we wouldn’t take it for granted that any two dogs can.
Is the high price right?
Here’s a question we are asked a lot: “Is the most expensive food the best? Should I just buy that?”
The answer goes right back to what we were just saying: The most expensive foods on the market may well be very high in quality, but that doesn’t mean they will suit your dog. Plus, not everyone can afford high-priced foods – and that doesn’t make them bad dog owners.
That said, we will warn you away from the very lowest-cost foods. Most of them are more suitable for feeding chickens than dogs.
Our goals are to teach you how to identify the better-quality foods at any but the lowest price points and how to know if the products suit your dog.
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Products appear alphabetically by best-known name. In some cases this is the name of the company that makes the food; in others, it’s the name of the food line. We have split some lines made by the same manufacturer into separate rows to better distinguish prices, # of varieties, etc.
Trying to print this page? Here are some hints: When printing this page, if the chart is cut off on the right side, try printing in landscape mode. Computers, printers, operating systems and web browsers can have different settings and print pages differently. Printing from a PDF can be more reliable. You can access these charts in the February 2020 issue on pages 10-13.
The food you give your dog plays a critical role in his well-being, both on a daily basis and long-term. He needs a diet with the right nutrients to keep him active, happy, and healthy. And make no mistake: Not all dog foods are created equal. Since 1998, Whole Dog Journal has been proving that much in an annual review and ratings of dry dog foods.
Year by Year: Subscribers to Whole Dog Journal can access our annual dry dog food reviews online. Here are links to our lists approved dog foods over the years:
Whole Dog Journal rates dry dog food and creates an annual “Approved” list (for publication every February) based on the following criteria.
Must-Have Ingredients in Dry Dog Food
Make sure your dog’s dry food has the following elements, the hallmarks of a quality product:
✓ Superior sources of protein: Look for dry dog foods that contain a lot of animal proteins—either whole, fresh meats or single-source meat meal. For example, you want to see “chicken meal” or “beef meal” on the label, not “poultry meal” or “meat meal.” A dog food label listing simply “meat” is an example of a low-quality protein source of dubious origin.
✓ Whole-meat source as one of the first two ingredients: Better yet: two meat sources among the top three ingredients (say, chicken and chicken meal). Meat, the most natural source of protein for dogs, contains the amino acids most important to canine health. A good mix of meat proteins helps round out a dog food’s amino acid profile.
✓ Whole, unprocessed grains, vegetables, and other foods. An unprocessed food for your dog has the best chance of surviving the food-making process with its nutrients—vitamins, enzymes, and antioxidants—intact.
Avoid Dry Dog Food with These Ingredients
When scanning dry dog food labels, keep your eyes peeled for the following undesirables. High-quality dry dog foods have these ingredients in minimal percentages:
✗ Meat by-products. Research has revealed that higher-value ingredients in dry dog foods tend to be processed and stored more carefully (kept clean and cold) than lower-cost ingredients—including “by-products.” And it’s just about impossible to ascertain the quality of by-products. We prefer to see these second-rate ingredients in a supporting role to whole meats or meat meals—say, below the top five ingredients.
✗ “Generic” fat source. “Animal fat”—an ingredient you may notice in some dry dog foods—can be just about anything, from an unwholesome mystery mix of various fats to recycled grease from restaurants. A preferable ingredient would be “beef fat” or “chicken fat.” The more generic the term, the more suspect the ingredient is. (We shudder to think of what’s in “animal digest”—another item we’ve seen on ingredient lists.)
✗ Artificial preservatives, including BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin. Natural preservatives such as tocopherols (compounds often with vitamin E), vitamin C, and rosemary extract can be used instead. Note that natural preservatives do not preserve dog foods as long as artificial preservatives do, so owners should always check the “best by…” date on the label.
✗ Artificial colors. Trust us: Your dog doesn’t care about the color of his food. And he certainly doesn’t need daily exposure to unnecessary chemicals that provide color. Also avoid dog food with propylene glycol, a chemical added to some “chewy” foods to keep them moist.
✗ Artificial flavors. Your dog’s food should be flavored well enough with healthy meats and fats to be enticing to him.
✗ Sweeteners. Dogs, like us, have a taste for sweets. Corn syrup, sucrose, ammoniated glycyrrhizin, and other sweeteners are sometimes added to lower-quality foods to increase their appeal. But dietary sugar can cause or worsen health problems—including diabetes—in dogs.
Average Dog Food Price Per Pound
The 2021 Dry Dog Food Review lists a number of companies that make good- to great-quality dry dog foods in order of the average price of their products. We collected prices for kibble from online retailers and from the companies themselves, asking for their suggested retail prices for the largest-sized bags of their foods (the larger the bag, the lower the price per pound). We calculated the price per pound of each variety of food (by dividing the price by the number of pounds of food in the bag). Then we calculated the average price per pound of food for each company, using the figures from each food in each line.
Does a high-end dog food really make a difference to your dog’s lifelong health? As any long-time reader knows, the pet food industry seeks to maximize its profits, not the health of the animals who depend on it. Most humans can’t access grass-fed organic meat for themselves, let alone their dogs, so find brands of kibble with decent ingredient lists which you are comfortable paying for.
But do know that in the case of dog food, you do get what you pay for.
YOUR DOG’S UNIQUE DIET AND NUTRITION NEEDS
Whole Dog Journal‘s Approved list is based on assessments of dry dog food ingredients along with the “Guaranteed Analysis” anyone can find on food labels. Dog owners are encouraged to develop an understanding of which ingredients are beneficial and which aren’t—and to routinely look at labels before buying.
A scan of a dry dog food’s ingredients can tell you a lot about the maker’s intentions and philosophy. If a dog food company admits to using artificial preservatives, say, or lots of grain “fragments” or animal “by-products,” you’re probably not dealing with a top-of-the-line product.
Conversely, if a list of dog food ingredients leads off with a quality protein source followed by whole, healthy foods, you know you’ve found a worthy product.
Keep in mind that there’s no “right” food that works for every one of the 77.8 million dogs in America. They’re all individuals with unique physiological and metabolic make-ups. Consider:
A dog who is prone to urinary tract infections would be better off with a food lower in pH (and thus less acidic).
If your dog is lean and active, you might look for a higher-fat, higher-protein brand.
If your dog is older and less active, you might want food with a higher percentage of lean protein.
Another thing you have to consider is the caloric content of the food you choose. If the food you select for your dog is energy-dense, and your dog is a couch potato, you may have to cut her daily ration considerably to prevent her from getting fat. Some dogs respond to forced dieting with begging, counter-surfing, and garbage-raiding. If your dog is one of these, you may have to seek out a high-fiber, low-calorie food – one that may not necessarily contain the highest-quality protein or fat sources on the market – to keep your dog feeling contentedly full without getting fat.
Dogs exhibit a wide range of energy requirements. You may have to seek out a higher- or lower-calorie food based on the following attributes that can affect your dog’s energy needs:
• Activity level. The more a dog exercises the more energy he needs to consume to maintain his condition; it’s that simple.
• Growth. Growing puppies have higher energy requirements than adult dogs. A food with a higher protein level, but a moderate (not high) fat level is ideal. Obese puppies are far more prone to degenerative joint disease – especially in large and giant breeds – than puppies with a normal or slim physique.
• Age. The age at which a dog becomes a senior citizen varies from breed to breed, with larger dogs considered geriatric at earlier ages. Older dogs typically require fewer calories to maintain their body weight and condition, partly because they tend to be less active than younger dogs.
• Environmental conditions. Dogs who live or spend much of their time outside in severe cold temperatures need from 10 percent to as much as 90 percent more energy than dogs who enjoy a temperate climate. The thickness and quality of the dog’s coat, the amount of body fat he has, and the quality of his shelter have direct effects on the dog’s energy needs.
• Illness. Sick dogs have increased energy needs; it takes energy to mount an immune response or repair tissues. However, dogs who do not feel well also tend to be inactive, which lowers their energy needs.
• Reproduction. A pregnant female’s energy requirement does not increase significantly until the final third of her pregnancy, when it may increase by a factor of three.
• Lactation. A nursing female may require as much as eight times as much energy as a female of the same age and condition who is not nursing.
• Neutering. It is generally accepted that neutered (and spayed) dogs have reduced energy needs. However, there are actually no studies that conclusively prove that neutered dogs require fewer calories simply as a result of lower hormone levels. It has been suggested that these dogs gain weight due to increased appetites and/or decreased activity levels.
• Other individual factors. Other factors that can affect a dog’s energy requirement include its temperament (nervous or placid?) and skin, fat, and coat quality (how well he is insulated against weather conditions).
Dog Food for Managing Canine Illnesses & Health Problems
If your dog has any sort of disease or an inherited propensity for disease, ask your veterinarian about the benefits of nutritional therapy to help treat or prevent the disease. Don’t settle for the suggestion of a commercial “prescription” diet; most of them are formulated with lower-quality ingredients. Instead, ask what specifically in the diet has been manipulated so as to be beneficial for your dog. Then, see if you can find a product that offers the same benefits and better-quality ingredients. The best example is a “kidney” diet for dogs with kidney failure. The goal is to feed these patients a diet with a moderate level of very high-quality protein and low amounts of phosphorus (see “When to Say No to Low-Protein“). An intelligently formulated home-prepared dog food diet can do a far better job of accomplishing these goals than the commercial dog food diets on the market.
You should also do some research on your own to determine what dietary changes might help your dog. A good starting place is Donald R. Strombeck’s Home-Prepared Dog & Cat Diets: The Healthful Alternative (available by order in bookstores). Dr. Strombeck details strategies for changing the dog’s diet to treat and/or prevent gastrointestinal, skin, skeletal and joint, renal, urinary, endocrine, heart, pancreatic, and hepatic disease.
Other diseases that can be improved with dietary management include:
• Allergy or intolerance. There are a number of breeds that are particularly susceptible to food allergies, including Cocker Spaniels, Dalmatians, English Springer Spaniels, Labrador Retrievers, Lhasa Apsos, Miniature Schnauzers, and more. Again, it’s important to keep a record of what foods you feed your dog, what they contain, and how your dog looks and feels. If your records indicate that one or more ingredients trigger bad reactions in your dog, seek out foods that do not contain those ingredients in any amount. (See “Walking the Allergy Maze,” “Diet Makes the Difference“.)
• Cancer. High-fat, low-carbohydrate (or carb-free) diets are ideal for cancer patients. Cancer cells use carbs for energy, and don’t easily utilize fat, so you can effectively “starve” the cancer cells while providing extra energy to your dog with a diet rich in a high-quality fat sources. (See “Feed the Dog, Starve the Cancer.“)
• Inherited metabolism disorders. Some breeds are prone to diseases with a strong dietary influence. For example, the West Highland White Terrier and the Cocker Spaniel have an inherited tendency to suffer from copper buildup in the liver; these dogs should eat a diet that is formulated with low levels of copper. Malamutes and Siberian Huskies can inherit a zinc metabolism disorder, and require a high-zinc diet (or zinc supplements).
Ask your veterinarian (and reliable breeders) about your dog’s breed-related nutritional requirements. And contact the manufacturer of your dog’s food for the expanded version of the food’s nutrient levels. Pet food makers are not required to print the levels of every nutrient on their labels, but should make this information available to you upon request.
So take your dog’s age, condition, and health history into account. Consider product availability, too; a large percentage of the brands on WDJ‘s Approved list are available at independent stores, and some cases are regionally sold products.
And, of course, price can come into play. The right dog food isn’t necessarily cheap, but that old axiom, “You get what you pay for,” applies here, too.
BEST PRACTICES FOR CHOOSING DRY DOG FOOD
Nutrition experts don’t agree on everything, but one thing they generally concede to be true is that all animals enjoy the best health when given a balanced and varying diet of fresh, species-appropriate foods.
They also generally agree that highly processed foods are not as healthy as lightly processed foods; some of nature’s value is always lost to oxidation, heat, pressure, and chemical interactions. Foods made with highly processed (and sometimes, as a result, aged) ingredients are at a big disadvantage compared to those that are made with fresh, whole ingredients.
The healthiest dog foods contain high-quality proteins and whole, unprocessed grains and vegetables. Always ensure that the dry dog food you buy include high-quality proteins, such as either whole, fresh meats or single-source meat meal (“chicken meal” or “beef meal.”) Avoid dog foods that use vague wording on the ingredients list, such as “poultry meal” or “meat meal.” Any label that simply says “meat” should be disqualified as a low-quality source of protein.
Finally, remember that it’s a good idea to switch dog foods regularly. Choose several brands that contain the right ingredients and give your dog some variety over time. It’ll help correct the excesses, insufficiencies, or imbalances that result from the same dog food day in and day out.
Year by Year: Subscribers to Whole Dog Journal can access our annual dry dog food reviews online. Here are links to the past five lists of approved dog foods:
In the February issue, which will be in mailboxes and online
soon, we have an article about a new model for communities looking to improve
the practices and policies adopted by their local animal shelters and rescue
groups. The new model has been called “Socially Conscious Sheltering” (SCS) and
we are fans of its basic concepts. The article was written by WDJ’s Training
Editor Pat Miller, who has more than 40 years of experience working in and
closely with animal shelters.
The article not only explains what SCS is, but also offers a
brief history of animal sheltering in this country, from the height of the “bad
old days” – around 1970, when tens of millions of unwanted animals were killed
in shelters annually – to the advent of the “no-kill shelter” and its rise in
popularity, and past that to where we are now.
Is a “no kill” policy better?
There is no doubt that no-kill policies have inspired
innovative programs and increased community support, resulting in many animals’
lives saved. But many people feel that the no-kill model needs updating – that
it has inadvertently created problems that need to be addressed.
For example, you may or may not be aware that “no kill” policies are blamed by many animal training and behavior experts for a relative increase (relative to the actual animal population) in the rate of injuries and even fatalities caused by dangerous dogs. Critics say that far too many dogs with the propensity for violence are being “rescued” and adopted to unprepared and unsuspecting people, who unwittingly put the dogs in situations where they are almost bound to hurt someone. Note that it’s not just no-kill shelters and rescues that are under pressure to increase their “live release” rates; the bar has been raised for all shelters and rescues – which is a good thing, but can also lead to irresponsible adoptions.
No-kill policies have led to an astounding number of “rescue
hoarding” cases, wherein a person or group of people, usually starting out with
good intentions, loses control of their situation and ends up housing far more
animals than they can care for. We are seeing reports of these cases nearly daily in the news – and in almost every
case, the animals who end up needing “rescue” again are in far worse situations
than they were in when initially “rescued” by the overwhelmed person or group
of people: starved, sick, warehoused in crowded conditions, living in filth.
Without city, county, or state oversight, and often without the oversight of a
proper nonprofit Board of Directors, some of these operate until there is a
literal stench that alerts a neighbor and drives an investigation. (Go ahead,
run the words “dog rescue hoarder” through your favorite search engine. It’s
insane how many cases there are.)
We all want to save lives. But what about dogs with behavioral issues that make them unsafe for placement in most homes, who have spent YEARS in shelter or rescue kennels, waiting for that very rare “experienced owner, adults only, no cats, no other dogs or any other animals, fully fenced” home? What to do with these dogs is an ethical and financial challenge.
There are also persistent accusations that some animal rescue
or shelter groups engage in all sorts of unethical practices in order to protect
and promote their “no kill” status. According to the official Asilomar Accords
definition of “no kill,” only shelters or rescue groups that kill less then 10%
of the animals they take in – excluding
the animals who are brought to the shelter by owners who request that the
animal is euthanized – may call themselves a “no-kill.”
As just one example of how organizations may engage in
morally questionable activities in pursuit or maintenance of their “no-kill”
status, one animal-welfare blog has accused the Animal Care Centers of New York
of
pressuring people who have come to the shelter to relinquish their pets to
“request” euthanasia so that those animals may be euthanized without adding
to the total of animals that might be euthanized for space or health or
behavior problems.
There have also been persistent allegations that when
shelters limit the number of animals that they will take in, often in service
of preventing the “need” to euthanize “for space,” that the “dumping” of
animals in those communities increases.
What’s the difference between “no kill” and “socially conscious” sheltering?
Socially Conscious Sheltering principles were developed by a
group of animal shelter CEOs in Colorado, and refined through sharing and
discussion among a select group of animal shelter and animal welfare experts.
The founders hope that the principles are widely adopted for a post- “no-kill”
society, where all healthy (and
treatable) and adoptable animals who do not pose a danger to others are
maintained in suitable environments until adopted, and where dangerous dogs are
not foisted into unsuspecting
communities.
It’s sad, but the reality is that there are dogs who cannot live safely with other animals or people. It’s hard for me to understand, but there are also plenty of people who will fight for the lives of dogs who have mauled, or even killed, innocent humans or other animals. In this story, a rescue group placed a Saint Bernard in a family, and about five weeks later, the dog mauled a five-year-old boy in the family. There was a 12-year-old and a 7-year-old boy home at the time of the incident, but no adult. The dog was seized by local animal control authorities, who indicated that the dog would likely be euthanized, as per their SCS principles that state, “Because public safety is a top priority, we work diligently to ensure dangerous animals are kept from harming other animals and people.” But the rescue group that “saved” and later placed the dog has filed a lawsuit and is seeking donations in support of regaining custody of the dog. The group’s Facebook page has hundreds of comments in support of this effort.
The family in this case was pretty clearly ignorant of
proper supervision and handling of this dog. It also looks like a pretty
negligent adoption, frankly! But the fact remains that the dog mauled a child.
Should the dog be returned to the rescue group who placed him the first time?
Or should he be euthanized? It’s a case that divides dog lovers as ferociously
as any red state/blue state debate.
The SCS model says, let’s put our resources where they will benefit the most healthy and treatable (behaviorally and biologically) animals. Also, let’s make public all of every shelter’s statistics regarding intake and outcomes, so that anyone can judge how well or poorly the shelter is faring in its mission, without an arbitrary target number that qualifies it as worthy of support or shame.
For much more detailed information about Socially Conscious Sheltering, see the February issue of WDJ.
I have long advised friends and family members to keep their
dogs’ mealtimes vague, in order to prevent “clock-watching” and demand
behaviors from dogs who are anticipating their breakfast or dinner. Not for me,
those dogs who wake me by barking for breakfast, no matter whether I’m sick or
worked until 3 am the night before. Not for me, those dogs who start pacing,
drooling, or staring at 4 pm every afternoon. By keeping mealtimes somewhat
unpredictable, within a range of an hour or two, I haven’t ever had to deal
with those anticipatory behaviors – even when Daylight Saving Time changes. I’m
not one of the people who posts memes and pictures of my dogs freaking out
about dinnertime twice a year!
Oh, sure, either of my dogs might do a little happy skip in
the kitchen, as I walk toward the dog food area – which happens to be next to
the microwave in which I heat my coffee. But if I tell them, “Not yet!” they
resign themselves to waiting – alertly, but not underfoot. Or, dog forbid,
whining under their breath.
Another Dog Is Throwing Things Off
Things have gotten a little testy over the past two weeks,
however. I have been dog-sitting a 14-year-old deaf dog, little Leila, who
belongs to a dear friend. Leila has strong opinions about mealtime – and spins
and chases her tail for attention, and barks, barks, barks, when she is certain
she’s going to starve without food. I have a hard time with barking – but what
am I going to do? She’s old, and deaf! Easiest just to feed her when she starts
up! Naturally, my giving into her demands has resulted in some incredulous
“WHAT DID SHE JUST DO?” behavior from my two dogs. “SHE got fed and we did not?
Perhaps WE should skip about and make noises!”
Mom, pleeease.
Taking my own advice when it comes to my own dogs, I’m
ignoring the noises and skipping about. Otto gets it, and retires to the floor
with a groan and a politely wagging tail. Woody is more persistent, and keeps
trying a charm offensive, coming to me every time I sit down at the kitchen
table with my laptop or at my desk in my office, and placing his heavy head in
my lap, looking up at me with imploring eyes and that seductive slowly wagging
tail. “Pleeeeaaassse? We are so VERY hungry.”
Prepping For Otto’s Surgery
Worse: Over the past two days, it has been necessary to skip
Otto’s breakfast. Yesterday he had a chest x-ray, in preparation for today’s
general anesthesia: He is having yet another tooth removed – he has
somehow suffered another slab fracture of a molar (this is his third), so the
tooth has to be removed. Also, the vet is going to scope his throat; he’s been
having a lot of regurgitation, and we have been treating him for acid reflux
and a possible esophageal ulcer. And when Otto has to go without breakfast, I
don’t feed Woody, either; doing so would be just mean.
“Some experts recommend making dogs fast one day a week all the time,” I tell my dogs. “You are going to live. Mealtime is just delayed.” So the moping and charming persists for hours.
Do you have set mealtimes, or do you wing it with your dogs?
Puppies chew on stuff – it’s practically their job! Your job is to make sure they don’t have access to anything unsafe and to teach them to refrain from picking up things you’d prefer them not to have. Credit: Fredrik Andersson/Dreamstime.com
First, you have to understand: It is perfectly normal for puppies to explore the world with their mouths. Usually, it’s not a big deal and no harm comes from pups learning about their environment in this manner. They will nibble a bit of grass or a leaf, pick up a stick, or grab a stray sock. Most of the time, puppies will pick things up, chew a little, spit them out, and go on their way.
But on occasion, pups can get themselves into serious trouble by eating things they shouldn’t – mushrooms or marijuana, plastic or electronics, socks or rocks. The following steps can help protect your pups and teach them not to chomp on everything in sight while they are growing up.
PREVENTION: THE FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE
Puppy-proofing your house should be undertaken before you bring a puppy home. Shoes, socks, kid’s toys, even the TV remote should be picked up and put out of reach. Tidying up makes a big difference. When you can’t supervise your pup, keep her in a puppy safe area such as behind a baby gate in the kitchen, in an exercise pen, or in a crate.
Check your yard for poisonous plants, mushrooms, colored mulches, and other potentially toxic things. Temporary fencing around plants can protect your pup until she’s learned better judgement and restraint. On walks and when exploring the neighborhood, pay attention to what’s on the ground. Scan the environment before you let your pup sniff and explore. Keep her on leash in any area that you haven’t visually swept for hazards.
Don’t worry, these measures won’t last forever. Most puppies do outgrow the “eat everything” stage, but until they do, keep them safe.
CHANNEL THEIR CHEWING
Putting things in their mouths is almost a compulsion for some pups. Puppies go through various stages with this, depending on their stage of teething. Channeling their desire to sniff, explore, and chew safely will make it a little less likely that they will do so at other times.
Start by giving your pup lots of interesting things to chew. Rotate chew items so your pup doesn’t get bored with the same items day after day. Make sure you provide toys of many different textures: hard, chewy, squishy, woolly, leathery, and so on. Stuff Kong-type toys with wet food that has to be licked and chewed out of crevices, and try other treat-dispensing toys. When puppies have lots of chewing options, they are less likely to hunt for new or weird things to chew.
You can also give your puppy safe opportunities to use her nose to find toys and food. “Find it” games with toys or treats can channel a puppy’s natural need to seek out interesting things. For example, in a safe area of your home or garden, hide a few tasty treats and let your pup search for them. Join her on the search. Share her joy at finding cool stuff!
If your dog guards the item you are trying to trade for, start over. Give your dog something less valuable to him and use higher-value treats for the trade. Offer the treats farther away from the item he drops. And if the behavior persists, consult with a qualified force-free training professional.
Another great tool is a “snuffle mat.” This is a specially designed toy that you can hide kibble or treats in. Your pup will have a blast finding her food and it will help satisfy her natural desire to search for interesting things.
DON’T PANIC
If, every time your puppy picks up something in her mouth, you rush in, grab her, and wrestle whatever it was out of her mouth, your pup will quickly learn to do her best to keep you from seeing her pick stuff up or taking things away. She’ll likely learn to run or or hide when she finds a “treasure” that she wants to investigate at her leisure – but some pups will try to rapidly swallow items so that you can’t take them away.
Instead of rushing in, evaluate the situation. Did your puppy just munch a few blades of grass? Did he pick up a stick and chew it for a moment? These types of explorations are not usually dangerous and taking them in stride will help when you do need to take something away.
TRAIN FOR WHEN YOUR PUP NEEDS TO REFRAIN
Here are a few exercises everyone can practice with their pups and dogs. They will pay off big time for those moments when, for her own safety, your pup really needs to refrain from chewing or swallowing something.
Drop it. This is a “spit that thing out of your mouth” behavior. The steps to teach it are pretty easy, but they take some practice.
Start by giving your dog something that she likes to put in her mouth – a toy, a chewie, or something like a food toy. Say, “Drop it!” and then offer her something better than what she already has – say, some succulent, fresh-roasted chicken. When she drops the item to eat the chicken, praise her like crazy and reward her super generously – for example, with four or five pieces of chicken in a row. Then let her have whatever she had in her mouth again.
Start with easier stuff, and graduate to having her drop more enticing things. Always reward generously with something better than what she has and, when practicing, always let your dog regain the item she dropped.
Practice this every day with several items for two to three weeks, then at least once a week thereafter. I also reinforce the “Drop it” behavior whenever I play fetch with my dog. Before I will throw a ball for her to chase, I ask her to drop the ball that she has.
Trade. This is similar to “Drop it,” but it can be for things that may or may not be in the dog’s mouth; also, it involves an extra step of removing the item for a moment.
Ask your dog to drop an item and reward her generously when she does. Then say, “Trade!” and pick up the item. Reward her again, generously, with four or five pieces of a high-value treat. Then give the item back to her. When training, always return the item to your dog! You want her to learn that she can give you something without losing it. Also, every now and then, you can do a trade with your dog where you take an item she has, you reward her (generously!), and then you give her a different, more valuable item instead of giving the first item back.
As with the “Drop,” practice this with several items a day, starting with easy items. Progress slowly to more challenging trades, and keep up the daily practice for several weeks. Then keep it sharp by practicing at least once a week.
Doggy Zen (“If you leave the treat, you will get the treat.”) This helps dogs learn impulse-control around things that they are interested in getting. This entire exercise is done without giving a cue.
1. Start with several treats in your closed fist. Present your fist to your dog, palm side up, off to the side, and at least two feet away from your dog, as seen below. Immediately start feeding treats to her from your other hand. Feed about 10 treats in a row, at a rate of about one per second. Praise your pup’s brilliance!
To teach the “Doggy Zen” exercise, start by showing your pup that you have treats in a closed fist; then feed her treats, one after another, from the other hand.
Do this several times or until you can present the closed treat-filled fist to your dog and she starts looking to you for her rapid rewards.
2. Present your fist full of treats to your pup the same way – palm side up, off to the side, about two feet from your pup. Your puppy should look to you for those rapid treats from the other hand. Before giving her the rapid treats, open your fist to a flat hand, so that the treats are now in view; then immediately start rapid treating from the other hand – once again, 10 treats in a row, at a rate of about one per second. Do this step until your pup easily looks to you when you bring out your fist full of treats and open your hand so the treats are easily accessible.
If at any point your pup goes for the treats in your open hand, just calmly close your hand back into a fist. Hold your fist perfectly still. Don’t pull it away. Don’t say “No!” or “Leave it!” Just wait patiently. When your pup backs away from your hand (they usually do this quickly because you have prepped them for it by doing Step 1 first), open your hand and try again. If your pup dives for the treats a second time, simple close your fist and go back to Step 1 for a little longer. Once your pup aces Step 2, continue to Step 3.
When she excels at Step 2, you can more on to Step 3: Feeding her treats, one after another, out of the now-open hand.
3. Now that your pup waits while you present an open hand of treats, you will feed her the treats from your open hand, one at a time, with your other hand. If your pup dives for the treats at any point, simply close your fist as above. If she does it a second time, go back to step 2. Soon your pup will back away and wait while you open your hand, and slowly feed her one treat at a time.
The automatic leave it. There are two types of “leave its” that you will want to practice with your dog. One is the “automatic leave it” – this is when your dog leaves something interesting alone without you saying anything. The Doggy Zen exercise above will help prep your puppy for the automatic leave it. This exercise will pay off when your puppy encounters things on the ground that you don’t notice, as well as with counter surfing and dropped items in your kitchen.
Start with your pup on leash. Put an interesting item, such as a small container of kibble, on the ground out of your dog’s reach. Prevent your dog from reaching the container with the leash, but as soon as you put the container down, start rapidly delivering treats to your dog, one after another, with a high-value food. As with the Doggy Zen exercise, feed about 10 pieces of food at a rate of about one per second.
After a couple of repetitions of this, when you down put the container of kibble, your dog will quickly look at you, expecting those 10 pieces of chicken! Capture this disengagement by marking with the “click” of a clicker or a verbal signal such as the word “Yes!” and immediately reinforce with your rapid delivery of treats. Be sure to mark the second your dog’s head turns toward you.
Once your dog is easily and successfully turning away from the kibble, try this with more interesting foods, such as training treats or cheese.
When your dog is successfully turning away from food with no prompting from you, move the food to other surfaces, such as a coffee table or kitchen counters.
Continue practicing this for several days. Reward every time your dog ignores the food.
When your dog is a rock star at this exercise on leash, practice with your dog off leash – but set her up to succeeed, not to fail. If you attempt to have her turn away from a pile of roast chicken on her first off-leash trial, she might find it too tempting and dive for the food; if this happens, it will set you back. Gradual successes build reliability much faster than pushing your pup so quickly that she makes mistakes.
Leave it (the cued behavior). For the quickest success, train the “automatic leave it” first. Then, once your pup is reliably refraining from the food you set down or drop as if by accident, it’s pretty simple to add a cue to the behavior. Simply say, “Leave it!” just before your pup is about to turn away from the food – and reward her generously when she does. She will quickly learn that when she hears those words, she should turn away from whatever interests her to get a fantastic reward.
REWARD GENEROUSLY
Reinforcing your pup consistently and generously when she resists putting something in her mouth or when she gives you something back will pay off big time! Your reinforcement should be anything that’s better or more valuable (in your dog’s opinion) than what she already has. In most cases, a super-duper, high-value food works well, but sometimes, giving multiple pieces of food, one after another, can make up for not being as good as what you are asking your dog to drop. And for some dogs, a game of tug or a chase of a ball will be an awesome reward! Every dog has his or her own opinion about what is valuable, so choose carefully for your dog.
Following the above guidelines and teaching these skills will help your pup get through the “put everything in their mouths” stage of life and give you impulse-control tools that will serve you and your pup for a lifetime!
Blue wearing her Anxiety Wrap, a garment that applies gentle, maintained pressure and provides the maximum calming effect. See anxietywrap.com.
In 1975, horse trainer Linda Tellington-Jones studied the Feldenkrais Method with its founder, Moishe Feldenkrais. In this form of bodywork for people, gentle and non-habitual movements activate unused neural pathways to the brain. It is famous for helping people improve their athletic ability, increase their physical and mental function, and fully recover from injuries. First adapting its movements for horses, Tellington-Jones began experimenting with other animals. Tellington TTouch (pronounced tee-touch) is now a popular, hands-on therapy for dogs, cats, and even zoo animals.
TTouch improves communication between dogs and handlers, helps solve behavioral as well as physical problems, helps dogs adapt to new or different situations, enhances performance, and helps dogs recover from excitability, nervousness, thunder phobia, extreme fear, shyness, leash pulling, excessive barking, excessive chewing, jumping on people, and other out-of-control behaviors.
Although it resembles massage, TTouch is different, consisting of a series of light “touches” applied in 1 1/4 circles (like around the clock, from 6 o’clock to 9 o’clock). It has a calming effect on most dogs, and more importantly, it can help reactive dogs completely change their responses to triggers and other distractions. TTouch books, videos, webinars, online classes, and in-person workshops make it easy to study and practice.
TTouch trainers pioneered body wraps (see “TTouch Practitioners Explain Canine ‘Body Wrapping,’” WDJ December 2002), which are simple arrangements of elastic bandages. They are said to help dogs feel more confident, feel less threatened by thunder and other loud noises, and reduce their reactive responses. In our 2002 article, Indianapolis neurobiologist Shereen D. Farber, Ph.D., explained how wrapping a dog can cause lasting behavioral changes. “Any type of trauma can damage nerve receptors, leading to exaggerated responses to stimuli,” she said. “Applying constantly maintained pressure provides an unchanging, quieting stimulus that causes the receptors to adapt and modify their thresholds in a cumulative manner.”
When Blue was at her most agitated, I tucked her into an Anxiety Wrap or wrapped her with Ace bandages, and within minutes her tight, taut, on-guard muscles relaxed. With and without wrapping, she responds to TTouches all over her body, including her ears and even around and in her mouth. The mouth TTouches are said to help with snapping, growling, and mindless barking.
Some TTouch webinars deal specifically with reactive dogs, but even general TTouch instructions make a difference.
My “very mixed-breed” dog, Otto, turned 12 years old at some
point in the past couple of months. For a big dog (currently 72 pounds), that’s
getting up there in age! And he’s got some health issues that I have to stay on
top of – a benign mass on his liver that we are monitoring, lipomas that have
just started blooming in size and
number in the past year, and molars that keep fracturing and needing removal
(despite the fact that he doesn’t chew on anything hard – no bones for this guy
for years). He also has a very
subtle, intermittent limp on his right front leg, particularly when he first
gets up in the morning.
The good news is that he’s still as mentally sharp as ever, and still getting around well. He can still jump into my car, and will still jump into the back of our truck if the tailgate is down and we happen to walk by it – just in case we were going somewhere for the kind of fun he associates with the truck: paddleboarding, fishing, hiking, camping. I don’t take him on long hikes anymore, because he gets way too stiff and sore afterward, and I don’t want him to tear something when he’s fatigued. He still stays ahead of me and my friends on our regular two- to three-mile off-leash walking routes and is only a little stiff the next day. But it’s hard to keep from hovering and fretting.
Communicating with a deaf dog
This week and next, I’m caring for a friend’s 14-year-old
small dog, Leila, while my friend visits family in Europe. Leila has stayed
with me and my dogs before, but it’s been at least six years or more; she’s a
very different dog at 14 than she was at 8 or so – solidly deaf, for starters. She
still chases her tail and barks when she wants attention, skips around when
it’s mealtime, and her eyes are bright and happy, and her vision seems good!
That’s fortunate, because what’s new to me is that her habitual gait is quite
slow, and she sometimes stalls out and stands still, not sure if she wants to
go with me and my dogs as we travel the 100 yards or so back and forth between
my house and my detached office building on our fenced property.
Leila
I’m in the process of figuring out what sort of body
language and gestures encourage her to come along. We’ve established that she
does not want to be picked up, and
that she will definitely hurry along if I happen to make a treat available from
the depths of one of my jacket pockets. She can trot along, and will for a
treat, but left to wander around the property without a destination in mind,
she sort of shuffles and snuffles; she’s enjoying all the smells on my
property, that’s for sure. But I think I will recommend that she see her vet
about something for what looks to me like arthritis pain.
Hoping for many more good years
Observing Leila at 14 is kind of ramping up my anxiety about
Otto at 12. How much time do I have before Otto has mobility issues, or can’t
hear me? This is stiffening my resolve to diet-and-exercise away those extra
two pounds that now appear on the vet’s scale every time Otto weighs in. He’s
already great at physical cues (without a verbal reminder or co-cue), so we’ll
just keep practicing those.
The cold temperatures just add to my worry. My last heart dog, Rupert the Border Collie, passed away (at 14 years old) in the winter, and so many of my friends’ dogs passed away in the winter, too. I’m so relieved that, even though winter has officially just recently started, we are past the solstice and the days have started getting longer again. We still have many cold days ahead, but at least we’ll have more light.
He still has good muscle tone, but is a couple pounds heavier than his long-time adult weight. I’ve been working on reducing that.
Here’s looking forward to spring and, we hope and pray, gifts
of at least one more year with our precious heart dogs.
This six-month-old pup is perfectly relaxed and comfortable while waiting to be seen at the vet’s office, because he’s been accustomed to having this mat as his “safe place.” (He’s not sleeping because he’s not feeling well; it’s an ophthalmology appointment at a university teaching hospital, and the waits are long.) The mat is used in his crate in the car and carried into appointments and puppy training classes, too.
We listed a variety of applications at the beginning of this article. Here’s a little more detail on each one:
Polite greetings: Visitors coming? No problem! Give your dog a cheerful “Place” cue to send her to her mat when the doorbell rings. Let her stay there while the visitors enter. After you’ve greeted your guests, ask them to walk over to your dog and greet her there. If she gets up, they step back and you cue her to return to her mat. After they’ve greeted her, give your release cue, and be ready to send her back to her mat if she gets too enthusiastic. (Remember to always keep your “Place” cue cheerful! You want her forever to have a very positive association with her “Place.”)
Parking place: Your dog has such a solid mat behavior that you can use it to “park” her any time you’re going to be hanging out for a while in a public place – at a dog-friendly restaurant, your dog’s training class, your child’s classroom, while you sit on a bench at a park, or anywhere else.
Happy place: This is one of my favorites. Because your dog now has a super-positive association with her mat, you can use it to help her get happy or get brave. Any place she might be worried, she is likely to be less worried if she is on her mat. This is perfect for the waiting room at the veterinary hospital, the scale, or the exam room floor (or table, if your vet uses one), to give her confidence and traction, or anywhere else that mildly stresses her, such as practicing below-threshold counter conditioning procedures. (However, remember to give her dozens of happy mat experiences for every one time you use it as a de-stressor, so you don’t poison her happy association with it.)
Any place: You can put a mat in every room in your house, so you can send your dog to a mat at any time, in any room. Take one (or several!) when you go visit your relatives and have the same convenience. For maximum versatility, teach your dog the names of different mats in different rooms of the house, so you can send her to a mat in any room from anywhere in the house. Wow!
Safe place: This is my other favorite application. If two of your dogs are looking like they may be headed toward a tense confrontation, a well-installed, happy “Place!” cue can avert disaster and send each one cheerfully to his own mat. In order for this to work, the dogs must have very clearly established, distinctly separate mats (to each his own!), and you have to take the time to train them both to go to their own mats when you give the cue – first each one alone, then together.
There can also be value in teaching each dog a different cue so you have the option of sending one to his mat but not the other – for example, “Rocky, place! Wendell, mat!”
You can also use it for other-species safety. Perhaps your dog is fixated on your cat, not in a good way. “Place!” Perhaps your dog is guarding a resource (you) from your partner’s attentions. “Place!”
Just make sure you richly reinforce this behavior to keep it fresh and appealing to your dog.
I have never owned a dog with separation anxiety, thank goodness. The condition is hard on the dog who suffers from the condition and hard on the dog’s caretakers, too, including owners, vets, groomers, pet sitters, and dog walkers. Care must be taken to prevent triggering the dog’s panic at being left alone—in severe cases, even just long enough for the person caring for the dog to use the restroom!
