Food
We feed our dogs primarily Pro Plan dog food. We do find that our dogs do absolutely amazing on this food and we get large healthy litters of puppies. Our dogs tend to be extremely healthy dogs that live long lives and thrive on this food. We get many comments about the muscling and coats on our dogs. We push our dogs in competition as well as every day life to get a lot of exercise and mental stimulation, so they need a food that can give them plenty of energy to work with. We get a ton of comments about how agile our dogs are, even the veterans. Many people do not believe how old some of our dogs are. A great deal of this is due to keeping them lean and exercised well throughout life, but some is also a credit to the food that we feed. We have not found a food that supports this lifestyle that is better than Pro Plan. We have tried multiple other foods through the years, but always come back to Pro Plan.
We also feed our dogs a variety of treats, snacks, and extras. This includes various organ meats from when we butcher, chicken, garden goodies (our dogs LOVE tomatoes and steal more than we get), as well as glucosamine supplements. We feed a variety of bones, rawhides, and chewies. All of this changes from week to week and we rarely do a specific brand.
For training treats we love kibble, Zuke's, Biljac, cheese, lunch meat, liver, jerkey, and Nature's Variety rolls. Anything new and exciting that is somewhat healthy will work for us. I will even feed different brands of dog food for treats. Some brands I would never feed full time, but am not against feeding for an occasional treat.
We choose to not feed our dogs raw or completely homemade diets. Many people do make dog food at home and do a wonderful job, but many people making a homemade diet take shortcuts and end up with health problems in their dogs due to these shortcuts. This is not a small task to undertake and is very time consuming to do well. It can be much cheaper than feeding a good processed food, just like it is for people, and can be a very good diet if done correctly.
We are constantly answering the question of how much food should I feed my dog. There are so many different things out there telling you how much to feed your dog, but they all assume the exact same metabolism, exercise, and lifestyle for every dog. That is like saying that every adult person out there to eat the exact same amount of food every day. It doesn’t work and it’s not fair to the dogs that are being over or under fed. We feed as much as each individual dog needs to maintain a healthy body weight. I have had a 25 pound dog eat a quarter of a cup of food a day and maintain a chubby weight on that amount of food. That amount of food may give the dog the calories it needs, but may not have enough nutrition for that dog. We started doing extra activities, also known as fat camp at our house, for these dogs so that they could get more food and a day but had to work for it. Examples of this are doing stairs or tricks to earn their food. We also increased walks, ball and disc time, and swimming. The amount extra I feed depends on the activity and how much energy they use. I have also had a 22 pound dog that could eat 6 to 8 cups of food a day and be too skinny most of the time. These dogs tend to get a little bacon grease or Dyne on their food to keep them at a good body weight. In general, we feed pro plan sport to our dogs, but that does not include all of the dogs who are too easy of keepers. Performance food can be way too high calorie for some of the dogs who have weight problems. So for those dogs we switch to a different diet so they get a little more kibble. That is not always the same diet all of the time or the same diet for each dog. Every dog is different, just like every person is different, and we find a fit that works best for them to try to keep them lean.
How we feed our dogs varies a lot. All of our dogs eat in a group setting with supervision. Some of our leaner dogs that slowly eat get their food in dishes or in piles so it is quick and easy to eat. Those that love to inhale their food get their food thrown on the stairs or outside in the grass. We also own multiple maze bowls and toys that help slow them down and make meal time take much longer. We also do this with the puppies so that eating takes a larger portion of their day and gives them some mental exercise as well.
We feed our dogs primarily Pro Plan dog food. We do find that our dogs do absolutely amazing on this food and we get large healthy litters of puppies. Our dogs tend to be extremely healthy dogs that live long lives and thrive on this food. We get many comments about the muscling and coats on our dogs. We push our dogs in competition as well as every day life to get a lot of exercise and mental stimulation, so they need a food that can give them plenty of energy to work with. We get a ton of comments about how agile our dogs are, even the veterans. Many people do not believe how old some of our dogs are. A great deal of this is due to keeping them lean and exercised well throughout life, but some is also a credit to the food that we feed. We have not found a food that supports this lifestyle that is better than Pro Plan. We have tried multiple other foods through the years, but always come back to Pro Plan.
We also feed our dogs a variety of treats, snacks, and extras. This includes various organ meats from when we butcher, chicken, garden goodies (our dogs LOVE tomatoes and steal more than we get), as well as glucosamine supplements. We feed a variety of bones, rawhides, and chewies. All of this changes from week to week and we rarely do a specific brand.
For training treats we love kibble, Zuke's, Biljac, cheese, lunch meat, liver, jerkey, and Nature's Variety rolls. Anything new and exciting that is somewhat healthy will work for us. I will even feed different brands of dog food for treats. Some brands I would never feed full time, but am not against feeding for an occasional treat.
We choose to not feed our dogs raw or completely homemade diets. Many people do make dog food at home and do a wonderful job, but many people making a homemade diet take shortcuts and end up with health problems in their dogs due to these shortcuts. This is not a small task to undertake and is very time consuming to do well. It can be much cheaper than feeding a good processed food, just like it is for people, and can be a very good diet if done correctly.
We are constantly answering the question of how much food should I feed my dog. There are so many different things out there telling you how much to feed your dog, but they all assume the exact same metabolism, exercise, and lifestyle for every dog. That is like saying that every adult person out there to eat the exact same amount of food every day. It doesn’t work and it’s not fair to the dogs that are being over or under fed. We feed as much as each individual dog needs to maintain a healthy body weight. I have had a 25 pound dog eat a quarter of a cup of food a day and maintain a chubby weight on that amount of food. That amount of food may give the dog the calories it needs, but may not have enough nutrition for that dog. We started doing extra activities, also known as fat camp at our house, for these dogs so that they could get more food and a day but had to work for it. Examples of this are doing stairs or tricks to earn their food. We also increased walks, ball and disc time, and swimming. The amount extra I feed depends on the activity and how much energy they use. I have also had a 22 pound dog that could eat 6 to 8 cups of food a day and be too skinny most of the time. These dogs tend to get a little bacon grease or Dyne on their food to keep them at a good body weight. In general, we feed pro plan sport to our dogs, but that does not include all of the dogs who are too easy of keepers. Performance food can be way too high calorie for some of the dogs who have weight problems. So for those dogs we switch to a different diet so they get a little more kibble. That is not always the same diet all of the time or the same diet for each dog. Every dog is different, just like every person is different, and we find a fit that works best for them to try to keep them lean.
How we feed our dogs varies a lot. All of our dogs eat in a group setting with supervision. Some of our leaner dogs that slowly eat get their food in dishes or in piles so it is quick and easy to eat. Those that love to inhale their food get their food thrown on the stairs or outside in the grass. We also own multiple maze bowls and toys that help slow them down and make meal time take much longer. We also do this with the puppies so that eating takes a larger portion of their day and gives them some mental exercise as well.
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