Homemade Dog Food: How Can It Affect Your Dog’s Behavior?

Does your dog have behavior problems? I don’t mean the ordinary things any dog owner can expect, such as a puppy who isn’t yet housetrained, a dog who loves to jump up on you when you return home, or other things of this sort. But if your dog does things which appear to you to be abnormal, you may be concerned or even worried.

Normally one of the first things dog owners do in a case like this is to learn more about dog training and apply it to their situation. They might do this through classes, trainers, books, or internet websites and forums. The quality of the advice found can be rather hit-and-miss, but often this approach is adequate and the behavior issue is solved, more or less.

A good next step is a vet exam to rule out all sorts of common or obscure ailments that you might never think of yourself. And if the vet should find that your dog is experiencing pain somewhere in his body, taking care of that could solve the behavior problem.

Another factor which can improve your dog’s behavior is getting him plenty of exercise. This could mean lots of long walks, for example, which would likely also be good for your health! Or use a dog walker if you don’t have the time or capability to take the dog out yourself. You could be very pleasantly surprised at how much easier your dog is to live with when he gets good exercise.

Well, that’s all very well, but what if none of it stops the unwanted dog behaviors?

One puppy I know about had been trained, examined, and exercised thoroughly, yet he continued to attack and even bite the human members of his family. The mother, who emailed me that she was at her wits ends, after some months did figure out what was going on: if there was beet pulp in whatever commercial dog food the puppy ate, he would attack. When she fed a dog food without this fairly common ingredient, his attacks ended completely. They had been caused by an allergy.

Beet pulp is not at the top of the list of foods dogs are allergic to, but do remember that what you feed your dog may be affecting his behavior. This concept is quite common when thinking of people, but less widespread when thinking of dogs.

In general, veterinarians are not particularly well informed about the pros and cons of feeding dog foods that contain additives and other questionable ingredients. They received little training back in vet school and most are far too busy to explore the topic now. Also, if they sell dog food in their clinics, their inclination is going to be to trust that they made a good choice of food to sell.

Fortunately for all of us, there are veterinarians, dog breeders, and others who have been paying close attention to these questions for many years. They agree on recommending homemade dog food over the standard commercial choices, and they tell you how to do it.

By feeding a homemade diet to your dogs, you may well be enhancing not only their behavior but also their health. One breeder has seen the longevity of her dogs increase gradually over the more than thirty years that she has been developing a natural diet which she shares freely on her website.

Particularly for dogs with behavior or health problems, an excellent step is to put them on homemade dog food. Stay with it for a while, and take note of what happens!