Can you imagine how wonderful life would be if our dogs could live forever? Sometimes it seems like a cruel joke that our dogs live such short lives, and most of us will care for 5-10 dogs in our lifetime. Each one takes a huge piece of our hearts with them when they go.
But thanks to scientific research, our dogs can now live longer than ever (and no, I’m not talking about cloning your dog). We now understand how to better care for our dogs to help them live longer, healthier, happier lives than ever before. Caring for our dogs in a way that increases their longevity involves shedding old ideas and embracing new ways of how to care for a dog.
What We Used to Know About Caring for Dogs
Ten, twenty years ago, we brought home puppies, rubbed their noses in house-training accidents, fed them table scraps and dry kibble, and took them to the vet once a year (or every five in some areas) for shots. That was about the extent of what we knew about caring for dogs.
Today’s Pet Parents Know Better
We now know that positive reinforcement training is much more effective and rubbing their noses in accidents is pointless. Training treats are the way to your dog’s heart, as is praise and playtime.
Dry kibble produced by big name pet food manufacturers contains a multitude of unhealthy ingredients and does not resemble anything like what nature intended a dog to eat. Not only are chemicals, preservatives, and meat by-products harmful to dogs, they lack the basic nutrition to provide energy and good health. Foods stuffed full of grains and pseudo-protein sources simply aren’t nourishing to a dog’s body. We now know dogs are naturally intended to eat a Biologically Appropriate Raw Foods Diet (BARF Diet) full of raw meats, organs, bones, and blood.
Your dog isn’t designed to eat grains, carbohydrates, or even vegetables as the bulk of his diet. Yes, he “can” eat these things, but much like people “can” eat a diet of processed, fast foods, those foods aren’t enough to keep him (or us) healthy. He gets all the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals he needs from a vital organ mix in an AAFCO approved balanced raw pet food.
Choosing a balanced diet for your furry best friend shouldn’t require a PhD, but unfortunately it’s so confusing, most consumers give up out of frustration. Thanks to practices like ingredient splitting and misleading advertising, pet parents often don’t understand what’s in their pet’s food. Your dog’s diet should be simple to understand: raw meat, organs, bones, blood, and OMEGA oils to aid digestion.
Including a vital organ mix in your dog’s diet gives him those nutrients we get from fruits and vegetables in our diets. Your dog can eat some dog-safe fruits and vegetables if he likes them and you want to feed them to him, but they’re not a necessary part of his diet if he’s getting a balanced raw meat meal that contains vital organs. It may sound gross to us, but your dog craves those ingredients.
Feeding him a raw diet helps keep him healthy, which in turn helps him live longer.
Living Longer with Dental Care
In addition to learning more about what dogs should and shouldn’t eat, we’ve also learned that proper dental hygiene is crucial to avoid gum disease and the associated complications that go with dental decay and gingivitis in dogs. Veterinarians today examine dogs’ teeth regularly and recommend professional teeth cleanings to keep dogs healthy.
Feeding a raw diet avoids contributing to dental conditions by helping to scrape off tartar and through avoiding sticky carbohydrates, grains, and sugars found in most commercial dry kibbles. You can’t expect to feed your dog “junk food” his whole life and still have healthy teeth!
We also know that daily dental care helps reduce damage caused by gum disease and prevents many health problems in dogs- like abscesses, dental decay, pain, bad breath, heart disease, and infections. Even though your dog won’t like it, he should have his teeth cared for every day. Just like you wouldn’t allow a human toddler to go without brushing his teeth for months on end, you shouldn’t allow your dog to get away with it either. He won’t like it, but like clipping toenails and getting a bath, dental care is part of the price of living a healthy happy life with the people he loves.
Caring for Joints
Caring for your dog’s joints helps keep him active. And an active dog is a healthy dog. We can support joint function in dogs through regular exercise and through nutrition. Dogs of any breed or size can experience joint problems, and since they can’t tell us when their joints hurt, we have to care for them through preventative measures and regular veterinarian checkups.
Water exercise is a wonderful option for dogs since the low-impact activity done in the water helps build muscles without straining the joints. Talk to your veterinarian about joint-friendly activities for your pup if you’re concerned he has pain or stiffness in his joints.
Helping Dogs Live Longer
TruDog is committed to helping dogs live longer through supporting them with all-natural ingredients and a balanced Biologically Appropriate Raw Foods Diet. The TruDog Nutrition+ System contains four products to help your dog live a fuller, happier, and longer life.
STEP ONE is our specially formulated SPRAY ME dental spray that helps reduce plaque and freshen that nasty doggie breath. Safe for dogs six months of age and older, SPRAY ME binds with your dog’s saliva and uses essential oils to keep your dog’s mouth clean and healthy.
STEP TWO is FREE ME, a proprietary blend of all-natural ingredients designed to support healthy joint function and provide natural pain relief for dogs with joint problems. It also helps treat joint problems proactively by preventing potential joint damage as your dog grows and changes through the years.
STEP THREE is COMPLETE ME, a yummy easy-to-feed complete supplement for dogs to help provide those vital nutrients, minerals, and vitamins your dog’s body need to stay healthy. Like a multivitamin for your dog, COMPLETE ME supports his health at any stage of life.
STEP FOUR is our BOOST ME real meat food topper that provides the power of a raw diet without switching your dog’s normal food. BOOST ME can be added to any meal or fed as-is in between meals to help boost your dog’s nutrition. You get the power of a raw diet without the hassle.
You can get your own specially priced TruDog Nutrition+ System for your furry babies and help your dogs live longer, healthier, and happier lives. We may not be able to keep them forever, but we can add a few extra years of life and love through proper care and nutrition.
This Article Was Brought To You By The Fine Folks At TruDog.com
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