The Happy Hound                  

A key component to behavior modification is food/nutrition.  Mom was right:  you are what you eat.  And so is your dog!  Avoid foods with by-products, beet pulp, corn products, anything euphemistically referred to as "meat," food with ethoxyquin, propylene glycol, nitrates and artificial colors, cellulose, and animal fat. 

You want to feed a food that is made from HUMAN GRADE ingredients and has 32% crude protein OR LESS.  There are foods that are made with really good ingredients that have protein percentages in the 40s.  This is ROCKET FUEL.  If Rex brought down a deer in the forest the protein count of that deer's flesh is 10-13%.  (Because flesh is mostly water...a point that the marketing departments of these companies forgot about, or just didn't know.) 

Not every food works for every dog and there's little point in asking "What's the best dog food?" The real question is "What's the best food for my dog?"  And to answer that, you need to try different foods.

Another thing to keep in mind is that it's to everyone's benefit if your dog can eat a variety of foods.  Ideally, look for 3 or 4 on this list and switch around every 3-4 months.  For my own dogs, I change the type of protein (fish, lamb, etc.) with each bag, while staying within the same brand.  I have two dogs that eat raw and I rotate among the proteins they can eat (we have allergies) every two weeks. 

If you have a dog with a fairly robust gut and you're feeding from among foods on this list, you should be able to switch foods overnight, without mixing out the old as you bring in the new.

Peg Approved dry foods:

• Acana***
• Canidae
• Fromm
• Go!
• Great Life
• Life4Canine
• Natural Balance* Limited Ingredient Grain Free (Bison, Duck, Fish, Venison)
• Nature’s Variety
• Now!
• Pure Vita
• Solid Gold**
• Spot’s Stew
• Timberwolf
• Timberwolf Gaea
• Taste of the Wild

 Raw Foods:

•  Aunt Jeni’s
• Oma’s Pride
• Primal
• Nature’s Variety Instinct
• Northwest Naturals
• Stella and Chewy’s

Freeze Dried/Dehydrated Foods (reconstitute with 1.5 times the recommended water)

• Addiction
• Dr. Harvey’s
• Gramma Lucy’s
• Honest Kitchen
• Sojo’s
• Stella & Chewy’s

*Be careful, Natural Balance is slipping over to  the Dark Side and putting Beet Pulp in some of their dry foods.  Read all of their labels carefully—for dry food, canned, and treats. 

**Not “Barking at the Moon” – generally, protein amounts over 32% are unacceptable.  A raw steak has 10-13% protein.  Protein amounts in the 40% range are rocket fuel. 

***This is made by Champion Pet Foods which also does Orijen. Orijen is NOT on this list because it has way too much protein.  (see above)

Canned foods:

• Addiction
• Canidae
• Evangers
• Go!
• Great Life
• Life4Canine
• Merrick
• Natural Balance
• Nature’s Variety
• Party Animal
• Petguard
• Solid Gold
• Spot’s Stew
• Taste of the Wild
• Weruva

If you have questions about foods not on this list, feel free to e-mail me with their information and I will tell you why I don't approve....or I'll do a little more research and add them to this list!

Treats are as important as food.  There's no point in spending good money on good food and undermining it all with treats from the EVIL EMPIRE. 

Peg Approved Treats

• Aunt Jeni’s
• Canidae
• Cloud Star/Buddy Biscuits
• Dr. Harvey’s
• Dr. Woofrrs by Great Life
• Grandma Lucy’s
• Great Life
• Jones
• Merrick
• Natural Balance *
• Nature’s Variety
• Pet Guard
• Plato
• Primal
• Real Meat/The RealMeat Company
• Solid Gold
• Spot’s Stew
• Zuke’s

Avoid all treats from China (look at what they feed to their babies, you think they're gonna care about your dog???) and any treat that obfuscates on where it really comes from (brought to you by XYZ, Inc. Export/Import...that's code for, you guessed it, China.)

If you have questions about treats not on this list, feel free to e-mail me with their information and I will tell you why I don't approve....or I'll do a little more research and add them to this list!