Evaluate Your Dogfood
A good place to find out more information on dog foods and how they rate is here  http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/ you should be able to find your current dog food on there. This website leans towards dog foods that are high in meat content. Look through a few of the rated dog foods (both in the 6 star and 1 star) and you will learn about what goes into cheap dogfoods. When feeding premium dog food you will feed less of it and (depending on the dog food) you will have less waste to clean up. Every dog should be considered and individual and you may end up having to feed different brands of dog foods to each of your dogs. A dog can become allergic to any dogfood at any point in his life, so keep and eye on your dog to make sure the food is still working for him/her. I recommend rotating through a few premium dogfoods every few months. I don't eat the same food every day for my whole life and I don't expect my dog too either. We feed our dogs kibble as well as a home-prepared meals. I have done alot of research on dogfood and feel that the best thing for the health of our dogs is premium kibble and cooking for them. I encourage owners to read "Home-Prepared Dog & Cat Diets: the Healthful Alternative" by Donald R. Strombeck DVM if you decide to take on the task of cooking for your pet. We will give balanced recipe ideas to all our Law Dogs puppy owners. Remember to constantly re-evaulate what your feeding your dog with each bag of dog food....how does your dog's coat and eyes look? How are his bowel movements? Keep up to date with changes the dog food companies might be making. Many people believed Canidae was a good company and their dogs were doing well on the food until it changed it's ingredients. It's a good idea to keep copies of the ingredients on each bag of food you buy (at least keep the last ingredients from the last bag you buy so you can see if ingredients have changed). Low quality kibble will constantly change their ingredients, they look for the cheapest ingredients and fillers. I like foods that use human-grade ingredients, do not use, corn, wheat, soy or any by-products.

Treats
So you have decided on a dogfood and you are now curious about what type of treats to use. You would be surprised at how many owners feed a quality kibble and then supplement with BAD treats! My aunt wanted me to evaluate her feeding program, I was surprised when she was feeding a premium dogfood and then told me she gave the dogs ALPO treats! Aah! So here are my suggestions for treats...and you don't necessarily have to even give treats, most K9's (Law Enforcement) are fed their kibble by hand during training sessions. You will want to make sure you don't overdue it supplementing your dog's diet with treats (remember you should be able to feel your dog's ribs but not see them). The best treat (not really recommended during a training session) is carrots, I prefer the baby carrots that are already peeled. For kibble type treats we use Newman's Own and then for training we use Wellness Jerky beef (our dogs don't like the fish). We don't recommend rawhide (it can expand in the dog's gut) or pigs ears (high in calories and stink!). The best thing to do is invest in a Kong stuffit and use Peanut Butter or Cream Cheese (we try and use organic ingredients whenever possible). Hooves and marrow bones can cause teeth to break.....knuckle bones are a good alternative. You want to be cautious of all treats not made by a reputable company. The other day I was in Costco and of course I always look through the pet section (usually disatisfied with the pet food selection) I picked up a bag of treats that I thought "seemed" like a good treat...the front said "All Natural" "Full of Omega's" ect. Having a feeling I looked over the whole bag throughly, trying to find something bad about it...low and behold on the back in small print it said "irradiated"...no thanks! Recently Orijin dogfood had a recall on some of their dogfood exported to Australia. Orijin is a VERY GOOD dog food and company. Turns out cats had gotten very sick or even died from the food that was imported....the reason?! All animal food imported into Australia has to be irradiated. Don't feed your pet irradiated food and don't give your dog anything you cooked in the microwave (a suggestion you mind consider for your health as well).

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