Welcome to the Week’s Review of Canine Social Media
Welcome to this Special Feature on the DoggieU K9 Blog for an update on this week’s dog-related social media from around the world. There are so many stories. Here we will share some of the best stories this week.
Enjoy & share them.
How Often Should You Feed Your Dog?
New Study Reveals a Surprising Answer!
Of course every dog is different, and if you take into consideration, things like their breed, size, age, and health, their particular dietary requirements may also be different, including what you should feed them, and how much. But what about how often?
A new study that assessed over 10,000 dogs offers some startling insights into the apparent links between feeding frequency and canine health – and the key takeaway is definitely “food for thought.”
- According to the research, adult dogs that are fed only once per day tend to score significantly better across several indicators of health, compared with dogs that are fed more often.
- The study team headed by canine health researcher Emily Bray from the University of Arizona, found that while “controlling for sex, age, breed, and other potential confounders, we found that dogs fed once daily rather than more frequently had lower mean scores on a cognitive dysfunction scale, and lower odds of having gastrointestinal, dental, orthopedic, kidney/urinary, and liver/pancreas disorders.”
- While you shouldn’t rush out and change your feeding routine just yet, the findings suggest that the kinds of benefits seemingly delivered by time-restricted eating – mostly seen in laboratory experiments involving rodents to date – might also extend to companion dogs.
- The results were somewhat of a surprise to the researchers. “We weren’t confident at all that we would see any differences in dogs’ health or cognition based on feeding frequency,” they would have been excited to see an association between feeding frequency and health in just one domain. They were surprised to see associations in so many domains.
- While a feeding frequency of one meal per day was linked with better outcomes for dogs in some areas, in other domains it wasn’t so clear. Measurements for disease risk in terms of cardiac, skin, and neurological health, as well as cancer incidence, didn’t show statistically significant effects.
Nonetheless, despite the limitations, the team says this is the largest study to date of feeding frequency conducted in companion dogs, and there’s clearly something going on here to suggest that feeding your dog only once per day is linked with certain benefits to their health. As for what that is, exactly, it remains unknown, and the researchers emphasize that the results only show an association, and do not demonstrate causality – meaning we can’t conclude that lower frequency of feeding actually causes better health in dogs.
Until much more is known about the underlying mechanisms for this apparent phenomenon – and subsequent research can somehow explain the results further – nobody should change how often they feed their dog based on this one study, the researchers say.
[Link]
An Inspiration to Search & Share Dog-Friendly Places Nearby
An inspiration for all of us to explore where we live and discover the opportunities and possibilities. And, if our world is dog-centric, make that the focus of our exploration.
A “Shout Out” to Kathryn S. who recently moved to Toronto and has taken on the mission of exploring her city and other nearby cities to create and share a list of dog-friendly places for 
other pet parents to visit and enjoy.
On the Ontario, CA license plate it says “Yours to Discover.” Kathryn S certainly took that as an opportunity and shares her travels on an Instagram project that she launched called Houndtario (@houndtario) dedicated to celebrating the province’s pro-pup businesses.
Perhaps, we should all do that. In North America, it is still Spring. Our first “post lock-down Spring.” Time to enjoy being outside with your pet family more. Why not explore a bit more that usual and discover what may be new? A few suggestions:
- Look for places that are pet-friendly. Find out the details and share with others (e.g. space: outdoors, indoors; special times: all day vs specific hours; etc. Things may have changes since last year)
- Look for NEW pet-friendly places. Share those.
- Look for NEW possibilities that could become pet-friendly. Suggest that to the owners.
In a recent blog post, we listed dog-friendly places to eat and drink on Long Island. [Link]
It also gave suggestions for dog parents to make dining out a good experience.
In addition, here is a link to the New York State most recent “Dining with Dogs” Rule: What Restaurants Need to Know. In case you convince a restaurant, bar or winery to become a dog-friendly destination. [Link]
Share your discoveries on social media and feel free to send us new places that you find to info@ doggieuk9.org. We would be happy to update our list.