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Favorite Dog Food – High Quality, Human Grade, and Convenient

Do you worry if you’re feeding your dog a good diet?

The more I know about dogs and nutrition, the more I worry about what I’m feeding my dogs. I want to do the best I can with their nutrition for several reasons.

  • I want my dogs to live as long as possible.
  • I want my dogs to be healthy and happy — I know nutrition is the foundation for a good, long life.
  • I don’t want my dogs eating by-products, fillers, GMO grains, or preservatives.
  • I eat well — I think  my dogs should, too!

I’ve been fooling around with different food choices for my dogs for the past few years.

I tried our oldest Labrador, Lily, on a raw diet, but found it inconvenient when we were traveling, it was messy, and it was quite expensive. I’ve had Tango on a veterinary food for his arthritis, but I didn’t love the ingredients (by products, grains). And Nemo’s been on kibble his entire life.

To be honest, feeding each dog a different food was getting exhausting, not to mention that our pantry was taken over by bags of dog food. Leaaving the pet sitter with all the different foods and instructions wasn’t any fun either and was more complicated than I felt necessary.

Enter The Honest Kitchen (THK).

I’d run into them at a conference trade show a few years ago. I got to know them and their product. I read up on who they were and how they made their food. After about six months of data collection, I decided to make a test-feeding to see if (1) I liked feeding it to the dogs (2) if I was satisfied by the quality, and naturally (3) if my dogs liked it.

I’ve been blown away by the The Honest Kitchen and their products.

I’m a picky feeder. I have high standards. When a company is pickier than me, well, I take notice. THK is pickier. A lot pickier.

They sent a sample 2-pound box of their food Force, a chicken based dehydrated food product.

I fed Tango and Lily Force and they loved it.

Honest Kitchen, dog food, dehydrated dog food, dog training, Smart Dog, dog obedience, dog nutrition, dog food

What do I love about it?

  • No grains
  • All natural
  • No fillers
  • No preservatives
  • No GMO ingredients
  • FREE RANGE chicken (!)
  • FDA certified that the ingredients are human grade and the processing and packaging are human grade
  • Easy to feed — just mix with water!
  • Convenient
  • Healthy

THK doesn’t just make good, high-quality dog food. They live it.

Honest Kitchen, dog food, dog training, dog obedience, dog nutrition, Smart Dog

I can’t decide what I like more, that they make excellent food or that they care so much about pet nutrition. I mean, I think I’d buy from any company that produced a high-quality, all natural food, but THK does that one better because healthy pets are the core of who they are and it’s why they do what they do. I identify with that passion because it’s that same passion that pushed me to start Smart Dog University.

They have a nice cookbook with recipes that you and your dog can share, as well as recipes just for your dog. I’ve been working my way through the cookbook and will be bringing you some videos and recipes from their creation in future blog posts.

Click here to get your own sample pack (for dogs or cats, your choice) for just $1 from THK.

Honest Kitchen, dog food, dehydrated dog food, cooked dog food, dog training, dog obedience, dog class, Smart Dog, Frederick, clicker

Talk back!

What is your dog’s favorite real food treat?

Tango loves apples, tomatoes, and cukes, for instance. Leave a comment below and tell me what your dog loves!

At 5p (EDT) on June 6, 2014, I’ll randomly select a commenter to receive a free 2-pound box of THK Force food! All you have to do is leave a comment!

Only U.S. residents are eligible to enter due to shipping restrictions. THK sent me a free sample box to try, along with the cookbook, and information about their product. I wasn’t otherwise compensated to write this post and the opinions expressed are my own. I will always report honest opinions on products I use and love regardless of compensation (or more likely, LACK of compensation)!

Dog Training 101 – You Need to Know This

Everyone wants a dog that listens…the first time.

A dog that’s well behaved; a dog that has manners. We’re starting a new series that will help you have that dog. It’s not complicated stuff, there’s no special collars or leashes. All you need is you, your dog, and some really good food. This month we’re kicking off a series of articles that starts at the basics and takes you through to the advanced stuff.

Stick with us and by the end of our series, you’ll not only understand your dog, you’ll be able to teach him whatever you’d like!

We’re starting this ride at the beginning, of course.

What is dog training really?

It’s taking the laws of behavior and using them on your dog.

What are the laws of behavior, you wonder?

Behavior that is reinforced will be repeated.

What does that mean? If you do something that works, you’ll probably do it again.

In real life: if you find a shortcut to work that helps you avoid traffic, you’re likely to use that route more often.

In dog training: if you reinforce your dog for sitting, he’s likely to sit more often (and therefore jump on you less).

Behavior that isn’t reinforced will go away.

What does that mean? If you do something that doesn’t work, you probably won’t do it again.

In real life: if you try a shortcut to work and it doesn’t save you any time, you’ll give up on the shortcut.

In dog training: If your dog noses you for attention and you keep on doing what you’re doing, your dog will stop begging for attention.

Why should you care about how behavior works?

Dog training is all about behavior and how it works. Understand this and you’ll be able to teach your dog just about anything, solve lots of common nuisance behaviors, and get along much better with your four-legged friend.

Vocabulary

It’s helpful to know some of the vocabulary you’ll be seeing here over the next several months. Here’s your glossary, of sorts. Behavior: Something your dog does. Lying down, barking, coming when called, retrieving, growling…all of these are behaviors. Cue: The “trigger” that gets the dog to do the behavior. Maybe you say “Sit” when you want your dog’s rump to hit the floor. Or maybe your dog barks when he hears the doorbell. No matter the situation, the cue is the reason the behavior starts. Consequence: What happens after the behavior, often a result of the behavior. For instance, the dog jumps on you (behavior) and you push him off (consequence). Reinforcement: A type of consequence that leads to the behavior happening more often. For instance, if I find $500 in my mailbox every time I open it, you can bet I’ll be opening my mailbox frequently! Punishment: A type of consequence that leads to a decrease in the frequency of behavior. Extinction: The absence of a consequence that leads to the elimination of a behavior. It’s imperative to understand that it’s the behavior that bears the consequence, not the dog. What’s the difference? The difference may seem slight in the beginning, but has a massive impact on how effective your dog training will be. Here’s a short and helpful example of the difference: Punishing the dog. Your dog poops on the floor while you’re out. When you come home, you raise your voice to the dog, point to the pile, tell him how bad he’s been, and then put him in his crate. Punishing the behavior. Your dog poops while you’re in the living room with him. As he’s mid-poop, you clap your hands together, yell “no!,” and put the dog in his crate while you clean up the mess.

This is the first “wrong turn” many dog owners make.

The difference is that you’re not happy or mad at the dog. You simply want to encourage or discourage your dog to repeat the behavior. Good trainers remain neutral even if their dog’s behavior is disappointing or maddening. In our next installment, we’ll get into the nitty gritty of reinforcement and punishment, easy ways to reinforce the behaviors you like, and force-free ways to get rid of the behavior you don’t like.

By the end of our series, you’ll have an arsenal of tools and knowledge you can use to get a well-behaved, polite dog everyone’s happy to meet.

Talk back: What do you want to learn about dog training and dog behavior in our series?

Photo courtesy of Andrea Arden (Flickr). Creative Commons License. Minor modifications done in Snapseed.

Force Free Training: Is It For Real?

Force Free Training – What Is It?

Force free training is the latest buzzword in the dog training field now. Ask someone if they use positive methods and they’ll say yes whether they really do or not. They know dog owners are looking for positive training techniques, so they simply say they use them.

Force free training is teaching an animal without pain, intimidation, threats, force, or coercion. It’s done without corrections, without collars (including those “vibrating” collars used to “get your dog’s attention), and without pain.

If you’re going to talk the talk, you’ve got to be able to walk the walk.

The animal trainers at Busch Gardens are truly force free trainers. We were given a behind-the-scenes trainer’s tour as part of our Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training & Behavior faculty meeting. We got a first hand look at the keepers, the animals, and watched training sessions in progress.

If a trainer says they’re force free, ask them to take all the equipment off the dog (except a leash on a flat-buckle collar, for safety) and ask the dog to work with them. Does the dog work? Does he look happy? Does the dog leave?

That’s the true test — allow the dog the choice of working and then see what choice the animal makes. Trust the dog!

Here’s a Hornbill we had the pleasure of working with at Busch Gardens. Look at this guy, he’s impressive!

Not only is he massive and neat to look at, but look at how well he works with us (total strangers)! He’s eager, relaxed, and always has the choice of refusing to work.

He can actually fly away if he chooses. He can graze the bushes if he wants. He definitely doesn’t have to do anything his trainer asks.

He chooses to do it.

Look at how long he works with us, flying from arm to arm (I’m in the tank top, the third person he flies to), all for just one tiny bit of a reinforcer!

If we can teach birds (who can fly away if they choose) to work cooperatively with us, we certainly don’t need corrections, special collars or tactics to work with our dogs.

Don’t trust that a trainer is force free. Ensure that they are force free.

Ask questions about what kind of equipment you’ll be required to use (walk away if there’s a specific collar you must use such as a slip lead, prong collar, e-collar, etc.). Find out what happens if your dog doesn’t want to work — what will the trainer do to get your dog to listen (walk away if the trainer says “that won’t happen,” “we’ll teach him that he needs to pay attention, etc.).

Your dog can’t choose his trainer, but you can.

Make sure you do your homework, interview your trainer, be ready to ask lots of questions and, above all, be ready to walk away whenever you think your dog isn’t enjoying the training.

 

Don’t Make These Three Common Dog-Owner Mistakes

Surely you won’t recognize yourself in these, but maybe you can use this article to educate your neighbor or friend who could use a little help.

Many dog owners don’t realize they’re doing anything wrong or even that there are unspoken rules in the dog community. This article aims to fix that by exposing the things that drive most of us dog people batty. Let’s just rip the Band-Aid® off quickly and get right to the mistakes.

Using a Flexi-leash

Unless you’re in an empty area at least the size of a football field, use a 6’ leash on your dog! The most flagrant offense is often seen at close-in spaces like a veterinary office or a downtown area. Your dog doesn’t ever need to be more than 6’ away from you in public. When I take the service dog in-training out with me, he’s usually on a 3’ leash. I don’t want him more than 3’ away from me. If he’s within 3’, I can reinforce him for acceptable behavior and I can prevent him from engaging in inappropriate behavior. More is not better. More than six feet of leash is not a good thing. Having your dog on a Flexi gives him too much access to other dogs and to people. The farther your dog is from you, harder it is for you to watch what he’s getting into, who he’s visiting, and what behavior he’s exhibiting. Flexi leashes are dangerous to you, the dog, and other people (and dogs) in public. According to a 2009 Consumer Reports article, over 16,564 people were injured in 2007. Injuries included amputation, blindness, burns, and cuts. Dogs have been killed while on a Flexi because they were able to dart into traffic even while their owner was safely on the sidewalk.

Leaving Poop

The Poop Fairy does not exist! If your dog poops anywhere other than on your property, pick it up! Period. There isn’t really any way to defend the act of leaving your dog’s poop behind. You don’t have to buy expensive poop bags, just recycle the plastic sleeve in which your newspaper is delivered. These plastic sleeves are better than commercial poop bags in my opinion – and they’re free! Plus you’re recycling that plastic for a second use. Dog poop isn’t just dirty and stinky. No one wants it on the bottom of their shoe (or on their dog’s paws). In addition to the smell factor, there’s a gross factor: dog poop carries germs. Lots of germs. According to a report from Greenville County, SC, dog poop has 23 million E. coli bacteria per gram. An average dog generates 276 pounds of waste each year. That’s a lot E. coli created each year by a single dog. When you don’t scoop your dog’s poop, that E. coli lives for several years. The poop may wash away, but bacteria remains on the ground and can make dogs and children sick. And when un-scooped dog poop is washed away, it ends up in storm drains or enters waterways directly.

Unleashed Dog

Leashes are important. In many communities, leashes are required equipment when out with your dog. Unless your dog has 100% recall (and none do), your dog is not only a danger to others, but is in danger. Hit by car. More than 1,000,000 dogs are hit by cars every year. A million dogs a year. If your dog is not on a leash while out in public, he’s in danger of being hit by a car.

Lost dog.

More than 10,000,000 pets are lost every year. A dog on a leash (with you at the other end) simply cannot get lost. This isn’t hard: keep your dog on a leash no matter what.

Unwanted advances.

Many people are scared of dogs. They were bitten in the past or they have never been exposed to dogs, or they think dogs are dangerous. Whatever the reason, some people don’t want to meet your dog, no matter how friendly he is.

Reactive and aggressive dogs.

Not every dog is as friendly as yours. If your dog is off-leash and encounters an aggressive dog that is leashed (good, responsible owner!), your dog could be seriously injured or even killed. Don’t set your dog up for that kind of trauma – keep your dog leashed! For those of us with reactive dogs, having an off-leash dog run up on us is dangerous as well as infuriating. Having been subjected to the standard “It’s ok, he’s friendly” shout across the field as someone’s dog is barreling toward me and my reactive dog, I can tell you with certainty that those words are not soothing. The look of panic and terror when I yell back “Yeah, but my dog’s not!” never fails to surprise me. Protect your dog – keep him leashed!

Chasing livestock and wildlife.

Off-leash dogs can wreak havoc on local wildlife by chasing them, destroying habitats, killing livestock, etc. In some communities, it’s legal (and frequently practiced) to shoot any dog harassing livestock. Do you really want to let your dog get into that kind of trouble just to “run free” for a few minutes? The “fun” isn’t worth the risk to your dog’s life. Hopefully, you can use this article to help educate others. Take several copies to your local veterinary office and leave them lying around for others to read. Stick the article in your neighbors’ mailboxes so everyone knows just how icky dog poop is when it’s left behind. And leave a few copies on the windshield of cars at the local dog park to help them understand that letting their dog off-leash anywhere but the dog park is like flirting with disaster.

Talk back.

What mistakes do you see dog owners make? Leave a comment and let us know!

Dogs of San Juan

Dogs are everywhere.

I spent last week at an animal behavior conference called Five Go to Sea. It was an interactive learning experience on the cruise ship Celebrity Reflection. As part of the cruise experience, shore excursions were offered at each port.

Our shore excursion in San Juan brought me to this lovely lady.

I can’t pronounce her name, nor can I spell it, but she made my day. I fiercely missed my dogs, as I do anytime I’m away from them more than a day. Usually, when I’m traveling, I have the opportunity to see other dogs. On a cruise ship, though, my options were severely limited. I was thrilled to put my hands on a dog!

She was one of three “ranch dogs,” but was by far the one most interested in human contact.

It struck me how different my dogs’ lives are from this dog’s life. It appeared that she received very little veterinary care (dull coat, dirty ears) and ate only enough food to keep her moving. Her eyes were a little goopy, but overall she seemed free of major heath issues. There was nary a collar or leash anywhere on any of the dogs.

I felt a pang of sympathy for her.

Where did she sleep? Probably in the barn with the horses. Not in a bed? With a human? What kind of life was that, I pondered. Did anyone pay her any attention at all, or did she merely exist?

We took off on our trail ride and she followed us, step for step.

She hunted for iguana. She flew over the streams, not getting a toe wet — her strong legs carrying her over the stream. She’d occasionally get ahead of us and wait, tongue hanging out, flopped in a beautiful green meadow under the shade of a beautiful, tall tree with fat orange flowers.

We rode well over an hour, through groves of trees, crossing streams, up rocky hills, through neighborhoods with livestock and other dogs and she never strayed far from our group.

What a life!

While our dogs back home get top-notch veterinary care, the best food money can buy, supplements to help their joints and coat, even acupuncture, these ranch dogs, too, lived quite a life. Their coats weren’t nearly as healthy, their ears and teeth could definitely use cleanings, and their skin issues caused them to scratch a lot, they had something going for them despite that. They may not live lives as long as our dogs back here in the U.S., but they did live full lives.

Different lives, for sure.

These are outside dogs. Dogs who live amongst humans, not with them. They were free to come and go, wander the farm, laze around when they got old, accept pats from visiting riders.

They didn’t seek out attention from people, and one of the dogs never acknowledged people at all. It was an interesting study in the different lives dogs live.

I don’t think one life is better than the other. I think they’re just different.

I felt sympathy for the dogs when I arrived at the ranch, but after I saw their life and how different it was, by the time I left the sympathy had turned to curiosity and then to acceptance. No dog has an ideal life. Kinda like us people, when you think about it.

Learn to Ease Your Dog’s Fears and Anxiety

A scared or anxious dog can’t learn.

Just like people, dogs have trouble learning new things if they’re too scared. For mild anxiety, there are a few over the counter remedies available that are relatively inexpensive and don’t carry many risks or side effects.

Through A Dog’s Ear

Through a Dog’s Ear: Music to Calm Your Canine Companion (TADE) contains classical music composed specifically to help your dog. From TADE website: “The over-arching psychoacoustic theory informing Through a Dog’s Ear is summed up in just two words — simple sound. The music of Dog’s Ear is intentionally selected, arranged and recorded to provide easeful auditory assimilation.”

I use TADE when I’m teaching puppies and dogs to relax comfortably in their crate, when I’m driving with a nervous canine traveler, and sometimes when I need a break from the incessant radio — it’s pleasing for humans to listen to, as well!

Thundershirt

If you’ve heard of swaddling a baby to help calm them down, then you’re familiar with the concept of a Thundershirt. The gentle, constant pressure has a calming effect on 80% of respondents to Thundershirt’s customer survey. Dogs with mild anxiety due to thunderstorm phobia, separation distress, or over-stimulation tend to do well with a Thundershirt. Dogs can wear the Thundershirt to help them through specific stressful events or for longer periods of time. The Thundershirt is machine washable, which is a nice bonus.

Dog Appeasing Pheromone – Adaptil

Adaptil is a product that has been developed to help support dogs through a range of challenging situations that they may face during their life. Some of these challenges include fireworks, puppies first few weeks in a new home, training classes, car rides, stays away from the home (kennels, friends etc) , and many more.

There are different ways to use Adaptil: a spray that can be applied to a bandana and worn around the dogs neck, a collar that’s worn continuously, or a room diffuser that can be plugged into an electrical outlet and continuously emits the dog appeasing pheromone throughout the room.

An important point.

For severe anxiety or fear, a veterinary behaviorist is required as part of a treatment plan, but these three relatively inexpensive products may help your dog cope with  mild stress-inducing events. Sometimes a combination of these products produces a stronger effect than any one of them alone. I keep all three on hand for the new service puppies in training that come through our home.

Talk back.

Have you used any of the products listed? Share your success stories by leaving a comment.

Note: This post is not sponsored by any of the companies listed. I didn’t receive any free products or compensation, nor was I asked to write the post. These are products I’ve found helpful and that I actually use in my household with my own dogs. The links contained in the article are affiliate links. The pennies I earn when you purchase a product through the link go directly to the costs associated with making and producing the videos, and to website hosting and design fees.

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