When should I feed my dog?
Many people feed their dogs once a day. This is quite an old fashioned approach and probably comes from the idea that wolves hunt, feed on a big kill and then wait a few days before they are successful at the hunt again. However, it is important to realise that dogs aren't wolves! Recent research finds that dogs are more scavengers than hunters (Read "Dogs. A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behaviour and Evolution" by Lorna and Ray Coppinger).
So, in fact, dogs are better off eating little and often. I recommend feeding at least twice a day. Dogs, like humans, need a steady supply of blood sugar. Feeding your dog just once a day can make them lethargic and irrational like many humans get when they are hungry!
Try to make timings consistent and bear in mind that shortly after eating they will need to eliminate. So, to avoid house training issues I recommend feedongs your dog early in the morning and late afternoon (assuming you don't work a strange shift). Bear in mind you should avoid walking your dog too soon after or immediately before a meal, especially if they have a deep chest as these dogs can suffer from a fatal condition known as bloat. You should wait at least an hour after your dog has eaten, and if they have a deep chest, should ideally eat from a raised food platform. This should help reduce the risk of bloat.

What should I feed my dog?
This is a very big question. Generally there are three main feeding approaches.
  1.        Canned/ pouch meats and mixer biscuit.

 

Advantages	Disadvantages
Initially cheaper	Complex to ensure they get the right proportions of mixer biscuit and tinned meat (protein levels hard to guarantee)
Dogs tend to find the tinned food palatable	Tends to be quite bulky and dogs need to eliminate more
	Most foods of this type have additives, colourant and preservatives
	Often poor quality meats (e.g animal derivatives)

 2.        Complete dry foods

 

Advantages	Disadvantages
Easy to feed	Watch out for ones which contain preservatives and colourants. N.B Most meat based foods will require a certain amount of preservative so that it keeps well, avoid very long shelf life foods)
Nutritionally balanced (however, need to ensure protein source is meat based rather than vegetable or soya based)	Some complete foods have too high levels of protein and have an inappropriate source of protein such as soya
Cost effective	The best brands are generally not available in supermarkets (such as James Wellbeloved, Burns, Wafcol)
Widely available

 3.        BARF diet (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food)

This is based on feeding dogs foods which are natural to them

 

Advantages	Disadvantages
Raw meats and fruit/ veg are natural food for dogs	Can be messy
Dogs love it and it agrees with most dogs	Not for the faint hearted
	Need to ensure you add high quality vitamin sachets to ensure optimum nutrition
	Not widely available
	Need to ensure the dog eats the carbohydrate parts too.

 

Why shouldn’t I add meat to a complete food?

A rough guide to protein and carbohydrates and their affect on behaviour (ref A Dog’s Dinner by Val Strong)

Protein is the food source which produces the neurotransmitters dopamine and noradrenalin. These neurotransmitters are implied in motivation, co-ordination and movement.

Carbohydrate is the food source which produces serotonin, the neurotransmitter which is responsible for our feeling happy and relaxed.

All three of these neurotransmitters travel down the same neural passageways at the same time. Therefore, if there is an imbalance between protein and carbohydrate this can cause some of the neurotransmitters to get pushed back out through the blood-brain barrier and into the bloodstream where it gets lost. If, for example a dog had too much protein in his diet versus carbohydrate he may have more dopamine and noradrenalin available in the brain which can make a dog become hyperactive, anxious or aggressive. Therefore, it is important to ensure that dogs get sufficient of both protein and carbohydrate in the correct balance.
To complicate things the labels on commercial foods can be misleading. E.G. A tin of dog meat says on the label approx 9% protein which sounds fine. However, this actually means that 9% of the dry portion of the food is protein. Tinned dog meat can be approx 80% moisture so, to read the true protein value you need to work out 9% of 20% dry weight (assuming 80% moisture). So you need to divide 9 by 20 and then multiply by 100 which equates to 45% protein. As you can see, the real protein value is much higher that the label implies.

If you are looking to feed your dog BARF diet then the Nurturing by Nature pet food 148, Pinehurst Road, West Moors 01202 872177 is a good place to start as they are very knowledgeable about the BARF feeding principles and hold a range of suitable frozen meats with the other vital components including the vitamin and mineral supplements which you will require.