Healthier Dogs Live Longer

It's time to get back to work on this blog and expand it from just talking about dog food to everything to do with making your dog happier and healthier. The big boy above is named Timber and he would like you and all your dogs to come talk to us and post pics on our Facebook fan page, so click on this link and join us Healthier Dogs Live Longer

Those of you that have followed my rants on commercial dog food for the last two years know that I'm into homemade dog food... My wife and I will be launching a site where we will be uploading video and recipes for those interested in feeding homemade.

As I said before, I do understand those that just need to feed a commercial brand, but PLEASE do me a favor. If you go to our FB fan page listed above and just hit "Like" I will send you a copy of the best nine dog foods in North America.

I also list three major brands that you must avoid all all cost and the sad part is your Vet is probably selling these brands.

One last thought... a healthy dog is also a happy dog and a happy dog is always a well trained dog. If you want to get free quality information and videos on dog care and dog training click one of these links now.

Timber says "see you on the other side"

The By-Product Debate in Dog Food

I started to get serious about health issues for dogs once mine started having them at the age of six. Instead of wasting time watching TV, lately, I have been studying ways to ensure my dogs have the longest lives possible.

For the ones that are familiar with my work and opinions, you will already know that I feel that commercial dog food is one of the main cause of health problems. For this reason I have become practically evangelical about the benefits of homemade dog food; I truly believe that it is the best dog food out there.

In actuality, the majority of people will need to provide supplemental commercial food in addition to the homemade diet. This is the reason I take a lot of time with the best dog food topic.

One area of controversy that I encountered was the usage of meat by products in dog food. You'll recognize this because a meat, such as lamb or chicken, will be shown with the word by-product attached.

What does it contain and is it any good for your pet? If you really get into this matter, you will discover there are two different groups, one the feels that by-products are just fine, and the other that feels that they are unhealthy to feed your dog.

The truth is, it depends let's take a look at the definition of Poultry by-products.

"Poultry derivatives contain mashed up, renderings, clean portions of murdered poultry cadavers, such as necks, beak, feet, unhatched eggs and intestines, leaving out feathers, "except in various amounts that might happen by accident in normal processing"The trouble is you are not aware of the ingredients all the time. There isn't any standard that states there are a certain amount of feet or a measurement of intestines or any form of nutrition at all. In reality, none of this is actually suitable for a person to eat.

There are some who will make the argument that because some of the by-product ingredients are what the dog would actually eat in the wild, they are fine for them to eat in a dog food. Even if this is the case it is tantamount to saying that because homeless people eat out of garbage cans, dumpster food is great for everyone else, too.

Since I plan on feeding my dogs the best food possible, by-products will remain in the trash and won't be found in any of the food I provide.

What Does it Take to Make the Top Ten Best Dog Food List?

Do you consider big name dog food brands to be made with the best dog food ingredients? Brand names are often well advertised but that does not mean they are what is right for your dog.

Sadly the best dog food for your dog is probably not even being sold in your Vets office. Just because a dog food is sold by your veterinarian does not mean it is the healthiest food available.

After my Beagle started having Seizures, I have spent many hours researching how to pick the best dog food. I have learned more about how to decipher a dog food label and understand what all the ingredients are, than most people know about their own human food.

The more research I did, the deeper I entered the ugly world of commercial dog foods.

It became apparent that in order for me to be sure I was feeding the best dog food, I would need to understand a whole lot more about how the pet food industry worked.

I have documented my findings in many articles about the pet food industry, which is virtually self-regulated, and about how the industry uses deceptive labeling language to deceive pet owners about true contents of pet food.

The only thing that even comes close to helping us figure out the best dog food, is the requirement that the Industry must list the most prominent ingredient by weight first on the label. So if the first ingredient is a corn product, it doesn’t matter if the name on the bag says Chicken dinner delight, the main ingredient by weight is the corn product.

Do yourself a favor and ignore the name on the bag and take a look at the ingredient list to determine what the food really is. After you make it through the first couple of ingredients that you think you understand what they are, that is where the fun begins.

As you start to look at ingredient lists, your going to see healthy sounding ingredients like dried egg products. Don’t be fooled this particular ingredient is anything but healthy. You would find what's in dried egg product very sickening to eat so why foist it on your dog. Another good one, is Chicken by-products, if you think this has anything to do with chicken you would serve your family, think again.

Though some of the listed ingredients are self explanatory, there are preservatives and vitamins added that may be unnecessary and hard to identify.

This why I was happy to find during my research a very strict guide of what to look for on a dog food label, and this is what I use to find the best dog food, for my dogs.

With this guide I have been able to go through a list of 150 brands of dog food, and come up with the best dog food top ten list. It is very obvious once you compare the ingredient list of the 10 best dog food to the brands your Vet probably sells, that you probably shouldn’t be depending on your Vet for a healthy dog food selection.

Check out the 10 best dog food list here

Listen to Dog Expert’s Interviewed About Caring for Your Dog

In the past I’ve wrote many articles and blog posts on healthy dog food, but today I would like to talk more about everything else it takes to raise a dog.

Everyday we have questions pertaining to our dogs, from simple things like getting them to sit, to how best to prepare them to take a trip. You might also like to know if there is a more natural way to protect your pet from fleas and ticks without using chemicals.

One of the side benefits about my hundreds of hours of research on dog food has been that I have been able to find reliable resources for answers to all of the questions above. This has allowed me to be a better parent for my two dogs.

The biggest problem is weeding out the facts from the myths, or should I say the experts from the scams artist. To say the least this has been a change, after all we want to know that we will be helping our dog before we make changes to their care.

I got to thinking on how great it would be if I could call and expert in the field for all the questions I had. I called my vet so often that he stopped returning my calls, which was probably the best thing anyway.

Most vets are not experts in things like training your dog, so they can’t give you good advice on this and many other question you’ll have.

The truth is good dog parenting starts even before you bring the dog home. You need good information on how to select the best breed for your family.
If you have been a parent for some time you might would like to know the best way to care for an elderly dog, but where do you find expert advice on this topic?

Most pet owners never find the answers to all their pet questions and they end up flying by the seat of their pants. This can be bad for them and their dogs.

Animal shelters across the country say that pet owners either pick the wrong breed, or they have a problem with the dog that they don’t know how to correct when the leave their dog with them..

All my hard work has paid off, and I have now found a recourse of experts being interviewed on a host of dog parenting topics that continue to be expanded month after month.

Michael Considine has a love for teaching dog parents how to better raise their dogs. If you want to be a better dog parent check out dog book of the month

How to Pick The Best Dog Food Brands

More pet owners are starting to think about their dog's health being tied to their food, and this has them asking what are the best dog food brands?Really all you need to do to get the best dog food brand is to read and understand the list of ingredients on the label.

I wish it was that easy, but the deceptive wording used by the dog food industry makes it a bit more difficult.

There are many people telling us healthy food to eat, but it's a lot more difficult to find good information on a healthy diet for our pets.

The trouble here is that pet food producers are allowed to incorporate ingredients that are not for human consumption in their foods. The companies not only use by-product in their food, but are legally allowed to mask how unhealthy it is by using healthy sounding names in the ingredients list.

One would imagine that seeing dried eggs as ingredients for dog foods would mean the foods are good. The truth is it often includes animal parts that are deemed unacceptable for human consumption.

I found a list of 68 ingredients while doing research for the best dog food brands, that if any ore founf on your dog food label; stop feeding that brand to your dog. Nearly halve of these 68 ingredients are unhealthy and will leave to a shortening of your dogs life if consumed on a regular basis.

We also read and reviewed a dog food report written based on the results of testing agent at a firm searching for the best US dog foods. Sorry I can not re-print that article here because of the copyright.

What I can tell you is after looking at every brand of dog food in North America they only found 9 that made the list of the best dog food brands, based on being healthy selections.

A number of the best name brands in dog foods are on the list of 27 brands considered but failing to make the final list. Some of the big brand names such as Science Diet and Iams were not of sufficient quality to pass the tests to get on the list.

On account of the stated reasons, six brands were eliminated from this second report.
The report gives details about the pros and cons of every brand.

Because of my finding of what goes into commercially made dog food, I now feed my dogs a homemade dog food diet. Even knowing what I know there are times that it is just easier to open a bag and pour some food, but I refuse to compromise the health of my dogs. That is why I continued to do research until I found a reliable source for the best dog food brands to supplement my homemade food.

Beating The Dog Food Death Sentence.

Because of my dogs heath problems I started to do research on dog food. One of the most important things I found was a report on dog food ingredients, which explains in detail over sixty ingredients to avoid.

Because the report is copyright protected I can’t just post it here, but because this report could save your dogs life it is important I pass on as much information as possible. I’ll also tell you where to get a copy.

Below you see a small sample of some of the dog food ingredients listed in the report.

Glyceryl Monostrearate
Animail Digest
BHA
Grape Pomace
Fish Oil

The report ranks each ingredient with a ranking of either Deadly, Moderation Only, or Harmless but Useless 28 ingredients listed in the report have a ranking of deadly, and some could be found in the dog food you’re feeding your dog right now

You are probably asking yourself why the dog food companies would use ingredients that could harm my dog. The cold hard truth is profits.

In 2007 the odds finally caught up with the dog food industry, but normally they don’t kill so many dogs do get themselves noticed. No there won’t be a mass killing today, but millions of dogs will continue to die too young.

The problem is we have been programmed to think that twelve years old is an expectable age for a dog to die. When the truth is with the correct dog food diet they could live to be 20.

The report explains in detail what the ingredients listed in your dog food really mean. Sadly they are not what you think they are.

Don’t waste another minute of your dogs life, click below to make certain your feeding food that won’t end up on a dog food recall list.

Homemade Dog Food Diet, Is it a Scam?

I’m not going to mix words; I believe most commercial dog foods are killing our dogs and the only way to save them is with a homemade dog food diet. Most pet foods are deficient of important nutrients and have ingredients that should be on a toxic waste manifest.

The labeling laws for the pet food industry are a joke, and they are able to hide ingredients like listed below.

Indigestible waste products
Colors & dyes
Pesticides
Chemicals
Harmful preservatives
Antibiotics
Dead, diseased, disabled or dying animals prior to their visit to the slaughter house.
Animal by-products including some recently euthanized pet cats or dogs.

Slaughter houses and rendering companies toxic leftovers, not fit for human consumption are sold to pet food companies. This toxic waste is rendered at temperatures well over 300 degree, and any nutritional values that might have been in this crap is lost in the process.

Because of the junk being sold as dog food, I started to research on how to best make homemade dog food.

Research shows that a homemade dog food diet could be dangerous if the owners does not follow a plan to ensure the diet is well balanced . This should consist of 40 percent meat, 30 percent vegetables and 30 percent starch.

I’m not going to lie to you, without some help, making certain that your homemade dog food diet is complete and nutritionally balanced is very difficult. That is why I spent many hours doing the research before I changed to a homemade dog food diet.I was scared that if I didn’t find a proven well balanced diet that it could cause long term health problems for my pets.

The experts say that any homemade dog food should have both a good source of protein and carbohydrates.

Below is a list of some sources of protein and carbohydrates for homemade dog food diets.:

roasted skinless chicken breast
pan browned ground beef
broiled pork loin
broiled lamb chop
baked Atlantic salmon
hard boiled whole egg
cottage cheese
tofu
long-grained white rice
long-grained brown rice
baked white potatoes
baked sweet potatoes
enriched, cooked spaghetti
cooked oats
cooked barley

What’s amazing to me is these foods are the same healthy foods we should be buying for our family now. Did you notice the list does not include animal by products and filler ingredients?

Finding a list of healthy ingredients was the first step, but it still took hours of research to learn how to prepare a well balanced homemade dog food diet,. We needed to make certain that our recipes provide the nutrition our dogs need for a lifetime of good health.

This might be a little extra work, but to have a chance to see that wagging tail and feel that unconditional love for up to 20 years, makes it all worth it.

Take advantage of all my research and make certain you never need to worry about a dog food recall again by clicking this link.

Dog Food Recall Breaks Heart of Pet Owner

Most pet owners are back feeding their dogs and cat’s food made by the same companies that had major recalls. After 2007 dog food recall the industry seen the light and now has nothing but the pet’s best interest at heart right?

Don’t believe a word I wrote in that last sentence. The regulations are just as loose as they were in 2007, and no one has added manpower to correct this mess.

We as pet owners are basically waiting for the next shoe to drop. There has already been hundreds of dog food recall alerts in the last two years, but none as big as the ones in 2007. Just because they are small and mostly unnoticed recalls, does not mean there aren’t pets dying around the world because of this neglect.

Bad things already started happening before any dog food recall alert goes out. Pet owners are already dealing with sickness and death. Without better inspections we will always be behind the curve when in comes to a dog food recall. You are already dealing with the results of the poison if your dog has been affected by the recall.

There are no words for the feeling you get when you go from playing fetch with your yellow lab, to six weeks later burying her in the back yard. You feel helpless when you are told by the vet that her systems are shutting down one by one and there is nothing that can be done to help her.

You pray that she’ll get better, but when her breathing becomes so labored that you hear her in the next room and you know it’s time to take her to the vet. You were praying this day would never come and you know this is the last ride the two of you will have together while she is still alive.

You think, no I’m not strong enough to make this decision, but then she looks at you as if to say I need your help and it is time to let me go. Your head is pressed against hers and with tears pouring from your eyes you fill the last breath leaving her body.

You take her home crying the whole way and you dig a grave in the back yard and say your last goodbye to the best friend you ever had. The only friend that truly gave you back unconditional love no matter what you did.

Now you start to think about the dog food recall and wonder what it would have been like if you had not been feeding that food. Then you remember the two other dogs in the family eat a brand of food that’s not on the list, but is it safe or will it show up on a dog food recall list next?

The research I’ve done since I lost my best friend has me convinced that it’s just a matter of time before all commercially made dog food ends up having a recall. We must figure out a better way to feed our pets.

There is no way I’m going to lose another pet to the greedy profit grubbing pet food industry. I’ve done the research and I now know what I need to do to feed my dogs.

My research shows there is an easy way to protect our pets, to say goodbye to dog food recall lists click here.