March 19 - Snow Closing

SPECIAL MESSAGE:  Today is Tuesday March 19 and TGDS will be closed due to the snow and ice.  If you need to drop off or pick up your pet, you may due so during our holiday hours of 8-9 am or 4-5 pm.  Sorry for any inconvenience but we'd rather be safe than sorry!  If you'd like to reschedule for a different day this week, please call our office to make arrangements.

Best Foods for Your Pet

• When shopping for a new food, read the ingredients thoroughly. 

 Stay away from brands with ANY corn, wheat, soy, or beet pulp in the ingredients.  These are hard for the stomach to digest, and does not provide any nutrition benefits for the dog.  These types of ingredients lead to excess yeast production in the eyes, skin, ears, and nose; which is manifested through ear infections, runny eyes and nose, allergic reactions, and an unhealthy coat.  Corn is also known to cause hyperactivity in dogs; the dog’s body processes the corn into sugar, which in turn leads to a frantic dog with extraordinarily high energy levels.

Choose a food that is grain free, or a food that uses grass grains.  Grass grains are oatmeal, barley, millet, brown rice, etc.  Sweet potato is also an excellent option.  These types of grains are easy to digest, are high in fiber, and offers nutritional benefits. 

 The first ingredient should be a Specified protein source (Beef, Chicken, Lamb, Lamb meal, Salmon, Salmon meal, etc).

Avoid foods that include by-products in their ingredients. 

Avoid foods that list “Animal Fat” as an ingredient.  Only consider foods that have a specified fat source (Chicken fat, sunflower oil, etc). 

Choose a food that uses whole food ingredients.  This includes broccoli, blueberries, cranberries, alfalfa, etc.  This ensures that your dog is receiving nutrients from whole food sources in addition to added vitamins and minerals.

The best diet for your dog is a species-specific raw diet. Homemade raw diets are the healthier, cheaper option. This allows you full control over what your pet is eating, you can buy seasonal ingredients, and you could even make food ahead and freeze it. There are commercially made raw diets available at many pet stores. Raw diets provide your pet with important enzymes and oils that can be lost during the cooking process, or when dehydrated for dry food. It is very important to be knowledgeable about your pet’s nutrition requirements when providing a raw diet. Commercially made diets will contain all the necessary ingredients for a healthy pet, but if you choose homemade, consult a veterinarian or find species-specific recipes provided by veterinarians. You can also provide your dog with a cooked homemade diet. It may not provide you with as much nutrition as a raw diet, but still gives you total control over your pet’s food, which means you don’t have to worry about food recalls, and still provides more nutritional benefits than dry dog food. Homemade diets can also be significantly cheaper than buying the high-quality pet foods from the store.

The next best diet for your pet is canned and dry foods with human-grade ingredients. The big pet food companies use food-waste from human-food companies, and use those non-human-grade ingredients in pet food. There is also a lot of debate and controversy over the animal by-products used in commercial pet foods. It is believed the by-product comes from parts of the animals your pet can’t even digest, so it is used as a filler-ingredient. Technically it counts as protein, but it is protein your pet cannot digest. By-products can also come from sick or dying livestock, or as some rumors claim, road-kill.

Many vets emphasize the importance of providing your pet with enough moisture. Dogs and cats should have 70% moisture in their diet, so many vets prefer wet over dry food, or a combination of the two.

The worst foods you can feed your pet are grocery store brands. These are full of indigestible proteins, filler products, and can lead to a number of health and behavioral issues. It would be the equivalent of you eating McDonald’s every day, and we all saw Super Size Me, right?

We recognize that the high quality foods can be very pricey, and some people are reluctant to spend that amount of money on their pet, but doing so can actually save money in the long run. Providing proper nutrition allows your pet’s health to thrive, which means less vet bills! At The Good Dog Spot, we can all attest to this. We’ve all made the switch from grocery store brands to grain-free, human grade brands (or better), and we swear by it. We’ve seen immediate changes in our pets, in behavior and health. For more information, visit the following websites, or talk to a Good Dog Spot employee.

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2010/07/21/13-pet-foods-ranked-from-great-to-disastrous.aspx

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2010/05/26/three-major-reasons-to-feed-your-pet-a-homemade-diet.aspx

TGDS Limerick Contest! Join in the fun!

TGDS Contest Rules:  Submit a limerick about The Good Dog Spot by Wednesday March 13th.  Entries may be submitted in writing to the front office or via email to: Info@gooddogspot.net. 

The top entries will be used in our pawprint art project and posted on Facebook.  The top 3 as chosen by our staff will be awarded prizes at our St. Patty’s Day Pawty on March 15th!

2012 Winning Entry:

They call it The Good Dog Spot

Because dogs really like it a lot.

They run and they play

And have a great day.

You should come & see what they've got!

~Rufus & Willa Castro

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What is a Limerick?  Limericks are one of the most fun and well-known poetic forms. No one knows for sure where the name “limerick” comes from, but most people assume it is related to the county of Limerick, in Ireland.

The reason limericks are so much fun is because they are short, rhyming, funny, and have a bouncy rhythm that makes them easy to memorize. In this lesson, I’ll show you how you can write your own limericks in just a few easy steps.

The Rules:  Limericks, like all poetic forms, have a set of rules that you need to follow. The rules for a limerick are fairly simple:

¨ They are five lines long.

¨ Lines 1, 2, and 5 rhyme with one another.

¨ Lines 3 and 4 rhyme with each other.

¨ They have a distinctive rhythm (which I’ll explain shortly)

¨ They are usually funny.

For more detailed instructions, please visit http://www.poetry4kids.com/blog/lessons/how-to-write-a-limerick/