Feed ‘Em Right; Train & Exercise ‘Em Well; Love ‘Em Always!

Food is the most important of the 3 important things to remember. FOOD is LOVE! It even comes ahead of Love and Exercise. Just like your health is the most important thing.

Very Important to realize that the foods you eat and share with your dog is better then just dry dog food. Our dogs get half of either beef, chicken or pork mixed in with their top of the line dry foods daily. It is so easy if you only have 1 puppy to mix their food with good leftovers. Cook an extra egg in the morning and add it into their food. Cottage cheese, canned tuna, salmon or chicken. Cook up an extra hamburger and add it in. You can always find something. Don’t scrap those good leftovers into the garbage. Give them to someone who will appreciate your cooking even more then your family.

I will start you off with plenty of dry food and other great stuff when you pick up your puppy.

For your puppy start off with 4 mixed meals for a couple of days when you take your puppy home and cut down to 3 mixed meals a day. Leave dry food out for them to munch on in-between even when they are big enough to cut to 2 meals. They are very fast growing puppies and very healthy and active. Don’t go by labels or certain amounts to feed them. Let them eat all they want.
In the Family Dog magazine, Dr. Caroline Coile said most people don’t realize that very young small dogs have difficulty storing adequate amounts of glucose as glycogen. If they don’t eat often enough, or if they use a lot of energy from playing or being stressed, their body depletes its glycogen stores. (Yes crates are a stress-causing thing.) When that happens, the body starts breaking down body fat for energy. But because small puppies have so little body fat, that energy source soon runs out. The body runs out of sufficient energy, and the brain, which is highly dependent on glucose, is one of the first systems to fail.

WHAT’S THE DANGER? The puppy becomes abnormally sleepy, weak, and uncoordinated to the point that he may not even eat when offered food. If he doesn’t eat, the condition can progress to seizures, loss of consciousness, and even death.

WHAT FOODS TO BE AVOIDED? Avoid foods with simple sugars, such as sweet and semi-moist foods. Simple sugars tend to cause a rollercoaster effect with blood sugar levels, initially raising them but then causing them to plummet to a state of Hypoglycemia, feed meals fairly high in protein, fat and complex carbohydrates.

No matter what size your puppy is, avoid fad diets, steel yourself against pleading eyes for your pizza roll, and don’t obsess over being perfect. While some diets are better then others, somehow dogs have been surviving for thousands of years without individualized nutrient profiles. Vary his diet, make sure you’re feeding high-quality food appropriate for his age and size, relax and enjoy his puppyhood. It will be over way too soon.

All Dr. Coile information is fantastic information and totally accurate. We have always used the best-mixed foods with lots of our own cooked chicken, beer, rice and other stuff mixed in daily. And they do grown up way too fast so make sure to take lots more pictures of him or her as a puppy.

All puppies 8 weeks old bite. Doesn’t mater what breed they are. If they are hungry they bite more. Thus another reason to make sure you are feeding them properly.

Make sure they have Bully sticks to chew on or other similiar safe treats when you are going out and leaving them alone. (NOTHING FROM CHINA.) It keeps them out of trouble. Soup bones, carrots, cooked and frozen sweet potatoes also are a good busy thing for them to chew on and tier them out when you are busy. You’ll learn what they like and don’t like. The more you introduce them to the more stuff you will have to entertain them. Just like little kids. If they grew up eating all kinds of vegetables, fruits and meats instead of just chicken, pasta and pizza then they will eat anything.

They need lots and lots of safe toys.

Before they left here they were getting 4 good mixed meals a day plus we left dry food and water out 24/7. Mix your dry food with lots of boiled chicken, rice, pumpkin and other good people food. At this point they prefer the Royal Canin puppy food. It is a top of the line dog food. If you don’t have people food to mix in then use some good canned food. Tuna Fish, sardines, whatever you have left over in your fridge. Fry up an extra egg in the morning for them and mix that in. Pick up a plain rotisserie chicken; boil up some hamburger to mix in. You can do a batch of anything to last 2 or 3 days. I started off blending chicken broth and chicken in a blender and adding it to their food. They love it!

I mix various dry foods up together and switch to different brands a lot for our grown dogs. We cook for our dogs daily and add tons of healthy people food to their top of the line dog foods.

Royal Canin is what we start our puppies out with using their mother/baby mini formula softened. I think it is the best product on the market. You will leave here with a few pounds of their medium size mother and puppy kibble that I move up to by the time they are leaving, which I pack up for you, along with some plain 100% pure organic pumpkin.

Start off with 4 mixed meals for a couple of days when you take your puppy home and cut down to 3 mixed meals a day. Leave dry food out for them to munch on in-between even when they are big enough to cut to 2 meals. They are very fast growing puppies and very healthy and active. Don’t go by labels or certain amounts to feed them. Let them eat all they want.

Next you can switch to Royal Canin lab formula. All their canned dog food products are excellent a well. All their canned dog food products are excellent a well. They are excellent for making a mixed food meal if you have nothing on hand to mix with their dry food.

I like the Evanger’s brand too, especially the one with pumpkin in it below. They have the best canned products if and when you don’t have time to cook or have leftovers to mix with their food some days. They are good enough to eat yourself.

Some of Evanger’s good dry food

  • Whitefish, Sweet Potato and Venison
  • Chicken, Sweet Potato & Pumpkin

Hand Packed Dog Food in Cans

  • Chicken Drummet Dinner
  • Catch of the Day
  • Premium Hunk of Beef
  • Chunky Chicken Casserole
  • Chicken Thighs
  • Braised Beef Chunks with Gravy
  • Royal Canin is a great product as well

Important Article on Pet Coach about STORAGE of your dog food

If you are like most dog owners you have probably spent a lot of time carefully choosing a food for your dog, reading ingredient lists and trying to make sense of labels while also appealing to your pet’s palate and your pocketbook. The last thing you want is for food to become rancid or contaminated due to improper storage. Continue reading to learn about common mistakes dog owners make when storing food.

Leaving your dog’s food in the bag allows exposure to humidity and heat, which can lead to mold and contamination with storage mites. Storage mites are not toxic if ingested, but dogs can develop allergies to mites and exposure to the mites can cause symptoms of atopy, or skin allergies. Molds can cause gastrointestinal upset, and some rare types of mold secrete toxins that can cause significant liver damage or neurologic signs. The best place to store dry food is in a plastic, glass or metal container with a tight fitting lid. This can also discourage pests like mice and insects who might also like access to the food but can carry disease that could be transmissible to you and your dog. You can keep food in the original bag within your chosen container, or if you need to discard the bag be sure to keep the serial number in case of a recall.

DO NOT go by amounts of food to feed a puppy on a dog food bag or your vet. They will stop eating when they are full. They are active puppies and should always have as much food as they want to eat. My grown dogs get one Big healthy mixed meal in the morning and then there is dry food left out all the time.

Feel free to call or email with any questions anytime. If for any reason your puppy is not working out for you we are happy to give you a full refund if you bring them right back in a few weeks. If for any reason something changes in your lifestyle over the years and you can not keep your dog anymore remember on our adoption information that you need to return your dog to us.

I am sure all of you will have a new best friend and Loyal Companion for life.

HEALTHIEST HOMEMADE DOG FOOD RECIPES by Nancy Burden

Pet owners and vets are divided in two very distinct camps when it comes to homemade dog food recipes. There are the naysayers who consider that food prepared at home lacks certain very important nutrients and minerals and there are the ones who consider dogs should eat homemade food. The food you prepare at home has the main advantage of being fresh, delicious and prepared with ingredients you actually know.

If you’re not sure which side to take, here are a few reasons that could help you understand the benefits of creating homemade dog food recipes. These are all based on professional and individual observations according to the type of food that was provided for the dog. We will talk about the benefits of homemade meals and their effects on your dog’s health.

Let us take a look at the pros and cons of using these two types of pet foods.

Commercial dog foods are prepared using processing methods, which destroy nutrients in the ingredients. One of these processes is by subjecting ingredients to extremely high heat to kill all the possible harmful bacteria and microorganisms that may be present in the raw food. Processing plants make use of industry grade heating equipment, which are designed to kill the smallest microorganisms in the ingredient.
The problem with this method is that most food nutrients are susceptible to excessively high temperatures. These include antioxidants, vitamins, and even protein content, which can be rendered non-biologically available when their overall structure has been rearranged through the process of heating.
Some of the vitamins that can be easily destroyed are Foliate and Vitamin C. Other processes that contribute to the loss of nutrients are boiling in large amounts of water, exposure to light and air, and contact with some types of metals.

Commercial dog foods make use of non-human grade food ingredients. If you are going to look at the product’s label at the back, you will notice some ingredients such as fish or meat meals which actually include parts of an animal which you won’t eat yourself.
For example, they contain organ meats such as hooves, feathers, entrails, brain, and other animal by-products. The worst thing about these ingredients is that the FDA actually allows animals that have died by other causes, such as ailments and diseases, to be included in dog foods. A lot of people think that since they are just dogs, they can be fed anything.
Well, looking at the state of health of pets that are fed only processed dog food, one can say that this is not the case. Another interesting ingredient that you may find in pet food is propylene glycol. This ingredient is used to maintain moisture in wet types of dog food although it is a chemical used in car anti-freeze.

Commercial pet foods usually contain artificial preservatives and other unhealthy additives. In order to prolong shelf-life and create an interesting “look” on their products, pet food companies will make use of artificial flavors and coloring as well as preservatives which are harmful for your pets.
These companies often defend its usage by saying that they only come in minimal amounts which do not have any significant effect on your pet’s health.But the truth is that the slow accumulation of these toxins will eventually lead to serious damage on your dog’s kidneys, liver, and heart. If you think that the natural antioxidants contained in the packaging will help counter these additives, just think that these antioxidants are also slowly destroyed by these chemicals and by the initial processing methods.