admin answers:

To begin with, vets will always say no because they have to incase you feed it something it shouldn’t have and sew them. This is just like when they will tell you to bring the dog in for a visit because it sneezed funny one day, for that one day it is something serious and they get sewed.

I would NEVER feed it table scraps if you want to train your dog in any kind of job/sport, which depending on the breed could be Schutzhund, hunting, agility, or competitive obedience just to name a few. From personal experience the best way to train a dog using food is to feed it ONLY its dog food for meals, and reward it during training with ONLY one type of treat that it loves. There is no question the best diets are those made up of natural foods without the preservatives and garbage fillers that most commercial brands are made of, but that is expensive and take a lot of time to prepare. If you give the dog the food we eat, then its food and treats lose their value and therefore can kill the dog’s drive in training. In short, why would you be motivated to work for a hot dog when you can be given a ribeye steak for free? You wouldn’t, the basic principle is that the less of something you have the more you value it, and the greater the value the harder you will work for it. If a dog thinks feeding time is whenever they walk into the kitchen to beg, then you are steadily losing your dog’s respect when you give in to that. Dogs may love their owners for throwing them handouts but that doesn’t mean they respect them.

If you only want a simple house pet then there is really not much harm, so long as you DO NOT give it anything that it can not eat; sugar, chocolate, grapes, ect…. Atleast, if you do give it handouts, make it do something to earn that. A simple obedience command like sit would suffice, this teaches them that food isn’t free and you own the food and must be respected if you’re going to share it. Since most house dogs are very soft (tempermentally) and have very dull drives compared to their wolf cousins or well bred working dogs, there is usually not much drive to destroy and little lost in ‘training.’

In short it depends, but beware of what you are sacrificing for no real gain beyond a garbage disposal of food that was dropped on the floor or can’t be finished. Get a list from credible source (vet) as to what foods dogs can not eat if you’re going to give them handouts.

I have a 3 month old working line GSD who has no clue what human food tastes like, and loves liver treats. He will do anything for them and this makes training a pretty painless endeavor. He will never know the taste of human food unless he steals it behind my back. He knows how to sit, heel, heel and sit when I stop, lie down, and comes the instant he’s called. This isn’t because I’m a great trainer it’s because he has a great reason to listen, he thinks those liver treats are the best food in the world.

admin answers:

You need to be more specific, ask about specific foods because there are many “human foods” that can kill a dog. These include chocolate and onions.

If you are going to feed your dog human food, make sure your dog can tolerate them, and don’t make it a regular thing. Your dog needs many nutrients that he or she probably will not get by eating human food only. Check with your vet.

admin answers:

Lots of people cook food for their dogs. It depends on what YOU want to do. Kibble is more portable and easier to feed, but home made food is more controlled – you know exactly what you’re feeding.

I feed my lab Evo.