Nutrition Excerpt from "The Good Behavior Book for Dogs" by Colleen Paige

Focus on providing food and treats made with whole grains and no chemical preservatives.

Let’s think, for a moment, about building a house. To ensure your structure will withstand the stresses it will be subjected to, you must start with a strong foundation. This foundation is similar to your dog’s overall health and wellness. A deficient nutritional foundation subjects your dog’s behavior and physical health to failure and sabotages opportunities for him to learn and subsequently behave like a well-mannered pooch. Fortunately, fixing nutritional issues is easy, because when it comes down to it, dogs simply enjoy food—of any kind. They will beg for it, steal it, hide it, and even bury it.

Although a whole, organic, handmade doggie diet tops every canine’s wish list, creating homemade dog dinners may not be realistic for today’s busy families. Putting three hours a day into grinding chicken necks and sautéing beef might be entertaining for some people, but many of us are just too busy to spend that much time in the kitchen for Fido. This leaves him facing the usual bowl of dry commercial kibble day in and day out, rather than the meaty dinner he had hoped for. It’s not hard to understand why he doesn’t leap for joy at every meal. (Would you?) Ever optimistic, poor Fido can only hope that another day will bring a more diverse menu. And so it should.

Not only can a boring menu give your dog the blues, but poor-quality dog food can be the sole cause of behavior problems. It’s as imperative to nourish our dogs with high-quality nutritionally dense foods as it is to provide our brains and bodies with a healthy diet. Consider the behavior of a child who eats processed sugar all day long. Most likely, this child would have poor health and severe attention-span issues, especially when it comes to learning. We can talk to children and help them make the right choices. Your dog depends on you to make the choices for him.

How can you save time in the kitchen and still make your dog happy? If you can afford it, buy high-quality, all-natural dog food, which can be found at pet stores or online, and mix it with ingredients such as good-quality wet dog food, mashed pumpkin, sweet potato, yogurt, green beans, carrots, peas, avocado, ground turkey, organic chicken stock, or boiled giblets. If you can’t find all-natural dog food, buy the best-quality commercial brand from your local supermarket. Each night, add something new to it, and keep a food diary noting how much your dog ate during that meal, to help you remember which foods he seemed to like the most. You should also monitor bowel movements after each new food is introduced, to make sure it is agreeable with your dog’s tummy.

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