How To Change Your Dog's Diet

As more and more new findings about your diet come to the surface, many a dog owner will begin to consider changing the diet to the best available so the dog will have good health and live to a ripe old age.

However, it’s very important for any dog owner to take precautions when trying to change a diet. The following 5 steps are suggested in a manner that can be done effectively without throwing the dog off balance:

Step 1: During such times as changing owner or moving to a new location, it's best not to change the diet so as to avoid too much unnecessary emotional strain on the dog. Once the dog becomes accustomed to the new owner or living environment, then it would be the right time to change the dog's diet as planned.

Step 2: When it comes to changing the dogs diet, it should be done by replacing only 25% of the old food with the new. Most dogs will not be able to notice any difference if the old and the new are mixed well enough. They should eat the new mixture as well as the old diet.

Although some might not get used to the new diet initially, patience should be taken to allow for the break-in period to complete. It has taken the dog many months to get used to its old diet; therefore, for the dog to accept a new one it might sometimes take as long. As soon as the dog is eating 25% of the new mixture of diet, then it'd be safe to proceed to Step 3 as shown below.

Step 3: Mix and replace 50% of the old diet with the new this time and make a little less effort to hide the new diet from the dog as it should be more receptive to the new food presented in the new mixture now. When this is evident, proceed to Step 4.

Step 4: This time, it should be easily understood that 75% of the new food be substituted with the old one. And make an even lesser effort to hide the new food from the dog. At this stage, the dog should accept this newly mixed diet in an "as-a-matter-of-fact" manner. It should eat the dog food without any sign of hesitation when first fed.

Step 5: At this point, the dog should be accepting the newly mixed and replaced diet without any problem at all. If the dog accepted the first feeding at Step 4 easily, this final step should just be "a piece of cake." Just like humans, dogs are uniquely different and some are bound to require more patience and attention.

Therefore, don't become discouraged too easily when the dog is not fitting into the new diet in the beginning.

After all, changing a dog's diet is often a time consuming process that should be done with care and understanding.

Dog Years - Human Years

The life expectancy of any dog is commonly expressed in terms of dog years. It depends entirely on the dog's breed, and size as well as the dog's surroundings. Various other factors affect the life expectancy of a dog. A dog's life span changes according to the diet provided to him and also by the number of medical problems the dog tends to face over the years.

The average life span of the small dog like Chihuahua is about 15 to 16 years, while medium sized dogs like Border Collies have a life span of 10 to 13 years. It can be noticed big dogs like Great Dan live up to only 7 to 8 years. Calculating the life expectancy of a particular dog can be accurately done with the help of "size or the specific breed calculator," which is said to be one of the most accurate age approximate results about the dog's predictable lifespan based on the size as well as the breed of the dog.

It is generally assumed that, on an average, "one human year equals to seven dog years." This statement may not be appropriate, since the first two years are jointly represented by 18-25 years in such schemes and because the entire ratio cannot be generalized for all the dogs though, they belong to different sizes and breeds. An exact ratio of dog years vs. human year cannot be formulated. However, some obvious features remain similar between both aging humans and dogs.

It is generally assumed that the human equivalent of a one-year dog is supposedly fully grown by both mental and physical aspects. Dogs like humans tend to develop advanced muscular features as they grow along with a similar mental development. Through a major dog study, it has been estimated for dogs of all breeds and sizes that, nearly "64 percent of dogs" were etherized because they were affected with some kind of diseases. Only 8 percent of the total dogs live beyond 15 years and nearly 16 percent of them die yearly due to heart diseases and cancer. Human lives are not terminated even if they suffer from rare and incurable diseases' and this is the main reason why the lifespan of an average human being is reasonably long.

The effects of aging in dogs is said to be dormant for several years. But like humans, dogs do undergo physical changes as well. The first sign of aging in dogs is said to be the decrease in its activity levels. The sleeping period in these dogs also becomes longer. The canines experience a drastic change in their skin condition, limb usage, appetite and they experience tooth loss as well. Their sense of hearing and vision also diminishes gradually. Older dogs tend to experience stiffness in their body. All these obvious signs of aging can even be found in humans. The human years are extended only because of advanced modern medicine and various other drugs that are designed to deal with symptoms of old age.

Dogs and humans may not have the same physiology, yet some obvious similarities can be noticed when both species age. Dog Years and Human Years may not be directly related by some advanced equation, but to the naked eye the equivalence of corresponding features of Dog Years and Human Years are quite visible.