I feed my dogs decent food: Nutro Natural Choice Lite with glucosamine and chondroitin.  I always thought, they have the glucosamine and chondroitin for joint health, they have the protein and other good stuff to keep them well-ish, and they have the kibble-only aspect for clean white teeth and no poison scares.

Turns out, what I’m doing is fine, but pups could be happier and healthier if I were to follow in the steps of Craig Carlson, nutrition specialist at the Posh Paw in Dupont.

Sure, the Posh Paw sells fun stuff such as charm collars for cats, Planet Dog rubber chew toys, and even Simply Fido organic toys, in addition to kid-tempting baked goods for pups. But that’s only part of it. 

The Posh Paw also has an extensive selection of quality pet foods, some of it exotic (wild kangaroo and apple, anyone? or how about vegetarian kibble?) some of it organic, all of it high-quality.

Carlson told me to look at the first few ingredients of food I’m feeding my dogs. “You want real meat products, not by-products or glutens, substituting for proteins,” he advised, and continued, “Their brain doesn’t say, ‘you’re full now’ —they have a protein level, and when they reach that, their brains say, “you’re full.”

Carlson advocates raw food for both cats and dogs. For cats, raw foods contain necessary moisture and the sort of carnivorous diet that they’re suited for.

For dogs, raw food like that in the Primal Pet Foods brand sold at the shop make feeding raw easy and provides nutrients that a dog wouldn’t get from a whole raw chicken: in addition to real chicken, the Primal canine chicken formula contains organic kale, organic carrots, and organic yams, plus a host of other real ingredients that don’t take a PhD to decipher.

Carlson also advocates variety and rotation — offering things like kibble and raw bones, or rotating around the diet between kibble, raw and canned.

And Carlson doesn’t just talk the talk — his own 8-year-old dogs are raw-fed pups, which gives him the grounds for such staunch conviction.

“When you see an animal with 30 ear infections go down to two, there’s not a lot of room for question.”

Compelling, that: with Tank and his ears and allergies, and Bill and his dysplasia, don’t I have everything to gain?

Food for thought…



[The Posh Paw, 1545 Willington Dr., DuPont,  253.964.8300]