Category: Emotional Support Animals

Many of us enjoy sharing food with our dogs, even when they are a service dog. They are so easy to feed, always available with an appetite and an interest in whatever foods you’re preparing or eating. It can be easy to assume that if your dog wants to eat something, it can’t be so bad, right? It’s not uncommon, then, to toss your service dog an apple slice or a bit of banana. But are fruits really so good for our wagging tailed friends?

As usual, the answer is a bit more nuanced than a simple Yes or No. In general, most fruits are ok for dogs to eat in small and once-in-a-while portions. In this article we’ll look into what role (if any) fruits play in a service dog’s diet, how to safely feed your pup fruits (in a way that will cause the least collateral damage), and which fruits are actually toxic to a dog’s health. We’ll also look at some specific fruits and find out what their nutrient offerings are, so you may intelligently decide what to put in your service dog’s diet.

Are Fruits Necessary for My Service Dog’s Diet?

Fruits are not necessary for canine health. Fruits are essentially nature’s candy, filled with delicious, oh-so-sweet sugar (in the form of fructose). However, your service dog does not need much sugar. In fact, they get all the sugar they need to survive from carbohydrates (which break down into sugars). Too much sugar in your service dog’s diet is detrimental to his health.

On the other hand, when we look at a dog’s diet in the wild, we see that they do actually eat some fruit. The key here is that they eat a little. Suckers for strong smells, scavenging dogs are especially attracted to rotting fruits and vegetables that have begun to ferment. Additionally, they will eat berries directly off of a bush.

So, are fruits necessary for your service dog’s diet? No. But they do eat a small amount of fruits in the wild and they are can receive some benefit from eating fruits, on a limited basis.

Let’s look at some of the benefits below:

What is the Benefit of Feeding My Service Dog Fruit?

It’s important not to confuse what makes a healthy human diet with what makes a healthy dog diet. We are very different species with different nutritional needs. While humans can do well to include fruit in their diets on a regular basis, it’s not the same for canines.

So, what good, if any, does fruit provide to dogs? Well, fruit offers dogs all the same benefits it offers to humans: vitamins, minerals, hydration, fiber and antioxidants. Really, your service dog should be getting all their nutrients from their high protein dog food, but their bodies certainly can and do process fruits to receive this nutrition as well.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of fruit for dogs is the high antioxidants content. Antioxidants fight free radicals, preventing and preparing oxidative stress, which ultimately protects against cancer and other ailments.

So, will your service dog benefit from fruit? Well, they can. However, they will receive the most benefit if their fruit intake is kept to a minimum. Let’s look at why this is the case.

What are the Negative Side of Fruits?

Fruits are often hailed among humans as being uber healthy, since they are so full of good nutrients and provide us with quick energy when our blood sugar levels drop between meals. However, fruit also has a darker side, particularly for dogs.

As mentioned above, fruit is essentially nature’s candy. In other words, it is packed full of sugar, which can be hard on your service dog’s system. Additionally, the high fiber content, something that is great for humans, can actually be too much for dogs. Let’s take a look at these dangers in more detail.

Sugar-Why is sugar bad for dogs? A multitude of reasons actually: tooth decay, inflammation, poor gut health, weight gain & diabetes, for starters. Let’s break these down:

We all know that sugar is infamous for being bad for our teeth. Basically, tooth decay happens when bacteria that naturally live in the mouth turn sugars into acids. This leads to demineralization in the tooth enamel, which in turn leads to dental decay (ie. Cavities) and dental disease.

Too much sugar also causes inflammation, which means it can both cause and exacerbate arthritis, allergies or even some cancers. When inflammation (a natural body process used as a defensive mechanism against infection) is triggered by chronic intake of sugar, it can become a real problem for your service dog. Some symptoms of chronic inflammation include allergies, fatigue, joint pain, abdominal pain, swelling, mouth sores and rashes.

As if dental health and inflammation weren’t bad enough, sugar can completely screw up the balance of micro organisms in the gut, leading to a thriving atmosphere of the “bad” gut bacteria at the detriment of the “good” bacteria. This can lead to diarrhea, yeast infections and a perfect playground for parasites to thrive. While all of this information is true of humans, it is possibly even more so for your service dog, if only because they need so much less sugar than humans, meaning their bodies will more quickly be thrown out of balance.

Sugar can lead to obesity, which is a growing concern among veterinarians who are seeing more and more overweight dogs. Obesity is dangerous for your canine because it can cause or exacerbate other conditions such as arthritis, heart and respiratory problems. And of course, obesity, can lead to diabetes.

Diabetes type 2 can be caused by excessive sugar in the diet. Insulin is what monitors sugar levels in the blood and helps the body translate sugar into energy. When there’s a ton of sugar, there is a ton of insulin being produced. This can actually lead to cells becoming nonresponsive to the insulin and the pancreatic cells (which produce insulin) become exhausted.

Ultimately, what all this means is, your service dog’s body may wind up having too much blood sugar content, which leads to all kinds of complications, such as organ damage, nerve damage, arterial disease and depression (to name a few).

So keep your service dog healthy by keeping his pancreas happy. Don’t overdo the sugars, so the pancreas doesn’t have to overwork and get worn out!

Fiber-The other complication that can be found from feeding your dog too much fruit, has to do not with the sugar, but with the high fiber content.

While humans need a lot of fiber in our diets, due to our long guts and high-in-vegetation diets, dogs need much less. While dogs need only small amounts of fiber in their diets, they do need it.

In the wild, a dog would get a good amount of fiber from their prey animals: the bones, fur, cartilage and tendons are all fiber. Studies have shown that animal-based fiber is the healthiest source of fiber for dogs, cats and other predator animals, causing less toxic buildup in their bodies.

Of course, we generally think of fiber as being plant sourced, and in a domestic dog’s diet, it typically is. In the wild, a dog will eat the stomach contents of their prey, which means they will get plant-based fiber from whatever their prey is eating (i.e. grasses, barks, berries and other vegetation).

However, many domestic dogs actually get too much fiber, which results in lack of nutrient absorption and frequent bowel movements. Talk to your vet about your dog food options to make sure your service dog food is high in protein and doesn’t contain a ton of filler (such as unnecessary fiber!).

When feeding your service dog fruits, consider that the high fiber content means they really don’t need very much.

How to Share Fruits with Your Furry Friend

So now that you understand the positive and negative consequences of sharing fruits with your dog, you may be thinking, “the negatives clearly outweigh the positives,” but you still want to toss your dog an orange slice or banana piece. Well, good news-the point of this article is not to make you freak out that every time you’ve shared fruit with your service dog you’ve been doing damage.

Sharing fruits with your service dog (with the exception of grapes, and some other toxic plant parts which we’ll discuss below) is fine, as long as you are keeping it to a minimum. Just don’t feed them a whole fruit salad for dinner. A bite here and there as a treat is fine, fun, and even nutritional.

There are, however, a few rules of thumb on how to feed your dog fruit in the most conscientious way, insuring he gets the most nutritional value while avoiding potentially damaging consequences.

First and foremost, as with any new food you are introducing to your service dog’s diet, you want to introduce fruit slowly. Sensitive dog stomachs can respond harshly to foods they aren’t familiar with, causing diarrhea or even vomiting. Additionally, by starting small, you can watch out for potential allergies.

Allergies happen when any dog meets with a particular protein he can’t handle, resulting in anything from itchy skin to organ failure. By starting out slowly, you can observe your service dog’s response and not overfeed him something that will have major consequences.

When feeding your service dog fruits, keep it fresh! In other words, avoid dried and canned fruits. Dried fruits concentrate sugars, which, as we discussed, can lead to major complications with your dog’s health over time. Canned fruit also tends to be extra sweet, often swimming in a syrup of added sugar and preservatives that are definitely unhelpful to your sweet service dog’s health. Stick to fresh fruit!

It is also best to use organic fruit when possible, to avoid damaging pesticides and fertilizers. If not possible, at least be sure to rinse the fruit well, to get as many pesticides and chemical fertilizers removed as possible.

It is also always a good idea to be aware of potential choking hazards. Cut fruit into small bites and remove any big seeds. Dogs tend to gulp their food, rather than chew, leading to complications.

Along this line of thought, it’s also a good idea to remove any peels. While our instinct may be to let our service dog chew on a banana or orange, complete with peel, since it resembles a chew toy and provides entertainment to the dog, in reality, the rough fiber of peels is too much for a dog’s digestive system.

This dense fiber is really challenging for a dog’s stomach to digest. In addition, if they don’t chew it well (and dogs are notorious for not chewing their food!), it can cause plugging of the intestine, which can be deadly. While they will usually just pass the peel, it is really best to avoid the potentially fatal consequences.

If you know your service dog has eaten a peel and is now puking, treat it as an emergency-a dog will puke if their digestive tract is plugged up.

Toxic Fruits! AVOID

Cyanide and Cherries: Often listed as toxic to dogs, the fruit of a cherry is actually just fine for your service dog to consume. However, the seed contains cyanide and is considered poisonous.

In fact, cyanide is found in cherry pits, apple seeds, apricot pits, peach pits, plumb pits and in most stone fruit pits in general. Cyanide is a poison that works by blocking the flow of oxygen between cells, resulting in cell suffocation. Symptoms of cyanide poisoning in your service dog can include dilated pupils, difficulty breathing, bright red gums, shock and even death.

While cyanide poisoning is no joke, it would also require a fair amount of ingested seeds to lead to an emergency situation. Obviously, it is best to avoid eating these seeds altogether, but do not panic if your service dog eats one or two-likely he will be fine. Monitor him and call the vet if you notice any symptoms.

With all the fruits mentioned above, it is important to cut the fruit away from the seed when feeding it to your service dog. This is not the time for letting a peach pit be a chew toy.

Grapes: Grapes (including raisins, grape juice, currents and trail mix that contains raisins!) are the only fruit that are truly toxic to dogs. Seemingly an easy snack to toss your pup’s way, they can actually lead to fatality.

While it is still not understood what this canine-harming toxin in grapes is, the effects of it are real enough. Grapes and raisins can lead to sudden kidney failure. Some dogs are effected, and some are not, though there is no understood pattern among those effected (it has caused kidney failure across breeds, sexes and ages).

Additionally, grape poisoning in canines does not appear to be dose dependent. This means, unlike with the cyanide found in fruit pits, only a couple grapes could cause serious damage to your service dog.

Symptoms of acute kidney failure include a lack of production of urine, halitosis, lethargy, stomach cramps, weakness, loss of appetite, diarrhea & puking (often within a few hours of eating the grapes), tremors, seizures, and death.

If you suspect your service dog has eaten grapes, monitor her closely. If ingestion happened within the last 2 hours, you can induce vomiting by pouring hydrogen peroxide down her throat. Call your vet immediately for guidance.

Canine Friendly Fruits:

Apples: Apples contain vitamins A and C and are low in fat and protein, making them a good snack for your service dog.

Bananas: Bananas are super high in potassium and also contain biotin, copper and other vitamins. However, they are also super high in sugar, so keep pooch’s snacking to a minimum.

Blue Berries: Blueberries are a superfood and make an excellent dog snack. They are high in antioxidants, great for the eyes and are akin to berry snacks dogs would eat in the wild.

Melon (cantaloupe and watermelon): High in water and nutrients, melons are fine as a snack for your service dog, but their high sugar content means they should be kept to a minimum.

Cranberries: Cranberries are great, especially fresh-they are more sour than sweet.

Mango: Mangos are a fine snack to share with your service dog, just be sure to remove the peel and pit. They contain vitamins A, B6, C and E.

Oranges: Oranges are a good snack, so long as you remove the peel which includes too much roughage for a dogs digestive system. Oranges are high in vitamin C and potassium.

Peaches: Peaches are high in vitamin A and a great snack, as long as you remember to avoid giving your service dog the pit. In other words, don’t just hand your dog a whole peach to munch on, tempting as that is!

Pear: Pears are excellent fruits to share with your service dog, being high in copper and vitamins C and K. Again, be sure to avoid the seeds.

Pineapple: Pineapple is great because it actually contains an enzyme called bromelain which helps with absorption of protein-excellent for a meat-eating dog!

Raspberries: While raspberries are great for their anti-inflammatory effects, and are low in sugar, they DO contain some xylitol, which is bad for your service dog. Just be sure not to feed your dog more than a cup at a time.

Strawberries: Strawberries contain an enzyme that actually works to whiten your dog’s teeth! However, they are also high in sugar, so be sure you aren’t so excited about white teeth that you’re actually causing cavities for poor Fido.

Tomatoes: Tomato fruit is great, but be sure your service dog doesn’t get a hold of the green part of the plant which contains a toxin called solanide. Only toxic in large amounts, watch out if your dog is eating your tomato plants in the garden!

Conclusion

Sharing fruit with your service dog can be fun and even nutritional for them. Just be sure to keep their fruit intake to a minimum and AVOID GRAPES! If you stick to that mantra, you and your furry pooch will likely have many happy days sharing the fruit basket.

The importance of a good diet really can’t be stressed enough. The absolute best way to maintain excellent health for your furry friend is to provide an excellent diet of high quality food. But choosing the best food for your emotional support dog can feel like an overwhelming proposition, especially with so much marketing out there urging you towards one brand or another.

So how do you choose the right food for your pup?

Diet can be tricky. There are a lot of factors to consider and a ton of junk to wade through. It can be tempting to just give Fido the cheapest kibble on the shelf and call it good. But if you want to ensure your wagging bestie has the highest quality of life—and protect yourself from crazy medical expenses down the line—it’s well worth making the effort to figure out the healthiest diet.

Here’s a list that can serve as a gentle guide as you consider the options. First thing’s first is to know your dog, know yourself and have a basic understanding of what the options even are.

What’s Right For Your Emotional Support Dog?

First, consider the dog in question: age, sex and breed may all make a difference in which diet will be best for your particular hound. Is your dog breeding? A female who is pregnant or lactating will likely have special nutritional needs for example. Likewise, a puppy has different nutritional needs than an adult dog, just as a senior dog has different needs again.

For instance, greyhounds are a breed that is particularly susceptible to bloat—a dangerous condition that is exacerbated by dry food. Therefore, a wet diet is in order for this beautiful dog. Allergies are another thing again. If your emotional support dog has allergies, you’ll want to adjust the diet to fit your particular pooch.

Here’s a quick list of some general considerations. For specifics, it is always helpful to ask your vet for suggestions and guidance. Even better, talk to a dog nutritionist who is specifically trained in canine diet.

Puppies

Puppies are eating machines and are usually fed more food and more frequently than an adult dog. There’s good reason for this: puppies are growing and thus need a more calorie dense diet. They have a need for more fat, more vitamins and more minerals. Puppies also need ample amounts of omega 3 fatty acids to support brain and eye development. They basically just need MORE, since all their organs and body systems are ravenous, eager to strengthen and grow. It’s important when choosing a food to be sure you’re choosing a diet specific to their age, since a kibble designed for an adult won’t provide the same range of nutrients that is required for a wee one.

Senior emotional support dogs

When it comes to senior emotional support dogs, you have to consider an entirely opposite range of issues. Unlike the growing puppy who needs ample food, a senior dog has a metabolism that has significantly slowed down. Therefore, they need less fat and less calories.

An old dog has a weakening immune system and may have arthritis. There are diets designed specifically for supporting these ailments. For example, a dog with heart problems will likely be given a reduced sodium diet. A dog with kidney disease will need proteins that are easily digestible. Antioxidants and omega 3 fatty acids are always a good idea for the senior dog, since they will help keep the immune system strong.

Allergies

Allergies are very specific to the individual dog. If you have a emotional support dog that suffers from gut or skin and fur issues, there’s a good chance he has allergies. But just what food is causing the negative response?

There are diets designed specifically for discovering the culprit of his allergies. Basically, it works by feeding your emotional support dog only a single protein and NO fillers for two weeks. Then you switch it up, to another single protein, all while watching your dog’s energy levels, skin issues and stool. One dog may need a diet wholly based on white fish, for instance, while another is much better with chicken. Science diet is a brand of kibble designed to assist in this process.

What’s Right For You?

In addition to considering your emotional support dog’s personal needs, you’ll also want to consider your own needs. For instance, what is in your budget? And what’s convenient? You may want to feed your emotional support dog a raw food diet, but it’s either too expensive to pay out of pocket or too inconvenient to prepare the meals yourself. Perhaps you could strike a balance between a raw and kibble diet, something that both satisfies your desire to provide good nutrition for your furry one, and won’t lead resentment for the time, money and effort put into it.

A good rule of thumb is to consider your budget first. What is the most you can afford to invest in your emotional support dog’s diet? Then, choose three brands of food within your range to experiment with. Try each one for about 3 weeks, all the while watching your dog’s energy levels, stool and over all well being. You’ll have some good information to make an educated choice by the end of your food experiment.

How to Choose a Brand You Can Trust

With a huge plethora of brands spanning our wonderful capitalist market, picking one that is ethical, safe and healthy can be a chore. There are plenty of junk food pet brands that lead to pet obesity. In fact, dog obesity is a leading cause of dog death, since it leads to diabetes and all kinds of other health complications.

You will definitely want to steer clear of the brands that cut corners and do not have the health of your emotional support dog in mind.

You can narrow down your research by consulting your vet or your local pet store. They will be a wealth of information, helping you to choose the brand that is both the healthiest and in line with your budget.

Here are some basic guidelines to keep in mind when perusing the well stocked pet food aisle:

What’s the first ingredient?

Generally, pay attention to the first ingredient listed—is it a grain? Or an animal? The first ingredient listed makes up the highest content in the food. The second ingredient makes up the second highest content, and so on. The first ingredient should be a meat like chicken, lamb or fish and should account for over 25% of the total ingredients. 50% or more is even better.

Steer away from high carb brands—dogs have a hard time digesting a ton of gluten. This means if the first ingredient is a grain, move down the line. Dogs are designed to eat carcasses, not bread.

The more animal protein the better. A good brand will be specific in the ingredients, and may even give percentages of each, which is fantastic (i.e. 45% salmon, 25% herring, etc). A sketchy brand will be very vague and list ingredients like, “meat, vitamins, additives, oils, flavors, etc”. Umm, gross.

You do not want to leave it up to guess work what is going into your emotional support dog’s belly.

The more protein the dog food has, the more efficiently your emotional support dog will be able to digest it. Your dog’s body has no use for filler. Filler can include things like corn bran, rice bran, nut hulls, oat hulls, feathers and even straw. It literally leads to not only more dog poop, but smellier dog poop, as well as more gas, since your emotional support dog’s body has to discard all the useless crap (pun intended) that it just ate. A cleaner yard and a break for your nose is a good reason in itself to upgrade your emotional support dog’s diet.

What Do the Labels Signify?

Here’s a quick intro to what you can expect from economy, regular and premium dog foods.

Economy

Basic dog foods are the junk food of the pet market. Their primary ingredient is made up of fillers like corn, wheat and ground up byproducts. There is very little regulation in the safety of pet foods, so frequently the grains used in these pet foods have been condemned for human consumption and sloughed off onto the animals we call friends. The toxicity can include hazardously high amounts of pesticides in the grains and 4D labeled meat. 4D meat stands for: dead, dying, diseased or disabled. Not the highest quality.

Dogs do have amazing stomachs, however, and are designed to consume rotting flesh, so it’s probably they can handle some amount of the dead, dying and diseased without adverse effects. Still, it’s a bit questionable how much healthy protein they’re getting from unhealthy animals.

Regular

A step up from economy, regular dog foods source their main protein from meat (as opposed to a grain). However, protein may not be the primary ingredient. This label still contains additives, but has a higher digestibility rating than economy class foods.

Premium

Premium brand dog foods have a meat protein as the primary ingredient. The meat may still come from iffy byproducts, but at least your emotional support dog is getting a high meat diet.

Super-Premium

Currently the highest official standard of dog food, super-premium brands have NO filler (including no ground meat byproducts or corn). These dog foods are by far the healthiest, as they are made from fresh, quality, whole meat.

Holistic

A subcategory of Super-premium, Holistic dog foods contains whole vegetables and fruits in addition to whole meat (such as sweet potato, pumpkin and berries).

Ingredients to Watch Out For

It’s also a good idea to have a general understanding of which ingredients to avoid and which ones might sound funny, but are actually really good!

Good Ingredients

Fish oil, animal fat (usually chicken) and liver are excellent. Vitamin E oil is a preservative used by high quality commercial food and A-OK for the pooch. Other helpful additives include rosemary extract, vitamin C and tocopherols.

Bad Ingredients

Corn and it’s derivative (corn meal, maize gluten, CGM). Corn is particularly damaging if it is in the first 3 ingredients (since that means there is far too much of it) but lesser amounts may be ok depending on the dog. Corn is fattening and leads to all kinds of health problems, including allergy development. Best to keep the corn out all together if you can help it.

Wheat is another grain dogs really don’t have much use for. It is high in gluten, which canine bodies aren’t built to digest.

Peas are ok in small quantities, but can cause painful flatulence if the percentage is too high.

There’s no need for artificial dyes or flavorings, so steer away from these mysterious chemicals.

Also, be aware of the preservatives used. These three ingredients are TOXIC: butylhydroxyanisole, butylhydroxytoluene and ethoxyquin.

While these preservatives have been outlawed for human consumption because they have been shown to cause cancer and immune system disorders, they still have not been banned from dog foods. Any pet food that uses one of these preservatives does not have your emotional support dog’s health in mind (and who wants to support unethical companies anyway?)

And of course, while reading the list of ingredients, you’ll want to pay attention to any allergies specific to your emotional support dog.

What About Raw, Wet and Dry Food Options?

Raw:

Raw food is a great option if you are up for it. It is the closest to a dog’s natural diet and provides a high degree of bio available nutrition including live enzymes. A raw food diet will be naturally low in carbs and lead to better gut and dental health.

You don’t need to worry about dangerous pathogens of raw meat, because dogs have strong bellies designed for digesting. Any harmful pathogens will pass right through a dog’s digestive tract.

One of the perks of the raw diet is that your emotional support dog’s poop will be less smelly than with conventional foods. This is because this diet is so efficient that the dog’s body will utilize every bit of food going in, leaving only powdered bone (and some other stuff!) to come out the other end. Actually, their poop should also become harder on a raw diet, which is a good thing as it maintains healthy anal glands. A dog’s anal glands should release every time they poop, but because kibble tends to make stool soft, the glands don’t release and then they get blocked. This can lead to the “scooting” that some dogs do.

The bone in a raw food diet also acts as a tooth cleaner and as a fiber—yay!

The main challenge with a raw food diet is being sure to keep it balanced. If you’re game, this can be a really fun, educational, “homestead in your own kitchen” activity. Or, if that’s not your thing, it can be a terrible chore. Luckily, because there are so many great raw food pet brands coming out, you don’t have to put quite so much sweat and effort into providing a raw diet for your emotional support dog!

Freeze dried: Freeze dried food is often a part of the raw food diet. It is raw food that has had the moisture evaporated, making it stable and transportable, while retaining the nutritional density of straight raw meat. Just rehydrate (or feed as is!).

Canned: Wet food is the next best option to raw food. It contains more meat protein than kibble, less carbs, and because of the airtight packaging, no preservatives. It has twice as much fat and protein and is less processed. It is more hydrating and has more nutrients. However, it is less convenient and definitely messier than kibble. It must be refrigerated and used within a few days of opening.

Kibble: It can be hard to believe that kibble has only been around for a few decades in the current world of kibble craze. It is assumed that kibble offers the best, most balanced diet for our pets, since it is essentially like taking a vitamin. The problem is that the vitamin lacks food.

With frequent kibble recalls due to salmonilla or chemical contaminants, kibble is not even safer than other options. Dogs definitely take less personal enjoyment out of their dry, super processed meals and the high carb content leads to poor teeth and gum health.

On the other hand, kibble is no doubt the most convenient way to feed your emotional support dog. In the very least, use a high grade kibble and mix up the meat content: give them chicken one week and lamb the next. Variety improves nutrition intake.

Conclusion

It’s not so hard to feed your emotional support dog a high protein and high nutrition diet. You could have fun fashioning a combination diet of raw, wet and dry foods! Or get guidance from your vet. Just be aware of the definite ingredients you want to steer away from, and then observe the vibrancy of your pup. If they are energetic and happy, you’re doing something right!