What is your dog woofing down?

I got a call this morning from a friend wanting to know if I had any suggestions on dog food for her dog. Oh boy, does I!

Like everyone else, I used to buy middle-o-the-road dog food. I have three dogs to feed, and that seemed pretty dern good. However, the more I came across "dogs with issues," and the more research I did, the more I learned how what our dogs eat does effect their affect.

Some dogs react to the preservative Ethoxyquin. What evidence most experts, and I have, seem to be anecdotal. I changed my dog food to an all-natural dog food and two of my dogs skin allergies stopped. I thought my Golden's chewing and scratching was a dry skin thing--with the new food she's finally at peace.

There is one dog food study I know of, where Dr. Nicholas Dodman ran on an all-natural dog food, with the added twist of protein levels. It's been a known fact in the dog training community that high protein diets can cause aggression in dogs. So if your dog is aggressive, the trainer suggests you switch them to a low protein alternative.

Dr. Dodman, being the scientist he is, decided he wanted proof to see if this worked. In his study he had dogs who were aggressive and territorially aggressive. Half of each group was blindly given either the regular 23% protein or lower 18% protein.

Across the board the territorially aggressive dogs showed so much improvement Dr. Dodman wanted to stamp, "cured" on them. However, if their rations were changed back to a high-protein diet--their aggression returned. There were a number of aggressive dogs who responded positively to the low-protein diet as well.

***My friend let me know that within a day of changing the dog food to the natural brand I suggested that the gas issues her dog was having had changed. I also suggested the low-protein version since her dog has aggressive tendencies. The response was immediate on the change in gas. Her dog no longer has explosive digestive issues. I'm still waiting to hear back on the aggressive front.

As a side note: If you purchase your dog food from Pets Mart: Keep your receipt. If your dog doesn't like the food or it doesn't have the effect you'd hoped for, Pets Mart will take back the unused portion.

*I am not a vet and before changing your dog's diet you should consult your dog's vet