What can I do to provide my dog with the best nutrition possible?

It's a very complicated question at this point because there are so many different foods and food sources and marketing. I think the first thing I would do is to find a person that you can trust. Hopefully, it will be your veterinarian and some other trusted sources. I think picking companies that make food might be one of the first choices that you should think of, some company that you can respect. We at Countryside highly recommend Hill's Science Diet, Royal Canin diets, and Purina diets. Those three companies do make prescription foods for us when we need them, and they are well-respected. They have veterinarians that we can reach out to very easily. They have nutritionists and specialists. So use those as the main guidelines. If you want to deviate from that, try to find out about that company and what particular needs that your animal has that you were trying to achieve by changing foods from there.

There are so many diets out there and that are well formulated. So I get this question a lot. What do you recommend? So I go based on what I generally feed my dog, which I personally do like Science Diet, Royal Canin, and Purina as my top three because I know they put a lot of research into their products, but there's a lot of diets out there. So consult with your veterinarian if you have questions about what you should feed and a lot is dictated by age and lifestyle. There's puppy food, adult food, and geriatric food based on the stages of life that your pets go through. So during your regular wellness exams, I think that would be the best question. Avoid high fat foods and if you can't please avoid giving pets people food. We see so many issues with people giving pets people food.

What is the best nutrition possible? If you know, please email me at The Waggin’ Train, and we can figure this out together. Nobody knows what that is. If you’re feeding high-quality dog food, you’re on the right track. What's a good quality diet? Everyone has different opinions. I'm not going to stand on a soapbox and tell you it's got to be this or this. But if you stick with one of the big four or five major food manufacturers, such as IAMS, Eukanuba, Royal Canin, or Purina One, you should be fine. Science Diet is one of my favorites. There are other companies, but those are the big ones that I look at. I know the research behind those foods. I know the companies. Most of those that I just referenced there have medical or veterinary lines to them as well.

The second part of that answer is if your animal does have an ongoing medical condition, you may have to alter their diets. For example, you might have to choose a diet that aids in kidney function. Let's say you have an animal with kidney problems. You're going to want to feed a low protein, low phosphorus, a magnesium-type diet so that you don't make the kidneys have to work harder than they need to.

As far as food goes, as long as it has the AAFCO label on the side of the bag and it's labeled for all life stages, that should be a good diet. We definitely have a few diets that we recommend above others, but there are thousands of different pet foods. If you have questions, we can give you our list of recommended foods.