Nutrition plays
a big role in the training of your dog. Why?
Because nutrition not only has an effect on
the physical aspects of your dog, but also
affects his or her mental state. This means
that if your buddy is not receiving proper
nutrition, he or she can have a hard time
focusing on the task at hand, as well as can
easily be distracted, which makes
training more difficult.
Quality food
manufacturers spend many dollars researching
nutrition for dogs, and it shows in the wide
availability of quality foods on the market
today. In addition to the low-grade dog
foods found in grocery stores and
supermarkets, pet specialty shops and feed
stores often carry a wide range of foods
designed to address everything from specific
activity levels to food allergies.
It is important
to feed the right type of food to your best
friend. For example, if your dog spends its
typical day hanging out in the back yard and
lounging around the house, and goes for
walks around the neighborhood 2-3 times a
day, that's not really an active
lifestyle, for a dog. If you feed a food designed
for active dogs, your dog will have an
abundance of energy that isn't burned up,
and will likely have a hard time focusing
during training, not to mention will quickly
become overweight.
On the other
hand, if you feed a low-protein diet to an
active dog that goes on hikes or is involved
with rigorous activities on a daily basis,
the low nutritional value of the food may
leave your pal mentally drained, so he or
she can't focus during training, even if he
or she wants to.
Quite a few
dogs also have food allergies, and common
food allergens are grains, which is not
surprising given the fact that a dog's
natural diet does not include grains, yet
many dog foods include grains in their
ingredients. If
your dog is allergic to grains,
symptoms commonly manifest themselves as
digestive tract issues and/or skin
irritations. Imagine how tough it would be
to try to learn something while you had an
upset stomach, or while you kept having to
lick your paws because they itched so much.
If you suspect
that your dog may have a food allergy, you
might want to consider switching to a
grain-free food. While you might experience
"sticker shock" when you first see the
higher price of grain-free foods, take
comfort in the fact that most grain-free foods are
typically manufactured using higher quality ingredients.
Because nutritional values
in these foods are significantly higher than
lower-quality foods, you would feed less of
a high-quality food to maintain balanced
nutrition. Thus, the higher price per bag is
largely offset. An added
bonus is that the higher quality food is
better assimilated by your dog's digestive
system, so he or she will excrete less,
which results in less clean-up for you!
While we're not
saying that nutrition is the answer to all
training, it only makes sense that proper
nutrition results in a healthier dog, which
can make a difference in your dog's ability
to learn what you are trying to teach him or
her.
From what we've seen, it's
surprising how few trade professionals know
what's good and not good when it comes to nutrition for
dogs. We've found the folks
below to really know their
stuff when it comes to nutrition.
In El Dorado County, Bark Avenue in El Dorado Hills.
In Sacramento County, sBarkles in Folsom.
In Placer County, The Doggie Bag in Roseville.
To find out more about
how we can help you,
contact us today.
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