There are many common problems that can cause your dog to scratch so much. The one we’ve seen more than any in our store is caused by commercial foods. Most people are under the impression that what we’re told on a bag of dry dog food is true. They tell us it is complete nutrition for your pet. They tell you that this is all they need in their diet.

Dogs have not adapted to eating highly processed cooked foods. This stuff is made for our convenience and not for the best health of your pet. The commercial type foods that are in every supermarket are filled with grains and/or chemicals that are causing the allergies.

The main culprits that are causing the problems are wheat, corn, soy, by-products, chemical preservatives and a host of other chemicals.

If your dog is constantly scratching and/or developing hot spots, read your ingredient labels of the food you are feeding. If one or more of the above ingredients are listed, that is where you want to start eliminating first.

Nobody wants to see there dog constantly scratching themselves. It’s irritating to you as well as him.

Dogs need more in their diet to live properly. They need fresh meat, enzymes, bones to clean teeth. You can subsidize with dry food but it should never be there only source of nutrition. When you do feed dry, seek out local independent small natural food stores. They can provide premium dry foods that are free from all the most common allergens. Your dog can still be allergic to a certain protein; they will help you eliminate the possibilities. Protein allergies often happen when you stick to feeding one type of dog food for a long period.

One in three dogs eating nothing but dry food, even premium dry food will develop some type of degenerative type disease including cancers.

Please seek other nutrition advice than that of your vet. Your vet is great for what they are trained to do and that is medicine. They are not trained in nutrition. This is a common miss belief. Some have taken the basic elective course others have not. The one course that is offered is typically sponsored by the big commercial dry food companies. So what they want you to believe is being passed on to your vet.

The vets that continue there education after the medical side and learn about proper nutrition are the holistic vets. These guys know there stuff and are the ones you should seek advice from. Many small independent stores like ours are also a good place to learn. We’ve worked with holistic vets and regular vets and have seen what works and what don’t.

You have to admit, its common sense. Your dog was made by nature to eat raw food. Mother Nature didn’t make too many mistakes. As the dog was domesticated we took it upon ourselves to adapt a cooked food for them. Manly because we treat them as our kids and we don’t feed our own kids raw food.

This is a big mistake. The live enzymes and full chain amino acids are what keep your dog healthy. Without those in his diet, the ever growing long lists of ailments we see in our pets are rapidly increasing. The vets have to come up with new ways to fight new diseases in dogs that were never prevalent before.

Like I said at the beginning, there are many issues that can cause your dog to scratch abnormally. The biggest problem is food followed by medications and airborne type allergies.

If your dog is scratching abnormally and/or you see hot spots, please seek out some help from a natural source, i.e. small natural food store or a holistic vet. Typically your local vet will deal with it using some sort of steroid. This can cause other problems.