Cooking for Your Dog

This post is a modification of my Standard Schnauzers column in the AKC Gazette, July 2013.

Hippocrates said, “Let food be thy medicine.”

I wrote a cookbook, Cooking for Your Dog [1], especially for a historic event for the three Schnauzer breeds—Standard, Miniature, and Giant. Held at Purina Farms west of St. Louis, Missouri, Schnauzapalooza was the first time the three breeds’ parent clubs joined their National Specialty dog shows at the same place and time. I sold the book as part of one of the event’s special features, The Art of the Schnauzer. In addition to lots of canine nutrition information and over 60 great recipes for dog food and treats, the book included more than 400 photographs of puppies ranging in age from shortly after their birth to a year old. The book’s cover graphic is the Chinese Zodiac symbol for The Year of the Dog.

Dog food manufacturers claim only they can provide a dog’s “complete and balanced” diet. Domestic dogs have thrived on their own scavenging for over 4000 years, but the commercial dog food industry has existed only since about World War II. Healthy dogs can eat what we eat—their diet, balanced over time like ours, is more complete with home-cooking. Commercial foods, even those touted and sold by veterinarians, often lack elements crucial to your dog’s health.

Recent commercial dog food recalls for contamination, toxins, or bad ingredients are scary [2]. Foods cooked lightly over low heat are better for both nutrition and food safety than raw or commercial diets. Nasty bacteria and enzymes in raw foods pose health concerns not only for dogs but for the people preparing and handling it. Lightly cooked fresh meats, poultry, fish, eggs, fruits, and vegetables are the basis of healthy canine diets.

Thinking about changing your dog to home-cooked meals? First decide if you want to add fresh and home-cooked food to her present diet, or if you want to replace her current diet with a completely home-cooked one. If you choose replacement rather than adding, the most important question to ask yourself is whether you can continue cooking for her for her entire lifetime—not an easy commitment in today’s busy world. Don’t stress your dog by switching to home-cooked meals, then switching back to commercial foods. First, try adding some fresh home-cooked foods to her regular dog food for a few days each week or adding those leftover dabs you refrigerate but then throw out a week later. Your dog would love leftovers from your own meals as a tasty garnish for his supper.

Don’t rush into cooking for your dog until taking into account your time after your daily activities, but when cooking for yourself, add just a bit extra for your dog as long as it doesn’t contain a food forbidden to him. Or try some of my recipes: some will appear here in posts, and some others will be sent periodically to members of my e-mail list (see form for joining the list in the column on the right).

Remember you may occasionally board your dog or have to leave her at your veterinary hospital. If you’ve converted to a completely home-cooked diet, you’ll need to provide the kennel or hospital with home-cooked meals to keep her eating, or she may refuse to eat their normal provisions. An abrupt change to whatever the kennel or hospital is feeding may cause tummy upsets, too.

If you do decide to cook for your dog as a full replacement, take it slowly. If you suddenly switch him to unfamiliar food, he can develop gastric distress or diarrhea. Start by adding some homemade foods to his regular diet. Observe him for adverse reactions—if there are none, gradually add more of the great new food you cook for him.

There are good commercial dog foods from small manufacturers using human-grade food that has been processed carefully without overcooking. Do research to find any available in your area to which you can add your own preparations. The Whole Dog Journal’s annual reviews of canned, moist, and dry commercial dog foods are a good place to start—take their reviews with you to your pet food store, and read those commercial ingredient labels carefully [3].

Record your dog’s current health before you start adding these recipes to his diet. Keep track of new occurrences of previously-known health problems, such as allergies, eczema, lethargy, and so forth. See if the new diet might mean improved health and fewer trips to the veterinarian for diet-related ailments, or if it causes a worsening of his symptoms.

Check with your veterinarian about cooking for dogs with special dietary needs. A nutritional veterinary specialist or a homeopathic or naturopathic veterinarian may be helpful. Don’t try to diagnose and treat your dog’s health issues on your own. Even decades of dog ownership and breeding experience do not equal a trained veterinarian’s skill in diagnosing problems (I caution you not to rely upon Dr. Google for diagnosis, either). Older vets practicing for years have tons of practical experience, whereas younger vets recently out of vet school know the latest research and techniques. The best of both is a vet clinic with a mix of both the old and the new—and maybe a trained nutritionist on the staff to help you cook for your dog.

For your information, Schnauzapalooza II will take place at Purina Farms in April 2019. Check the web sites of the Standard Schnauzer Club of America, the American Miniature Schnauzer Club, and the Giant Schnauzer Club of America for more details closer to the event.

Smith, Suzanne T., Cooking for Your Dog. Los Alamos, NM: ODJ Books, 2013.
http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/RecallsWithdrawals/default.htm
http://www.thewholedogjournal.com/