Often Underestimated: What Role Does Nutrition Play in My Dog's Training?

The topic of nutrition is particularly close to my heart. A large part of my therapy and training conversations has to do with the right nutrition for dogs, but always as just one part of the whole. With this blog post I would like to give you an overview of my work and the perspectives I take.

In general, in consultations with my clients I always look closely at 3 areas:

I. Dog training

Here I ask myself the following questions:

What did the previous training achieve? Where are there timing or technique errors?

Where have we actually reinforced unwanted behaviour instead of avoiding it?

Does the dog know the signals at all, can they reliably carry out commands?

Are all the 'ingredients for successful dog training' taken into account, or are they even known?

II. Your dog's health

Before I look at health aspects here, I always also consider how old the dog is and what their breed-specific disease risks could be. In addition to the training aspects, I look at the overall picture of the dog. Are there any illnesses (discovered or even undiscovered)? What is their gait like, what about their gastrointestinal health? Knowledge of the fundamental aspects of a dog's health is decisive here. We also always take a close look at the vaccination and deworming schedule and check whether things are being overdone here at the dog's expense. I always have a few good tips ready for checking this.

III. Nutrition

This point actually makes up a large part of your training success!

How do I even notice whether my dog is well and sufficiently supplied with nutrients in their diet, and whether I have an undetected allergy sufferer? Because food allergies in dogs often manifest in a way that is not recognised as an allergy. The dog is unfocused, has pain that they show through over-reactive behaviour and is not at all in balance with themselves and their world.

Dog nutrition can generally take different forms. You have to decide this entirely individually, get advice on all the forms and then try them out over a longer period (weeks, months). Whether BARF, dry food, wet food or cooking / gently steaming for the dog yourself. All forms of nutrition have their justification and show successes, but they also have health-related and practical downsides. However, many mistakes can also happen.

I have seen cases of incorrect nutrition with every one of these forms, and you always have to be able to look at everything in its overall context. I had a dog in consultation where BARF was the only way to treat a gastrointestinal inflammation and finally give the dog good gastrointestinal health again. But I have also had cases where behavioural problems (e.g. strong sensitivity to stimuli) had their cause in missing carbohydrates in the BARF diet. This could then be remedied quickly by changing something in the recipe. If you do not recognise this, you often tinker with the dog's behaviour without ever being able to treat the causes. Your dog then has to perform very complex tasks despite discomfort and pain and resign themselves to their fate. A dog with discomfort or pain also cannot learn and train in a sustained and concentrated way. Then your training and all those hours of effort really were in vain.

There is also potential danger with dry food, because nowadays many dogs are allergic to the protein sources it contains (these are types of meat; dogs often react to chicken, salmon and beef) or to the preservatives in the food.

Even if you buy a supposedly chicken-free food, when you read the ingredients closely, there is chicken in it again somewhere, which the dog ultimately reacts to. I am happy to advise you personally on this and look at your food with all its ingredients.

My Labrador Lucky is very allergic to proteins, and I have tried various brands and forms of nutrition and found the brand that is right for us. Usually this process is a long journey at the expense of the four-legged friend, and you have to observe them again and again over a longer period and take various factors into account.

In the end, I always look at these things in a dog and how their food affects them:

1. Does the dog shed more after the change, or do they have a well-fitting coat? (of course you have to check whether it is shedding season, when they always shed a little more)

2. Does the coat have a beautiful shine? Shiny hair (in humans too, by the way) is an indicator of good health. It should always shine from the 'inside', meaning without me having to apply oils from the 'outside' to the coat to make it shine. Neutered dogs can also keep their shiny coat through good nutrition.

3. Is the stool regular and of firm consistency? (so at most 3x per day, depending on how often I feed my dog) And is there rather less stool than too much? Because often, when the dog cannot utilise the nutrients, you have to feed a lot and the food still comes back out 1:1 in volume anyway. This would be a sign that you might want to consider a change here.

4. Is the dog balanced and able to concentrate well? If you are sure that you are doing good training with your dog, that their health is right and that you have not accidentally conditioned / reinforced restless behaviour, then a dog should be able to concentrate well, be balanced and want to explore their environment joyfully. If that is not the case or the dog is very sensitive to stimuli, the wrong food could also be the cause here.

5. Does my dog start eating more things from the ground (especially horse droppings, other faeces etc.)? This would be a sign that they are looking for nutrients, or that the new food is so unappetising for them that they have to seek satisfaction from other things.

6. Does my dog smell unpleasant? A healthy being is in harmony with itself and accordingly smells good. Dogs generally need to be bathed only rarely because their coat regulates itself. If my dog smells musty, the wrong diet could also be the reason here.

If these points achieve a good result, you have found a good food for your beloved dog. If not, feel free to contact us and we will advise you individually.

Your Jennifer and the Swiss Dog School Zurich team!