Barkers Feeding Guide

Barkers Feeding Guide

1. Feed premium quality food which generally means avoid supermarket dog food.
2. Feed only the amount recommended by the manufacturer. They’re all keen for you to re- order sooner rather than later.

Raw Diet vs Kibble
What we feed our dog can affect their behaviour. For this reason the more natural (unprocessed)
their diet, the better is has to be for them.
Although many vets and pet shops will tell you that premium kibble is a complete diet, the one
ingredient missing is moisture and all mammals need to absorb some moisture from the food they
eat.
This brings me back to the raw diet position. Produced professionally, a raw diet contains everything
a dog needs for optimum health, including moisture. A premium raw diet will contain a single
protein, fruit, vegetables, a probiotic, ground up bones and organ meats, omega oils and minerals.

How often should I feed my dog?
The rule of thumb is to feed only the recommended amount in any 24 hour period. How you
dispense that food is irrelevant; in fact it’s a great resource to use for training and mental
enrichment all through the day:

• Pack raw, fresh food into a Kong and freeze. Great to calm them and keep them occupied
  when they are alone.
• Spread your raw, fresh food (or baby food works well) onto a Lickimat and use for calming or
  desensitising during handling (brushing, nail clipping, introducing new equipment).
• Sprinkle/hide food around the house or garden for them to “hunt”. See notes below on
  treats.
• Buy food dispensing toys that they need to work out, to get their food.
• Use some premium food mentioned below as rewards during training and on walks.
• Use in puzzles in which they need to open, slide, turn parts to release food.

What treats should I use?
If your dog is fussy or anxious you may need to look to human food such as cooked sausage, BBQ
chicken, cheese, cabanossi etc.

However, some pretty enticing treats are air-dried foods. The two I use are Ziwi Peak and Providore.
Used as a staple diet they are very expensive but a 4kg bag used only as treats are quite good value.

This means that at the end of the day you know your dog has only eaten raw, fresh food and super-
premium air-dried food: a truly superior natural diet.

What about their teeth?
You still can’t go past a raw, fresh bone from the butchers. The two varieties I use are a beef shin
bone and beef brisket bones: great for cleaning their teeth and for keeping them occupied for an
extended period.

Many pet shops these days also keep an array of natural tough things for your dog to chew, e.g.
antlers and horns, hooves of various origins, bully sticks, shark skin. Can’t get more natural than
that!

Take a look here to see the vast array of what’s available