Proper dog nutrition is essential if you want a healthy dog. If your dog has a bad diet, it will lead to a bundle of other problems which you definitely don’t want to be faced with. There are many schools of thought about what a dog should eat, be it home-made food or store bought dog food.
- Some dog owners believe your dog should simply eat what is left over from the table. They feel that dogs can survive on anything they can and that buying some high end or special food is a waste of money.
- The non processed natural theorists claim by feeding your dog processed mass market foods your actually removing years from their lives. Books like Dog Food Secrets provide a useful guide to following this dog nutrition style.
- Completely raw food diets such as the Rawr Diet contest your dog can survive and thrive on a completely natural diet of raw bones and meat,. They contest the pack hunter and killer that were the origins of our dogs can deal quite fine with this diet.
- Dog Nutrition should change with age. A puppy for example will have different requirements than your old faithful hound will. Most likely older dogs will require some joint nutrition to take care of their older bodies.
A rough guide to Dog Nutrition
- As a rule of thumb you should avoid sugar or preservatives.
- When purchasing food for your animal, don’t sweat the minor details of things. For example, you go into the shop and see two different food brands. One is a little less expensive (still the same nutritional value) but doesn’t look as cool as the other brand (which imitates human food in its looks). Should you pay more for the human looking dog food? Pay attention to the back of the packaging.
- Work to a budget. Buy in larger amounts and freeze some food for later. Buying bulk can get good quality food for your pet at a budget price.
- Stick to the basics and you will be just fine. It is fine however, to give your dog a little bit of leftovers from other kinds of food. Vegetables would be your best bet, as they are both healthy and should not have any sugar in them (unless you added it of course – then don’t give it to the dog).
Keep Dog Nutrition Simple 
Keeping your dog’s diet healthy isn’t rocket science, but will take a bit of oversight on your part. You may not want to buy books, plans or ideas on programs to try for your dog. At a minimum make sure you keep on schedule and always try and keep it simple. If you can start out your dog on a proper simple diet of a brand name dog food your recognize, you will be much better off in the long run. The pooch will get used to the food, and won’t be begging you for treats every night. If you would like to treat your animal with some form of “doggy desert”, then by all means, do give it a doggy snack. Dogs love to be rewarded and they should be. Stick to treats made specifically for the animal, and you will have nothing to worry about.
***Photo thanks to Mshades***