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Pet Food Additives

by CHRISTINE EMERSON, dog behaviourist at Drove Veterinary Hospital

THE next time you fill up your dog’s water bowl, put cherryade in it instead.

No? You couldn’t possibly do that? Why not - many of you dog owners out there are feeding them the equivalent of cherryade in their food bowl!

Yes, you are right to be horrified. What is worse is that those well-known brands of dog food on supermarket shelves often contain very poor quality ingredients (cereals, meat and animal derivatives) and to make the junk food palatable they add sugar, caramel, toxic e-numbers and colourings.

Just like children, dogs will be overenergetic and unable to concentrate if they are fed junk. Indeed, before you even try to train your dog or improve his behaviour, you need to be sure you are feeding good quality food. If he is barking, nervous or pulling on the lead, his food could be the cause. Your dog will simply not be able to concentrate on learning something new while he has toxic chemicals whizzing through his brain.

Take a look at the ingredients list on the packet or tin, avoid the ingredients mentioned above and choose one that names a cereal, like rice or barley, names a meat, like lamb or chicken, and uses vitamins as preservatives.