Nutrition and Your Dog's Behavior

Proper nutrition is the fundamental basis for every aspect of your dog's life.

It affects their health and longevity by offering an essential balance of proteins, fats, complex carbohydrates and the trace nutrients and minerals their bodies need for growth, repair and the mantainance of a sound immunne system.

Nutrition is a complex and integral part of your dog's ability to think clearly, lower stress levels and produce a calmer behavior.

Thinking takes a lot of energy.  Dogs invoved in a training program, expend tremendous amounts of mental energy focusing on the tasks presented to them.  If your dog starts with minimal nutrition, they become lethargic, edgy or hyper active when asked to perform the simplest of tasks.  They cannot focus and loss concentration after a short period of time or become confused.  If the dog is continually asked to do something they cannot comprehend, confusion can lead to an aggressive form of acting out.

In training dogs, the first thing I look at is the dog's diet!  I work from the inside out.  Training becomes ineffective if the underlying caiuse for the behaviors are not changed.

Hyper, unfocused and out of control dogs often eat foods with high levels of cereal compounds such as: wheat, corn and corn meal.

Aggressive dogs eat foods contain higher levels of incomplete protein which produce excessive amounts of energy.  These proteins are often incomplete chains, not offering proper building and repair or may be difficult to digest.

Shy or stressed dogs do not digest their foods well at all and can suffer from intestinal complications such as diarrhea.  Their coats are often dry, brittle and shed heavily.

One way to test the foods you are feeding is to soak the food in water for about 30 minutes. If it swells in size and becomes mushy, it is primarily cereal.

Are your dog's stool soft and loose or is the dog gassy?  If so, they are not digesting the food properly.

By looking at their food, you will do more to help balance their behavior, as well as, contribute to their health and longevity.

Life Abundance offeres the best combination of balanced nutrients for a proper diet.

The proteins are complete chains and digest easily.

The carbohydrates are complex and do not turn into simple sugars producing energy swings of high and low behaviors.

The Probiotics in the food balance the intestinal tract and make the food digest more easily, which is perfect for the nervous or shy dog and ensures all dogs are recieving the nutrients they need from the food.

Jeanne Perciaccanto is a certified Dog Trainer at http://www.ultimatedogtraining.com and Health Educator.

Information on food can found at http://www.healthydogfood.net

Jeanne Perciaccanto has been a professional dog trainer for twenty years at, http://www.ultimatedogtraining.com and holds a degree in Health.  She has combined both disciplines and researches diet and nutrition as it pertains to canine behavior. Visit http://www.healthydogfood.net