DOG FOOD AND ATTITUDE
What our dogs eat and how it may be
affecting ability to change behavior
I was excited to have an appointment with Craig and his
dog Jake last week. Craig’s original complaints for me to address were counter
surfing, excessive whining, barking at what appeared to be ‘nothing’ and leash
pulling. It quickly came to my attention
how dull his coat looked and felt as I reached out to pet his German Shepherd
frame. When I probed what Craig had been feeding, he responded, ‘I’m spending a
lot of money on premium kibble! How would a change in his food affect his coat
and behavior?’
So begins our discussion.
Jake is on a 95% kibble diet, and has been for 3.5 years.
(treats making up the other 5%). The
kibble company spends a tremendous amount of money overriding our common sense
approach that anyone eating the same anything for 3.5
years are at risk for experiencing potential problems. Add to this that kibble is a highly processed,
nutritionally devoid, carbohydrate-ridden food.
Craig has been feeling as though he was upgrading when he
began feeding Jake ‘grain free’ and while this has been a positive direction
for kibble companies to travel with their formula, there is still a HUGE
carbohydrate load to these foods.
Awareness of human and canine nutrition and its affect on
body/mind chemistry is a tap on my shoulder when I hear people tell stories of
dog dilemmas. For Jakes situation:
1. Can we blame a dog that is
not getting his nutritional needs met when they forage on a counter?
2. Is it fair to punish the
counter surfing behavior, and not a potentially strong physiological need
behind it?
3. Is it realistic to ask whether
highly processed food could be manipulating his blood sugar, contributing to
anxious displays (whining) of behavior?
If we were to consider the effects of nutrition on our human bodies,
there has been much research to determine that what we eat can (and does)
affect our behavior, so is not a huge leap to consider any other living form is
affected as well.
Consider these facts and participate with me in a little
exercise:
·
Begin with a piece of paper with 100% written at
the top.
·
Subtract the % of protein, % fat, and % moisture
listed on the back of the kibble bag you feed,
·
The remainder you see is carbohydrate
composition of the food!
·
Most will be surprised to witness this amount in
excess of 40% (in other words, you are picking it up in the yard after your dog
has spent time and energy processing it)
o Now consider that your dog operates optimally
at between 11 and 18% carbohydrate intake for his system to function optimally.
Now lets look at the first six ingredients in Jakes food:
Herring meal
Potatoes
Sweet potato
Canola oil
Pea protein
Rice
That is the bulk of the food right there, and the
remainders of ingredients aren’t any more flattering. How can a company have good conscience
marketing this to us, who wish to do right by our dog. This particular formula
rendered 52% carbs for Jake to digest, and there is no real substantive nutritional
value in this at all. Dogs are carnivores, and the meat is missing!
When our dogs consume more carbs than their body can use,
a list of problems can arise including (but certainly not limited to); blood
sugar instability, digestive issues, obesity, imbalance with intestinal
bacteria, allergies, arthritis, seizures, cancer, anxiety, and the list is
growing with research. Carbs can bind
vitamins and minerals in the intestines, whisking them out of their bodies with
no chance of absorption. Now consider
that one of the many duties of B vitamins, for instance, is as a calming influence, as well as capacity
to improve brain function. Behavior
problems that are rooted in anxiety, which is of course the opposite of calm,
may be affected by not getting enough B vitamins.
Speaking to a dogs’ species appropriate diet and prior to
when kibble came to be, Jake (this time of year for example) would be feeding
on bunnies. He would be eating the innards of the bunny first to assist in
digestion of the protein, bone, organs and fur they were about to consume. So
this would consist of vegetation the bunny had eaten, packed with B vitamins,
digestive enzymes, and probiotics that all help the body absorb food optimally.
The enzymatic value of fresh food has been found to also help naturally remove
plaque from teeth, and keep it off.
Kibble cannot replicate this process.
Maybe the ingredients that went into it at one time were nutritionally
viable, but that was a very long time before your purchase.
Kibble companies would also have you believe that there
is ‘better kibble’ than another. This may be the case for the integrity of the
ingredients they applied to the recipe; however, beyond that, each and every kibble goes
through the same nutrition degradation process in the highly processing
procedure.
Below are some ideas for canine species appropriate (fresh, real food) commercial and
convenient options to a highly processed kibble that are available:
·
Commercially prepared raw diets:
o Darwin’s,
is delivered to your door on auto ship basis
o Northwest
Naturals
o Stella
and Chewys
o K9
Naturals
o Tuckers
o Answers
·
Commercially prepared dehydrated diets:
o Stella
and Chewys
o K9
Naturals
o Northwest
Naturals
o Addiction
And ideas for Movie Night! Suggestions to bring ideas for further
discussion:
Please note, I am NOT suggesting replacing nutrition
advice for behavior advice! Although I have witnessed what I consider miracles
with a shift in nutrition, I am addressing it here more from the perspective
that unless you have as much information about your dog as possible, then a
behavior modification plan may be compromised. If a behavior is not responding
to protocol that has been revised appropriately, it makes sense to investigate
our dog’s physiology – and how they are
FEELING!
In terms of Jake’s behaviors, I’m thrilled to say Craig’s
now looking to his food bowl as potentially part of the solution. We are working diligently on Jake’s issues,
as he has been reinforced in many ways, but we will save that for another
chapter. Furthermore, Jakes coat is
shining, and he loves mealtime!
There is still much to learn in the area of dog nutrition,
many scientific case studies to be performed; however, we can take the gift
that research has given us to move in the right direction. With all the good intentions of feeding what
the kibble companies would have us believe is the highest quality food, we are
picking up much of our money with a pooper-scooper.
For references of
dietary suggestions, to learn how to begin feeding a more natural diet, or to
unlock the mystery of the ingredient list on your bag of kibble, please contact
Patti Howard for a copy of nutritional recommendations, free, via www.yourcanineresource.com Patti is
Certified Specialist in Canine Training/Behavior, and holds Advanced Canine
Nutritional Certification. Patti is convinced with 25 years experience in these
areas that Your Dog Can’t Do Anything Wrong, as will be interpreted by her book of
the same name, available this fall/winter.
