Dental Care For Your Dog

Did you know that dental care is just as important for your dog as it is for us human beings? Just like with our teeth, your dogs teeth can gather plaque during eating. This plaque can then build up and harden which then becomes known as a brown substance called tartar.

Then as this tartar accumulates it will work its way beneath the dogs gums and become the reason behind painful infections and gum disease. This process occurs in the mouths of dogs, and is no different to what occurs in people. You no doubt brush your teeth on a regular basis, but think about your poor dog for a moment. What can he/she do?

The Veterinary world says that dog owners should brush their dogs teeth twice a week to stop the accumulation of tartar. Well, I honestly dont know any owners who take the trouble to do this. Hopefully you do. A lot of pet shops stock toothbrushes and toothpaste especially for dogs. You need to know that a dogs sense of taste is a lot more sensitive than that of us humans and the minty, tingly, sort of toothpastes that we use will be pretty unpleasant to a dog. So just make sure you use the proper doggie toothpaste.

It is fortunate that dogs have a natural tendency to chew and this acts as a dental care mechanism. Dogs crunch biscuits into small pieces when chewing and these rub against their teeth, providing a cleaning function. This is no substitute for brushing, but if you cant manage that, just try to ensure he/she regularly gets some type of crunchy dog biscuit.

Any dogs that do not get the correct dental care and do not have access to good teeth cleaning foods run the risk of different types of mouth disease. These can be mild like gingivitis or a rather more serious type of infection that can get into the dogs bloodstream and damage vital organs.

Dental services are readily available for dogs. A dogs teeth can be capped, filled, and extracted if required, just like a human beings. Of course the best way is to avoid the need for these services by looking after your dogs teeth. Preventative dental care for your dog can save you money as well. Dog dental care can unfortunately be quite costly, but then its less painful than toothache.

James Hunaban is the owner of - http://dog-health.jims-info.com/ and http://dogs-care.jims-info.com/ - sites dedicated to Dogs.

Dog Food Linked To Behavior

We all know the dangers of eating junk food or living on a diet of foods that are processed. We know about them and most of us make a point to avoid them. We also make sure that our children avoid them. This is often because hyperactivity and an array of behavioral problems have been closely linked with the diets of sufferers.

What many pet owners fail to see, is that by feeding our dogs a diet that mainly consists of processed, poorly prepared dog foods or the equivalent of junk food, they may be causing many of the behavioral and severe illnesses that are found in dogs today. Basically, the diet that you are feeding your canine companion could not only be making him aggravated, hyper or plain old mean it could possibly shorten his life span.

A well balanced diet provides quality nutrition and in turn keeps the cells, tissues and organs healthy. This enables an animals immune system to stay in top condition to fight any invaders.

The same holds true for behavior. If you ate fast food and candy bars everyday, eventually it will affect your energy level and your mood.

Because we love our pets, this may be a little confusing for those who think that they are doing the right thing, say, feeding their pets dog foods out of the can. Admittedly, not all dog foods are bad. However, many are and contain ingredients that are difficult for your pet to digest and can make him sick. So how do you weed out the good dog foods from the bad?

In order to give your pet the best life, you must make sure that he has the best type of lifestyle, just like us humans. Before buying pet foods, check the label to see what is in the food. Basically, the first five ingredients are important. Foods that list 2 or more grains in the first 5 ingredients may have more vegetable protein than animal protein which means less nutrition and more clean up.

Canned food can also be full of preservatives, to keep the food inside from going bad. Dog foods containing preservatives should be avoided. Not only has the pet food been filled with preservatives that could cause your pet harm, the pet food has been boiled at high temperatures in the cooking process causing any of the useful nutrition found in the food to be lost anyway. Proper cooking of pet foods will ensure that no preservatives are needed to keep it fresh.

Keep in mind that canned dog food mainly consists of water so feeding a canned diet alone will not give your pet the proper nutrition they need to live a healthy lifestyle.

So lets look at the things that should be avoided when buying pet food:

No Preservatives. Avoid foods that contain chemicals in them such as BHT or BHA. If these preservatives are found anywhere on the label, give the food a miss, as these chemicals can be harmful to your pet.

No by-products. By-products are the parts of meat that are unsuitable for consumption, such as the feet, necks and intestines of other animals. As you can imagine these parts of animals were not made to be digested by humans, dogs or any animals for that matter.

Beware of grains. Soy, corn, corn gluten and wheat gluten are often used as protein sources; however, they are generally inferior and difficult to digest.

Give your pet the chance at life that he deserves, feed him with a good nutritious premium dog food, free from preservatives and additives that are not meant for dogs. A great way to decide what is suitable for your dog to eat is ask yourself if you would eat it? If your answer is no, dont feed it to your pet.

Lori Matthews studies health, nutrition and wellness. Enjoys writing articles on health for both people and pets. Please visit http://www.premium4pets.com for more information.