At home, it's probably just good, simple hygiene. Make sure the dog's coat is cared for and that there are no significant mats. With long hair breeds, you either want to get them groomed often or just simply brush them often, particularly in the summer months where the shedding is going to be worse. A lot of dogs struggle with dry skin in the summertime, too, so using things like shampoos that contain aloe and oatmeals are great, as they are hypoallergenic additives that also help to clean them.

The other thing I would mention, too, is that fatty acids are very important for dogs' coats, so check the ingredients of your dog’s food. Perhaps your food has fatty acids naturally occurring in it but, if they don't, maybe add fish oils or something along those lines to the food. What you're looking for is what's called Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. Those are the two that most of the big food manufacturers look for and try to include because those have been proven to be beneficial for skin and coat.

Some puppies seem like they want to eat and eat and eat, and they'll have a nice little chunky belly going on. Others are too preoccupied to sit down and take the time to eat. And so you can actually look on your bag of food and look at the side panel or the back, and it'll have a chart on there that recommends a daily amount that your puppy should be feeding based upon the adult weight or how much they currently weigh. That's a pretty good rule of thumb as far as the guideline. And then you want to watch your puppy to see if they’re getting too chunky or if you can count their ribs, and that'll allow you to set the amount of puppy food.

It's a bit variable depending upon how big your puppy is. For the tiny ones, usually less than five pounds or so, those puppies need to be eating at least about four times a day. And this is for puppies that are a little older as far as six weeks or so once they're weaned. About four times a day is a pretty good rule of thumb. But for most dogs, three times a day is usually what we're going to be starting with as far as when they're pretty young puppies.

They do. And some puppies don't know they do. One, if they get weaned a little too early or if they've recently been weaned, they may not realize that they need to take the time to drink and understand what drinking is. So you may have to work with them by introducing them to the water bowl, kind of putting some on their face, and having them realize what they need to do with it. Other times, puppies are a little too busy and preoccupied with playing to take time to drink. So make sure that your puppy is adequately drinking water.

There are a lot of varieties out there. And so you want to stick with something that your vet has recommended and that you're comfortable with—large breed, small breed—there are a lot of different types of products out there. And so some of these puppies that are going to be a larger breed adult are going to need to be on a large breed puppy food versus the ones who are going to be a small breed are going to need to be on a small breed food or a regular type that have the smaller kibbles.

Check with your vet. I'm a big Purina fan. So I do like the Purina Pro Plan variety. This guy is on a Purina Pro Plan large breed puppy food; as you can see, he's enormous. He needed that for his overall bone health. You certainly want to talk to your vet and ensure that you're feeding them the right thing. Because food is where they start, it's going to be something that affects their lives overall.