Animal Fats & Carbohydrates For Dogs

Animal Fats: While most animal fats contain just as many calories as vegetable oils, only two contain essential fatty acids in amounts sufficient to supply a dog's needs. These are the fat of the pig, commonly called lard, and horse fat. The tallow of beef and mutton should never be used as the sole source of energy for a dog because of their low content of essential fatty acids. Animal fats contain about 126 calories in every tablespoonful.

Cereal grains: One of the major sources of carbohydrates, both for dogs and man, is the cereal grains. The useful carbohydrate in these grains is predominantly starch. Starch can also be purchased in pure form, and contains about 29 calories per tablespoon, or about 464 calories per cup. Other sources of carbohydrate energy from cereal grains can be obtained from dry and cooked breakfast cereals, boiled rice, hominy grits, corn meal, and in the milled form, such as flour. Cereal grain products should never constitute more than about 50 percent of the dry matter of a dog's diet.

Potatoes: Except for the fact that potatoes have more water in them, the amount of carbohydrates in potatoes is almost the same as in the cereal grains. Potatoes can be used interchangeably with those cereals that are fed in the boiled state. Like cereals, potatoes should never constitute more than 50 percent of the dry matter of the diet.

Bread: As a source of carbohydrates in a diet, white or whole wheat bread ranks among the better ''natural'' foods available to a dog feeder. It usually is fortified with vitamins and minerals, is palatable to most dogs, and is always available and inexpensive. Some dog owners who feed their pets natural ingredients insist that bread should be toasted before being fed to a dog. While such a practice makes the slices easier to crumble and mix with the rest of the diet, the starches in bread have already been subjected to cooking and about all toasting does is to enhance the texture of the bread.

Specialty flour products: A carbohydrate source frequently overlooked by a dog owner is the specialty product made from flour noodles, macaroni, and spaghetti. These have an energy content comparable to other cereal grain products. And, like rice and hot cereals, they have the advantage of being able to be added dry to a food, then being cooked after the water has been added. This gives the capability of mixing a large amount of dry food at one time, then adding water and cooking small amounts as it is needed.

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6 Steps To Grooming a Wavy or Curly-Coated Sporting Breed

Grooming a dog with a curly or a wavy coat is not as simple as grooming one that has a short and smooth coat. For example, take the the “water breeds”. They are sporting dogs with extremely harsh curly coats. Because these dogs typically spend a lot of time out in the field, retrieving items from water, flushing upland game, and serving as all-purpose hunting companions, their coats should be kept short and neat. If not then their long and straggly curls will latch onto every stray; twigs, burr, pieces of debris, etc.

If your wavy or curly-coated dog is to be shown then their coats should be scissored into a neat shape, and this precise method of scissoring the curly coat takes a lot of time and work. Owners who keep curly-coated sporting breeds for hunting and as pets are much more likely to clip them down with an electric clipper to a length of about 2 inches (with the exception of the Curly-coated Retriever, whose coat is short enough that it doesn't require clipping).

The following are six steps to groom your wavy or curly-coated sporting breed:

1. Before bathing your dog, brush out the entire coat with a pin brush and/or a slicker brush to remove as much dead coat as possible. This will also help eliminate tangle. Remove mats with a mat comb or coat rake, or cut through them with scissors.
2. Next, run a comb through the entire coat to make sure you have removed every tangle. This step may take some time because you do not want to comb too fast and yank out any hair from the skin.
3. Scissor the leg hair evenly, removing excess hair.
4. Cut hair from under the foot and between the foot pads. The foot should look rounded and should blend in with the leg hair, appearing like a powder puff over the foot.
5. Clip down torso to 2 inches, or scissor off fuzz and shape by scissoring the sides to tidy up. Shape the sides and rear to best match the shape of the breed. An imperfect form can be slightly adjusted by the shape in which you trim the curly coat. Make sure to take off just a little at a time, periodically standing back to check the shape of the dog. It is also good to have a picture of a well-groomed specimen of your breeds in order to have a better idea of the proper way of trimming.
6. After the bath, do not blow-dry or brush the body coat. Let the curls or waves air-dry naturally in order for them to stay intact.

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8 Guidelines For Feeding Your Adult Dalmatian

Here are some feeding guidelines researches have learned over the years and recommend for adult Dalmatians:

1. Never feed a Dalmatian organ meats such as liver, kidney, sweetbreads or brains in any form, whether cooked, raw or as an ingredient in a pet food or snack.
2. Never feed a Dalmatian game meat such as venison or elk in any form, cooked, whether raw or as an ingredient in a pet food or snack.
3. Never feed a Dalmatian red meat, cooked or raw, or as an ingredient in a snack or in a pet food where it appears as one of the first three ingredients listed on the label.
4. Never feed poultry cooked or raw, or as an ingredient in a snack or in a pet food where it appears as one of the first two ingredients listed on the label.
5. Feed them plenty of fruits, vegetables and grains as snacks, except those known to be high in purine yields such as mushrooms, asparagus, legumes, oatmeal, spinach and cauliflower.
6. Feed adult Dalmatians dog foods such as corn, wheat and rice, (in that order) whose protein and fat content are moderate: about 22% protein from low purine sources and no more than 10% fat.
7. Fresh, clean water must be available at all times.
8. Divide the dog's total daily ration into two meals so that blood levels of uric acid will remain fairly stable. Soak meals in warm water to improve water consumption.
   

Dalmatians are only one of about 140 recognized AKC breeds. Because they have different dietary requirements than all the other breeds, it is understandable that the ingredients in most premium pet foods are not aimed specifically at keeping Dalmatians fit. What new Dalmatian owners do not know is that pet food representatives do such a good job at marketing their products to various pet food outlets, that the store salespeople often become excited for certain brands, which may very well be outstanding overall but are quite harmful to a Dalmatian.

If a meat product is listed as the first or second ingredient in an adult dog food, it is more likely that the food is less suitable for Dalmatians than others that list grains, especially corn, as main ingredients.

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Degenerative Joint Disease

Noninfectious osteoarthritis is the commonest form of joint disease in the aging dog, a situation not too different from that in humans. The disease is progressive and causes few, if any, noticeable symptoms in the early stages. It is not uncommon for a veterinarian to discover the existence of degenerative joint disease or its predisposing causes during a routine checkup.

Primary arthritis develops from the normal wear and tear of a joint with time and age. While seen occasionally in very old dogs, it is not the commonly observed arthritis that it is in people. The bulk of aging dog arthritis cases are secondary to disorders which happened or started earlier in life.

The following are just a few of the many such disorders:

• Obesity in any breed but especially in the large and giant breeds.
• Mechanical trauma such as falls and jumping mishaps.
• Torn ligaments in any joint but especially the stifle joint in toy or miniature poodles.
• Chronic dislocating patella (slipped knee cap), most common in toy breeds.
• Osteochondritis dissecans, a disease of young dogs.Hip dysplasia.
  

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Constipation And Flatulence

As your dog grows older, the muscles of the colon and rectum may lose some of their ability to propel and expel feces adequately during a bowel movement. Reduction in stomach and intestinal digestive secretions can produce a bulkier, firmer stool as can diets very high in dry food content if there is insufficient water intake. Your dog will squat and strain to force the fecal mass slowly out. She may cry from the discomfort.

Prostatic disease can mechanically cause constipation as the prostate gland enlarges and presses up against the floor of the rectum. Similarly, tumors in the rectum or on the anus can interfere with the passage of feces. Any dog may have an isolated difficult bowel movement on occasion. This should be no cause for alarm if he is otherwise in good health and there is no bleeding or excessive pain.

Repeated bouts of constipation can slowly stretch the rectal muscles, causing permanent dilatation and resulting in chronic constipation. Once this occurs, your dog will need frequent enemas as well as fecal softeners to help him eliminate. The increased time the stool remains in the colon and rectum will allow bacteria that normally live there to act on the stool, causing putrefaction and excessive gas production.

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