The Benefits Of A Healthy,
Well Balanced & Nutritious Dog Food Diet

A wholesome well balanced dog food diet promotes: Healthy skin and coat, strong well developed bones, bright clear eyes, firmer stools (and less of them), well defined muscle tone, quality of life and longevity, healthy teeth and gums, fewer trips to your Vet, no bad odor, fewer digestive problems, energy, vitality, fewer behavior problems and over-all health.

How Does A Poor Diet Affect Your Dog?

A poor diet leads to an increase in: Cancers, weakened immune system, liver failure, sluggish behavior or hyperactive, putrid gas, diarrea, dull coat and heavy shedding, epilepsy, vomiting, ear infections, compromised heart and kidneys, stunted growth and weakened bones, bad breath, bowel disease, diabetes, cystitis, cataracts, hypertension, build up in the eyes, arthritis, countless allergies and who knows what else...

What Are The Choices - What Should We Feed Our Dogs?

In my search to find the best dog food available I have narrowed our options down to three broad groups. I've listed them here with a brief explanation and expand on all three further down this page.

1. Commercial Dog Food: This includes the packaged foods you find at your local supermarket, pet store or veterinarian. Commercial dog food is available in dry, semi dry and wet (canned). All the big names that we know so well are represented in this group, such as Diamond dog food, Pedigree, Iams and Science Diet. Is the best dog food located in this group? Not likely.

2. Raw Dog Food: This is the group growing in popularity. It includes the raw dog food and bones you prepare yourself or pre-packaged diets like BARF and Steve's Real Food 100% natural dog food diet.

3. Homemade Dog Food: Anything you put together yourself at home. Is following good dog food recipes the best choice for our dogs?

Deciding on the type of dog food you provide is one of the most important decisions you will ever make for your puppy or older dog. Dog food nutrition directly influences every aspect of your dog's life. Things like how puppies grow, their behavior habits, health, overall wellbeing and appearance are all closely connected to the nutrition we provide - it's a big responsibility.

With all the recent publicity and concern with the dog food recall of 2007 the spotlight has been aimed fairly and squarely at the big commercial dog food companies. Us dog lovers are finally becoming more aware and educated about providing wholesome, nutritionally balanced meals for our dogs. So where do we start in our search to find the best dog food? What are our options, and who can we trust or even believe?

Is "Premium Dog Food" the answer we've been searching for or "Natural Dog Food" or how about "Healthy Dog Food"? Maybe the best dog foods are "Holistic", "Organic" or even "Lite"? And then there's "Human Grade All Natural" - does anyone actually know what all these fancy terms mean? And what about "Raw Dog Food"? Is it what our dogs require, or is it dangerous? How about "Raw Meaty Bones"? Are bones safe? Maybe we have to prepare all of our dog's meals from scratch to ensure its quality and nutritional value?

Choosing the best dog food can be an overwhelming decision - but why does it have to be so hard? I know from personal experience it can be difficult to see through all of the conflicting views, hype, marketing tactics and secrecy surrounding the dog food industry. After years of experimenting with different dog foods and lots of research I have reached an unfortunate conclusion. I feel that the vast majority of the big commercial dog food companies are far more focussed on extracting the money from our pockets rather than the health and wellbeing of our precious dogs.

So when I set out to determine the best dog food available my main focus was always the health, vitality and longevity of my dogs - I want my dogs to thrive. I hope this article will help you to determine the very best dog food for your dogs and make your feeding decision clearer.