Take a hike, or just a walk, with your dog

How often do you walk your dog? I don't mean take him out on a leash to do his business, I mean really walk. Take a stroll down the street or hit the greenway or a park trail? If you're not walking your dog on a regular basis, you're missing a wonderful opportunity to spend what your dog considers quality time together, along with a chance to improve your bond and, if you walk your dog properly, encourage him to mind better all the time. Look at dogs left to their own devices, free roaming dogs in the country, for example. What do they do? They walk. Sometimes they round up a buddy or two and sometimes they go alone, but they will wander around checking out the territory, sniffing grass and generally quite happy with themselves.

How do you think they feel if you share that experience with them? They're delighted. If you make walking a regular activity, it will soon become the high point of their day and something they anxiously anticipate. They'll be happy and excited at the appearance of the leash or the mention of the word "walk." They may even encourage you to adopt a healthy habit by nagging you in canine ways. (Mine do.) Walking with a dog comes to me naturally. When I was small my mother used to take my brother and I and our chihuahua, Hobo, for hikes in the woods. Once I had a dog of my own, a terrier mix named Hershey, we spent much of our free time out roaming the woods and fields around the house. Even now, a pretty spring day calls me to the woods with whatever dogs I can trust to hang around (and sometimes a few Jack Russells I don't quite trust but take anyway). We drag in tired and dirty, house dogs needing baths and me ready for a shower and cool drink. But we don't restrict our walks to those woodland hikes we all love. Years ago I started walking my dogs every day and when I started Beagle's Bed & Breakfast, it was with the determination that dogs who were physically able would get to enjoy a walk while they stayed with me, weather permitting. Since dogs like to travel in packs, we have very few adjustments to make to take them in groups -- small dogs in one, big dogs in one; or fast and slow, however the group divides. If I have one who isn't good on a leash, she gets paired with the best behaved or smallest group and it all works out. Just like my own dogs, who are included in the pack walks, my guests look forward to the walks. They bark and whine with excitement before we start, bury their noses in tufts of grass, mark and do their business, perk their ears at the wanderings of my off-leash yard dogs who accompany us, and occasionally bark at a cat or passing vehicle. Then they go back to the kennel and sleep with a lot of energy expended. They also listen to me because they've had to on the walk. I'm the one holding the leash. Walking helps cement my place as pack leader in the kennel. I always wonder how many of those dogs who so enjoy their ramble down my dead end road and back don't get to experience that with their owners and feel bad for how much their owners may be missing. Starting my day with dog walks (before sunrise in the summer and mid morning in the winter) sets me up for a good day and I hate days when the wind is too bitter (single digit wind chill) or the rain too drenching for us, probably as badly as the dogs do. So, like Cesar, I encourage you to walk your dog. Not just a "business" outing, but a stroll at a pace you let your dog set -- a slow stroll or a fast workout, or a pace you set yourself to help an overweight dog shed some pounds or just insure that your dog gets the exercise he so desperately needs and wants. Key ingredients to walking are a good collar -- don't be afraid of a chain collar or even a prong collar if you have a dog who is difficult to control or whose collar easily slips over his head. Get a good nylon or leather leash in the 4-6 foot range. Retractable leashes are dangerous for you and your dog and I personally think they should be banned unless one of you has trouble maintaining a healthy pace. If your dog doesn't know how to walk on a leash, then like Cesar recommends, keep the leash short and teach them to walk behind you. Prong and chain collars are excellent for that. A quick pop of the leash reminds them to walk at your side. Do not allow your dog to choke himself with a collar of any kind. Use quick jerks to correct them. Don't attempt to engage in a tug of war. Keeping them at your side helps them learn to listen to you and makes it easier for you to correct them. Once they learn to walk, however, I let my dogs walk behind or in front, as long as they don't tug. Then just walk. If you cannot do it every day, then do it whenever you can, but the more often the better. I know everyone has a lot of demands on their time, but really, 20-30 minutes? If you can squeeze that in for your companion, you'll both benefit. Not only will you have a happier, healthier dog, you may also find yourself needing smaller clothes as the exercise isn't just good for your dog.

Too much of a good thing?

Years ago I saw a magnet I wished I had bought for my refrigerator. It had a picture of a dog on it and read something along the lines of: "I wish I were a dog. Then I could blame my owner because I'm fat."

Next to choosing your dog's food, how much you feed your dog is the next thing to consider. Some dogs are easy to manage. You can feed them and they will nibble at those bites all day and sometimes they won't even finish before time to feed them again. They're picky about treats. And while they may develop a begging habit at the table, with a bowl full of food you can be reasonably sure they aren't hungry. Some dogs always act hungry. They will eat every morsel in their bowls every time you feed them. They will beg for every scrap from your plates. They will gobble treats. They may convince you that they are starving, no matter what. The fact is, unless you mess up their internal works, dogs are a lot like babies. Little children will eat when hungry, pretty much eat whatever you feed them. So you make nutritious choices for them and when they are full they stop eating. It's an excellent way to eat. As you get older, however, you cultivate your own tastes. You learn to like sweets (think treats) and you learn to eat when you're anxious or bored or just because it's extra yummy. Your dog can do the same thing. Just like a human who develops too much fondness for treats or idle eating, a dog who develops those tendencies will be soon be overweight. And just like a human, they would be facing a series of health risks. The good news is, just like our dogs could blame us for being fat, because we control their diet it is easy to fix. They won't be raiding the refrigerator every night after dinner or sneaking around at night to eat a bag of chips.

Often we don't really worry about our dog's weight. He or she could be carrying an extra pound or two and it doesn't seem like a big deal. But depending on the size of your dog, that could be a huge percentage of his or her weight. It could be like you carrying an extra 10 or 20 pounds. What would be the impact on your health? I see a lot of fat dogs at the kennel. Some are only a little on the heavy side, some have bulges on their hips like a healthy quarterhorse, and some are prematurely aged by their extra weight -- unable to play or walk as they should. I also see the consequences of this weight gain in issues ranging from limited mobility to life-threatening illnesses. One little chihuahua I have kept for years has a treat addiction. She didn't eat a healthy food, was indulged by one of her owners in a barrage of unhealthy treats, and was very heavy and unable to play or enjoy a walk. For more than a year I tried to get them to cut back on treats and change her food from moist kibble to a healthy dry food. Nothing changed and last summer she showed up drinking an excessive amount of water, then it was pancreatitis and now she has full blown diabetes. She requires insulin shots twice a day. She has finally lost weight and enjoys playing when she comes, but the damage to her system isn't reversible at this point. I've also seen dogs lose weight. Take "T" who was an overweight young lab when she began coming. She wasn't too heavy to play or walk, but she seemed older than her true age just because of the weight. After continued nagging by me and the family vet, they put her one a weight managment formula and restricted her to the recommended amount. She's lost weight and looks fantastic. Another pup, "B", was only slightly heavy, but being a dachshund his owners knew he was at risk for spinal injury if he carried any extra weight. He went on what we call the "green bean diet" eating 2/3 of a cup of his normal kibble in the morning and 1/4 of a cup of green beans at night. Over time, he's lost the weight and grown fond of green beans, still requesting them by standing at the refrigerator at night until he's fed. Unfortunately, more people worry about getting their dog to eat, bribing them with canned food, gravies and diet changes, than how much their dog eats. Feeding your dog well is easy, buy a quality food (earlier blog for guidance) and follow the feeding guidelines for the weight your dog should be (not the weight he or she is now). Your dog will eat if hungry and otherwise, don't worry about it unless they show signs of being sick. Skipping meals is normal for dogs. Their metabolism is different from ours. Also keep in mind that treats aren't required to show your dog you love him or her. (More on treats later) It's like giving your kid a cookie instead of a hug. Find another healthier way to show affection. Don't love your dog with quantity of food, love them with quality and your time and they'll be around to return that love for a long time.

Feeding your dog

Probably the single most important thing you do for your dog, the thing that will affect her life in every meaningful way, is feed her. The kind and amount of food (quality and quantity) will do more than fill her up and provide nutrition, it will determine the quality and quantity of her life as well. Today, I'm focusing on quality. Most of us (in my generation at least) grew up with the big brands, Purina being chief among them because it was readily available. We could either afford to feed our dog Purina (along with whatever table scraps came our way) or we bought some other variety. Dogs weren't necessarily less of a family member, but their nutritional needs weren't considered. My first dog, Hershey, was a terrier mix of some sort whose mother was set out on our road and whose dad was my grandma's/uncle's dog (one of seven in the only litter she had because while we didn't neuter dogs, we did put her up when she was in heat... back in the dark ages that is). He lived on some off brand food, had a plate on the porch for scraps, occasionally enjoyed a roadkill rabbit or some dragged in deer parts, and would kill and eat a groundhog now and then. Beyond a rabies shot every four years, he received no veterinary care until I had him put to sleep due to kidney failure at 14 or 15 years of age. I held him while he went to sleep for the last time. Nowadays, he'd have been neutered, be seeing the vet every year and eating a totally different diet. When my lab drags in a deer part, rabbit or groundhog, I quickly snatch it and bag it for disposal. Don't want him to get worms or impacted intestines from deer hide. Table scraps, well, they tend to upset his digestive tract so they go to chickens instead. (Chickens will eat virtually anything). But my dog food isn't one of the ones you'll see stocked on your vet's shelf or advertised on television. While they were eating Purina Pro Plan a few years ago, an encounter with a dog food rating site sent me off in a totally new direction for not much more money. Why? Because over time I've learned that the extra I spend on dogfood saves me in vet costs. My long-term pal, Otis, was much like Hershey in that he was a mutt who could still enjoy a table scrap and was known to kill a groundhog in his day. Other than being neutered, he also didn't make frequent trips to the vet for every available vaccine and checkup. However, when he started aging I switched him to a Nutro formula for senior dogs. His ability to move improved and the bald spots he had developed regrew hair. He was almost 18 when he no longer wanted to walk a mile or two with me every morning after apparently suffering a stroke. We made that same trip to the vet and I held his head while we sat in the truck and said our goodbyes. At that point I became convinced that, at least in older dogs, nutrition was key. Now I've decided that much of the dog food our pets eat is like the drive through food we find so easy to feed ourselves. It's well marketed and convenient and we can live on it, at least for a while, but it isn't really good for us. Among the foods I see most often in the kennel are Purina, Old Roy, and Beneful, and I would not feed any of those to my pets. Read the labels and you'll see that corn is a key ingredient (ingredients are listed in order of how much is in the product). Yes, Old Roy may be as good as Purina at a fraction of the cost. But really, none of them are doing your pet justice. Not only that, but when I see a pet with skin problems, even if I sent them to their vet for a diagnosis, often the problem comes back as a food allergy to, you guessed it, corn. Visit a rating site, and you'll be ready to toss your dog's food and go in search of a healthier alternative. There are a number of ways to find out how your dog's food stacks up. If you want to run the numbers yourself, visit Rate Your Dog Food a site where you look at the ingredients in your dog's food and use a point system to determine how well you're feeding your pet. I was lazier and let someone else do the work for me. I went to Dog Food Advisor and looked up the foods I was feeding my pets. That site has already used a formula, which is explained, to evaluate the quality of proteins and other ingredients in food. Foods are then assigned a star rating from one to five. I found out that despite what I was spending to keep my JRT's tummy happy, the Purina formula only had two stars. I decided to look around at the general foods I see a lot. Beneful, which dogs seem to enjoy and which, due to its colors, looks so good, was one star. Ol' Roy, also one star. The same for Purina Dog Chow, Fit and Trim and Puppy formulas; Purina One and Purina ProPlan earn two stars. Think you're doing better with food from the vet? Think again. Most Hill's Science Diet formulas are two stars although the natural formula gets three; Eukanuba never gets higher than 2.5, even with its natural formula. Intead, I went to the four and five star categories and looked up foods I knew were readily available at Tractor Supply or PetSense, where I typically buy dog food. I made a list of those foods and went comparison shopping based on price. I found that for a few cents more on the pound, I could take my most spoiled companions from two to four stars and even my outdoor dogs moved into a four-star category. My big dogs now eat Diamond Naturals Chicken and Rice or Lamb and Rice (whichever I happen to find cheaper as they don't seem to care). The Beagle (Abi) and friends are on Taste of the Wild (Abi has a lot of allergies) and are able to switch formulas (flavors) without any apprent distress as all use atypical proteins. Abi's recurring stomach distress is a thing of the past although she does battle seasonal allergies that make her skin itch. I went a bit cheaper recently with 4Health, which is also four star, but she's developed the same itching she typically has with fall pollen, so we've gone back to Taste of the Wild to see if some formula variation may be causing it. I'm also adding a tablespoon of olive oil to their food at night to help combat dry winter air with extra healthy fat (a trick I picked up from frequently vetted poodles with dry skin who stayed with me). If I have anyone in who asks about skin issues or any other problems their dog is having, my first question is "What do you feed them?" Typically a low rated food is the answer and I recommend a switch. Equally importan, but something I'll save for later, is quantity. For now, read the recommended amount for the size your dog SHOULD be and feed that amount. Do not worry if every bite isn't eaten because dogs have better sense than we do. They will eat when hungry. Also, limit treats and look at the ingredients and where they are made. DO NOT BUY TREATS MADE IN CHINA. THEY MAY KILL YOUR PET.(More on treats later as well.) If you love your pet (and I'm betting you do), then take a few minutes to rate your dog's food and decide what you really can afford to keep them healthy. It can make all the difference in the world.