Training Your Puppy

When it comes to training your new puppy, one of the most important issues is puppy feeding. If you brought your puppy home from a breeder or kennel, it is always good to stick with the food that puppy was eating before you attempt to switch foods.

You should choose a dry food intended specifically for puppies. Try to avoid generic foods and those that sell for unusually low prices. Buy brand name puppy food because it is impossible to distinguish good dog food from poor dog food simply by looking at the ingredient list on the label. Many things that owners look for, such as high protein levels and extra vitamins, are as likely to be harmful than helpful. For example, overfeeding and over supplementation are factors contributing to hip dysplasia.   

You should present food to young puppies three times a day. If your puppy isn’t hungry that often, reduce the frequency. After ten or twelve weeks of age, try to feed twice a day and even adult dogs should have their food split into morning and evening feedings. When fed once a day dogs become overly hungry and are more likely to overeat at mealtime.

Once the food is put down, let your puppy eat as much as she wants in fifteen minutes and then pick up the food dish. Having food continually available encourages overeating, and chubby puppies are more likely to have hip dysplasia and weight problems later in life. Also, because free-fed puppies never get very hungry, they don’t enjoy their food unless given special treats. The combination of special treats and freely available food encourages them to become bored, overweight and picky.

Please, do not give your puppy people food. If you start with a balanced diet and add goodies from the table, you won’t have a balanced diet anymore, and your puppy will have more digestive trouble. Treats that are reasonably balanced, such as Milk Bone Biscuits are sufficient, but since they are not really all that great nutritionally, don’t let them become an important part of the diet. Canned puppy food is perfectly all right, but try feeding your new pet dry food because it is cheaper, easier to use, and better for the teeth.

A List Of Quality Dog Foods for Puppies:

* Artemis

* California Natural

* Canidae

 * Eagle Pack Holistic Selects

* EVO

* Fromm

* Innova

* Merrick

* Nature’s Variety

* Orijen

* Solid Gold

* Taste of the Wild

* Timberwolf Organics

* Wellness

Some More Words About Feeding and Puppy Training

Higher quality food may seem more expensive at first, but it evens out. The higher quality the food, the less fillers eaten (and therefore the less poop comes out the other end). Your dog eats more of a low-quality food to try to get the nutrition it needs, and most of the food just passes right on through. Also, higher-quality food will make your animals healthier, so you save money on vet bills in the long run.

Stay away from grocery stores brands. They are low-quality foods chalk full of fillers, preservatives, dyes, etc.. (Grocery store foods are those like Beneful, Old Roy, Alpo, Pedigree, etc.)

Beware “premium” dog foods. “Premium” does not always mean good nutritionally, and is not a nutritionally high quality food. Most of these foods have the same types of ingredients as grocery store foods, just a bit better quality of those not-so-good ingredients.  

Another thing to be wary of is that a lot of vets will recommend what they sell in their office. They get profit from the brands they keep on their shelves, that’s why they push it. Truth is, vet schools don’t focus a lot on nutrition. It’s not saying that a vet is a bad vet because he recommends those foods, a lot of vets just are told “this is good food”, so they pass the message along without proper nutrition knowledge. Also, some dog food brands (like Hills) support vet schools, so vets have heard of it from the time they start college, which makes them think it’s good as well.