All Natural Diet...help please!!

  Hi; glad to have you back; I assume TBone has floppy ears (hound mix). Do you clean them weekly? It's the best way to keep yeast and bacteria from building up. I have a mega allergy dog and this is what I use;

http://www.vetamerica.com/epi-otic-ear-solution-8-oz.aspx   Dark debris is usually caused by yeast, and lighter colored waxy debris can be bacteria.  

 By natural diet, do you mean home prepared? You need to feed more than meat to give your dogs the nutrients they need. Monica Segal has booklets with balanced cooked and raw diets. She will also design a diet for your dog;    http://www.monicasegal.com/

 There are companies that make very good dog foods with all natural ingredients. Here's a few;

http://www.naturapet.com/

http://www.holisticselect.com/HS_Dog.html

 I wouldn't recommend a choker, especially for walking.

tiffy

 I wouldn't recommend a choker, especially for walking.

And this has what to do with an all-natural diet? Not trying to be snarky but she didn't ask for your opinion on how she walks her dogs.

Back ON topic...It sounds like the vet wants to do an elimination diet, kind of. Really 'all natural' is so vague now that it's kind of meaningless to me. I (used to, when I fed commercial foods) look for companies that I could trust. You didn't say that he'd had fish, and there are lots of good fish-based dry foods out there. In a pinch I'll give my guy Natural Balance's fish and sweet potato. Orijen is popular right now, and so is Wellness' CORE Ocean Blue. I'm so far removed from the commercial pet food world, I kind of forget what's out there.

I agree with Jesse's mom that home-cooked is really great when you have a 'special' dog - it's easy to make SURE you know exactly what they are getting. I used Mordanna to formulate Pirate's recipe but I've heard great things about Monica Segal too.

 I notice the best food they have at Petsmart is Natures Choice or the Blue brand.

I don't clean TBones ears like I should I will be good a do it a few weeks but then stop cause it takes two people to do it. 

The dogs have had salmon only a handful of times if that. 

I picked up the Natures Choice salmon flavor. 

Do you cook your dog meat and put it in their food or just dry kibble? Any suggestions would be great. 

Out of PetSmart's selection I like Blue Buff the best. If you google some of the brands mentioned, their websites will have store locators. The big chain stores don't usually carry any of the 'good' stuff, you'll have luck at feed-type stores or little mom-and-pop places.

I, as well as a few other memebers on the coard, feed Blue Buffalo. I love the results I've gotten with my dog and cats. My dog has some skin issues - and we've gotten it down to just 'seasonal' with the Blue and fish oil supplements.

Some day - I'd love to do a professional consult and start a homecooked diet or raw.

 I wasn't being rude! She mentioned that she walks her dog with a choke chain and I said I wouldn't recommend this. It has nothing to do with the original question, but she said it!

 Start slow, with the exersize. Dogs with a few too many pounds are more prone to injuries. One of mine has gotten plump, lately, and I've started taking her swimming every day. She loves it! It's low impact, so less chance of injury.

I hope the fishy diet helps, with the ooky ears. Mine have always done well on fish.  

 Actually its Natures Recpie....oops my bad.

 I took Crash swimming today and he seem to love/hate it. He like floating in his lifejacket while my arms under his belly. He didn't like when I made him swim.

 Let him float, for now, and praise the heck out of any sort of "effort". He probably just needs a little confidence. If you know any gung ho swimming dogs, invite them for a play date. Seeing another dog fly into a body of water is a huge boost, LOL.

You are doing it right. Don't forget that a dog's sense of balance/depth perception isn't as good as ours (we are adapted to walk on two feet). That makes us much better natural swimmers, where a dog needs time, often, to develop his or her sense of stability in the water. Think of riding a bike. Usually I take a dog to a place where they can walk in the water and it will gradually get deeper, and if possible encourage them in farther and farther out. Most of my dogs play with toys by the time I swim them so I distract them with the toys somewhat.

Don't be tempted, though, to trick or lure them out past their depth. They may start swimming but if they aren't ready yet, they will do much to avoid letting that happen again!

This doesn't, obviously, apply to all dogs. There are many dogs who have much more natural ability to find equilibrium in water. Most of the retrievers, of course, are very natural. I was amazed the first time Lynn started swimming - it was kind of out of nowhere and she just, you know, swam - straight to the center of our very large pond, and then just swam quietly in circles for about thirty minutes. Since she does nothing else quietly, it was kind of . . .weird.

Long quiet walks are a surprisingly good way for taking weight off a healthy dog, and replacing it with muscle. It's odd because walking isn't really that great a form of aerobic exercise for us, but dogs generally aren't adapted to arbitrarily walk in long straight distances. That's why you don't take baby puppies on huge long walks.

I've had awesome results with Orijen and Eagle Pack. Orijen is a super premium grain free food - I use the senior version for my fatties and I like how it really keeps them vital looking but allowing them to eat sort of a normal amount of food.  My Chinese crested gets horrible eye gooblers and her hair breaks if I feed her any kind of grain, so it's a great food for her. The Eagle Pack is for my working dogs that do best with a little more carbs in their diets. I use the Power formula but the Holistic lines are terrific.

But if allergies were suspected (particularly ear trouble) I'd try a grain free product first. Or try raw - there's tons of information in the internet to get you started as a test diet.

My favorites are Fromm 4 star, Canine Caviar, Before Grain and Eagle Pack Holistic. I've had great success clearing up yeasty ears by switching to holistic foods.

I've had great luck with grain free as others have mentioned. My dog who is prone to systemic yeast issues - including yeasty ears, days infection free with coconut oil added to his food daily.