Berding & Weil, LLP has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all pet owners nationwide who purchased the pet food that was manufactured by Menu Foods, Inc. and sold under various brand names, including IAMS, and whose pets have become ill or died as a result of eating such food. Menu Foods has recalled all of its “cuts and gravy” wet style of cat and dog food, which was produced in its plants between December 3, 2006 and March 2007.

Answer to “Menu Foods Class Action Lawsuit”

That sometimes people forget about how valuable the life of their pet is, when they leave them tied up too long?

Some of these are sad and some are a chuckle.

“Everybody’s got that one buddy, the guy who’s not even half as bright as you are, but the very thought of whom gets you chuckling to yourself until you can’t help but get out your phone and see what the funny sonofabitch is up to this afternoon.” - Jon - DogBlog

Have a look at more by this talented blogger/photographer named Jon:

Dog Blog

I have spoken often about how imperative it is for every dog owner to know the ingredients in every bit of processed dog food they are buying to feed their dog, or any pets, for that matter. In this day and age of the corporate “bottom line” of greedy stockholders, every dog owner needs to become educated as to what the dog food ingredients are, that are listed on the packaging labels of dog food. Because there is very little legislation governing the quality of dog food ingredients, the “almighty dollar” is much more powerful than the lives of our pets.

Every dog owner needs to learn what the terms really mean that are being printed on those labels so that they know what to look for when they are out shopping for nutritional dog food products to feed their dogs.

We all love our pets and want the best for them. We want them to have beautiful shiny coats, pink gums, sweet breath, and to protect them from illness and harm. We treasure their existence and in so many cases, either couldn’t live without them or would be devastated trying to, in the case of loss. Insuring that they are fed a healthy diet to not only maintain their health, but to also prolong their lives, has become a major concern as we discover more and more how the dog food companies are blatantly lying to us.

Something that many pet owners are unaware of, is how the ingredients can, by law, be listed. When reading the list of ingredients, the dog food should not contain any of these five ingredients:

1. Animal fat

2. Meat by-products and bone meal

3. Fish by-products

4. Liver meal

5. Poultry fat or poultry by-products

I know these ingredients sound harmless and they are meant to. They’ve been carefully named to fool the consumer. Any time you see a generic term such as the above, the red flags should go off in your head.

You do not want to buy any food with these generic term. The ingredients must specify what type of animal that the “by-product” or “meal” is coming from. It must specifically state:

Beef, lamb, chicken, duck, turkey, bison (or buffalo), tuna, shod, cod or whatever the type of meat the product comes from.

Why shouldn’t the generic terms be used?

Because they can, by law, contain practically anything from bird feathers to horse hooves, from rotting road kill to euthanized animal shelter animals, from diseased zoo animals to euthanized animals from your vets office.

Answer to ” Dog Food Ingredient Secrets”

High quality dog foods should contain the following:

Sources of protein, that are either whole fresh meats or single source meat meal such as chicken meal rather than poultry meal. I know they sound the same but they are not. Be wary of generic terms for meat.
On packaged dog foods, a whole-meat source should be the first two ingredients, such as beef, lamb or chicken.

Whole, unprocessed grains, vegetables, and other foods, such as brown rice and not fillers such as brown rice hulls. See the difference?

Very little nutrients and enzymes, if any at all, can be found in processed dog foods. To find out exactly what nutrients your dog needs read Healthy Dog Food Diet.

Poor quality dog foods will contain the following:

Corn is the number one ingredient in most low quality dog food. Corn is a low cost filler and nothing more. Dogs have a very difficult time digesting corn and there is no nutrition value in it for your dog.

Meat by products are not whole meats. They are a boiled down goop of animal body parts that are processed into soft dog food or dried and turned into kibble. To learn more about the processing cycle read Are You Poisoning Your Dog? Any food that contains meat by-products as the MAIN source of protein is indicative of a low-quality product, that can be the cause of disease in your animals.

Dogs do need some fat in their diets, but you should avoid feeding them any food that contain fats or proteins that are named generically such as animal fat or poultry fat instead of beef, chicken or lamb fat. Again, the specific name of the type of animal fat is the key here. Avoid the generic terms of animal or poultry meal or by-products.

Artificial preservatives such as BHA, BHT, and ethioxyquin are found in most low cost dog foods to preserve the shelf life. If your dog food can be left on a shelf for several years without turning rancid, then it contains these chemicals. In animals, ethioxyquin (EQ) has been linked to immune deficiency syndrome; spleen, stomach, and liver cancers; and a host of skin allergies

Artificial colors are added to dog food to appease you, the human owner, not the dog. Dogs are color blind and could careless what color their food is. Artificial colors are not good for you or your dog.

Sugars such as corn syrup, sucrose, fructose, cane syrup, or ammoniated glycyrrhizin, to name only a few of the names to disguise sugar, are added to improve unappealing food. Obesity and tooth decay are only two of the problems that too much sugar causes.

Propylene glycol is a toxic substance, when consumed in large amounts like daily feedings, and is added into the goop at the processing plants to give a moist appearance and texture to the “chewy” dog foods.

I can never stress enough to research and learn what the ingredients in your dog food mean and to read your dog food labels. By educating yourself, you may find out what the causes of your dogs illnesses are and be able to cure you pup yourself without the help of the medicines from the vet.

Just by the simple action on your part, of changing you dogs food from an over processed, full of chemicals food, to the nutritious food he needs can eliminate many of the disease, allergies and common ailments that dogs face in todays over processed world.

This is too funny!

I just received this in an email from Justin Bryce of Dog Treat Recipes

yesterday. I was having a particularly bad day and it really made me laugh. Check it out.

So go ahead and let this dog clean your screen!

Then let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

There is a new Dog Training System out that has been developed by the Dog Training Institute. The Dog Training Institute is the leading organization in the world dedicated to canine welfare and well being.

The Dog Training Institute researches the best ways to train, maintain and care for dogs. They use their research to help dog owners train their own pets.

They claim that after years of research they have come up with a revolutionary way to house break puppies in only 17 days. or less. I haven’t tried it myself as I don’t have any puppies to train at the moment. All of my pets are older than dirt.

Larry, a 5 month old Dachshund - when his owners applied their techniques, Larry started showing changes in just 72 hours.

“Anyone who has a dog or is thinking of buying a dog will become an absolute expert at training dog within 17 days or less after implementing the techniques present in our membership site…”

They have been running a membership to their Institute for 2 years and have over 14,000 members. When you join the membership you immediately get 3 e-books.

• “The Little-Known Secrets Behind How to Housebreak Your Dog Quickly and Easily (This book will tell you how to quickly and easily housebreak and potty train your dog so that it always relieves itself ONLY where you tell it to and NEVER relieves itself anywhere else under any circumstances)..”
• “The Amazing Truth Behind How to Train Your Dog In Almost No Time At All (This book will tell you how to train your dog to be obedient and disciplined, how to teach it basic commands like COME, SIT, STAY, DOWN etc., how to get it used to staying alone for a few hours everyday, how to quickly and easily fix common behavioral problems like chewing, barking and tearing things up and how to teach it do some amazing tricks!)”
• “How to Teach Your Dog to Love You (This book will tell you how to give a proper diet to your dog , how to feed it properly, how to easily groom it, how to socialize your dog with other members of your family and with other pets, how to sharpen its skills as a watchdog, what to look out for when you buy your first dog , and will provide you with dozens of secret tips and techniques to help you take care of your dog )…”

Answer To “New Dog Training System”

This Dog Training System membership seems to give a lot of value for the money, but like I already said, I haven’t tried it, so I don’t know for sure if it really does or not. If anyone does join or already has joined, please leave a comment to let the rest of us know what your opinion is on it.

Since I have read Kathy Reed’s book on Show Dog Training 101 , and I know Kathy and her dogs personally, I think you are getting a good read for only $20, plus you can email Kathy with any questions that you may have and she is always willing to help.

So, again if anyone buys into this new membership or is already a member, please let the rest of us know what you think.

My fat dog is so fat that….

“How fat is he? My fat dog is so fat he makes Free Willy look like a tic tac.”

Do you have a fat dog? Don’t feel like you are all alone. Dog obesity has become as big a problem (no pun intended) in the United States, as obesity has become a problem with their owners. Duh! Go figure. The majority of Americans have absolutely no clue as to what a balanced healthy diet is for themselves, let alone what a healthy diet should be for their dogs.

Holy Christmas, people still drink soda pop in this country and think it’s healthy when it is one of the worst things to put in your body and is one of the leading causes of tooth decay, diabetes and obesity.

What is the ending result? You get to tell everyone, “Hey, look at my fat dog!”

All kidding aside, obesity is a huge problem, and if you don’t curb the diet of your fat dog, it could lead to your beloved friends death.

Answer To “Do You Have A Big Fat Dog?”

Many people don’t realize that you can’t get just any AKC registered pup and expect to train it to be AKC standards champion show dog that will qualify to become “Best of Breed” or “Best of Show”. There is just way so much more involved than that. Knowing not only how to train, but what to train, is imperative.

Learning how to train your dog to be a champion show dog can be expensive, daunting and confusing when you don’t know where to go or what to do. Learning by trial and error can become even more expensive than learning from one who has “been there, done that”, as you tend to “spin your wheels” off into the wrong direction and before you realize what you have done, the money is already down the toilet, so to speak.

The original purpose of the conformation dog show was to have a platform to select the best breeding stock to carry on the high breeding standards of the dogs that were registered as an American Kennel Club pure blood line. The A.K.C. conformation show was not suppose to be a “beauty pageant” for dogs, however it has pretty much turned into that. I can see myself getting bomb-blasted by show dog competition participants for making that statement, but it is a true statement in my eyes.

A dear friend of mine, Kathy Reed, has been breeding and training AKC registered dogs for years and not only for competition, but also for search and rescue. She has successfully managed both worlds; i.e. “The Beauty Contest” and “The Working Dogs with a Mission”. Kathy has written a manual on training dogs for show. The manual is easy to understand and follow even for the novice. Read more …

Answer To “How To Train Champion Show Dogs”

Pedigree Dog food is another food to avoid feeding your dogs. They claim that their Mealtime With Lamb and Rice is “nutritionally complete and highly digestible food formulated for the growth and maintenance of dogs. This product contains real lamb meat not lamb meal and has no artificial colors or soy.” Listed below are the ingredients for this particular flavor.

Ground Corn
Chicken By-Product Meal
Ground Wheat
Animal Fat(Preserved With Mixed Tocopherols, source of Vitamin E)
Lamb, Rice, Natural Poultry Flavour
Salt
Dried Egg Product
Potasium Chloride
Titanium Dioxide
Sunflower Oil (source of Linoleic Acid)

Take notice that the lamb and rice are the 5th ingredient, not the first. We already know that dogs have a very difficult time digesting corn and corn is the first ingredient. The second ingredient is chicken by-product meal which you already know if you have read “Are you Poisoning Your Dog?” can be anything from euthanized pets to bone, feathers, and beaks among a multitude of other grotesque animal parts.

I have discovered that many guide dog schools are recommending this food to their students because Pedigree is donating free food for the dogs in exchange for the recommendations. They also give discounts to the students. This again is another reason to read your labels before buying food for your dog, no matter who recommends it.

Keep in mind that no matter what commercial food you do decide on, it is important to supplement the diet with raw and homemade food.

Answer to “Is Pedigree Dog Food Good For My Dog”

Giving our dogs healthy dog treats are just as vital as a healthy dog food diet. Here is a recipe for a healthy treat for you dogs that is easy to make at home.

Glazed Chicken Treats

Ingredients:

4 Cups Flour
1 1/4 Cup Cornmeal
1 small can Chicken soup
1 egg
2 tsp Vegetable oil

Glaze
1 egg
2 tbs milk
dash of garlic

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F)
2. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.
3. Lightly flour the bench and then knead mix ensuring it is not too sticky or too dry.
4. Roll out so it is 1/8 inch thick.
5. Grab your cookie cutters and start cutting.
6. Place cookies on a greased cookie sheet.
7. Bake until brown - about 25 - 35 minutes.
8. Pour into a greased small tray (10×15″)
9. Bake for about 25 minutes.
10. Allow to cool
11. Mix glaze ingredients and brush over cookies lightly.

Courtesy of Justin Blake and his dog Fred

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