Dog Health - What is the Single, Most Important Thing You Can Do to Keep it?

It seems that dog health is on the decline. Depending on the breed, dogs can live to 20 years or more. Today, you’re lucky if they reach eight.

Why is this?

Years ago, dogs were fed table scraps, kitchen scraps and homemade food, as commercial pet food hadn’t been invented. The table scraps were more healthy then, as junk food didn’t abound.

Years ago, it was rare to take a dog to a veterinarian. Vets, as doctors, were only visited when deemed absolutely necessary.

And yet, still dogs lived longer.

Could there be a connection between dog health today and their diet?

In my opinion, the answer to that is a resounding YES!

As with most people, I’m sure you’re blissfully unaware of what goes into making your own food, let alone that of your dogs. When people are asked if they know, the frequent answer is “I don’t want to know”.

Obviously you suspect the worst.

But why don’t you want to know?

Is it because you’re caught out not knowing, so fear looking stupid?

I can understand that.

Or perhaps the knowledge of what goes into dog food is too revolting to consider. If this is the case, don’t you think your dog might agree with you? Maybe he thinks it’s revolting too, but if he doesn’t eat it, he fears he may not be offered an alternative. Even revolting food will keep you alive.

Well, now you have the chance of finding out what really goes into pet food, so next time someone accosts you in the street, you can answer with confidence. Not only that, you can change the diet of your dog to something he will love and that will keep him in peak condition, to boot.

There’s a saying ‘garbage in, garbage out’. Dog health IS dog food, by the very nature of its frequent consumption.

The pet food industry remains more or less unregulated in all countries. The little regulation there is, is poorly policed. It would require too much funding, which tends to be spent on human needs.

So the industry gets away with whatever it wants.

Low quality meat (called meat by-products) is the start of the slippery slope. While dogs can eat some low quality food (hair, beaks, feathers, intestines and contents, fat), they can’t survive on it. They need some good quality to maintain health.

Euthanased animals may be rejected by a more ethical company, but may be eagerly snapped up by those who are less so. The lethal injection forms part of the resulting food. Can this be contributing to poor dog health?

To bulk out the food, to make it more profitable, a filler is added. This can be whatever is available cheaply. It might be melamine. It might be sugar. It may be sawdust.

All pet food is cooked under high temperatures and pressures. This kills off enzymes, vitamins and other nutrients that are essential for good dog health.

To redress this shortfall, nutrients are added. But these are normally the synthetic ones as they’re the cheapest. Synthetic nutrients are not easily absorbed by the body. As most of them are also isolated, they are of little value. Dog health is all about getting complex nutrients in a complete and natural form, which are easily absorbed.

To give the resulting dog ‘food’ a long shelf life (which is good for business, but not for dog health), toxic preservatives are used, preservatives that would never be allowed in human food because of their highly poisonous nature. Poisons such as ethoxyquin and formalin.

Don’t be fooled by packets which maintain they use ‘natural’ preservatives, or are even preservative free. Ask yourself this - can meat be kept indefinitely at room temperature, without the use of preservatives?

It’s down to you to be vigilant in the quality of your dog’s food. To maintain good health, you need to be in control, which means you need to know the worst. Putting your head in the sand isn’t going to keep your dog healthy.