I am always on the lookout for new products, new foods, new supplements that might benefit either my dogs or other peoples, and this week, as I was searching for an alternative to Acana dog food, the brand that we have been using here at the ranch as a base for our own home made dog food  for over a year now, I came across a brand called Great Plains, which I’ll be checking out.

I am seeking an alternative as Acana has been experiencing some manufacturing issues making it one, hard to get hold of at times, and two, I am unhappy at some upset tummies that we have seen at the ranch and that my clients have had to deal with at home using this food. I don’t wish to start a scare, but I have asked Acana to investigate their production of these batches and will be sharing the results with you guys once we have the results in.

As I was checking out Great Plains, I took a look at their ingredient list online and saw an ingredient that isnt very often listed in dog food, and that is kelp.

For those of you that know about the advantages of kelp, don’t bother to read on, but for those of you that don’t, I would suggest you consider, not necessarily changing your dog food, but certainly adding kelp to your dogs food if your dog can take it.

Kelp is basically seaweed, and a literal power house of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and trace elements.

Kelp supplies a natural source of iodine, which acts as a natural antibiotic to kill germs.

Because of the plethora of vitamins and minerals in kelp, it can really aid in giving your dog a shiny coat and supple skin; dogs, and in fact, people, who take kelp can also benefit from improved tissue repair. The environment is constantly attacking our skin, the largest of all our bodily organs, so we are constantly needing to renew in order to shore up this important ‘first line of defense’.

By far the most important value of kelp though, is that it helps our glandular system, especially the pituitary gland, thyroid and adrenal glands.

This is especially important for regulating the digestive system and enables the animal or human to burn the fuel we put inside the body more efficiently, extracting the maximum amount of nutrients and energy from each mouthful, which in turn leads to much healthier bodies.

The adrenal glands are responsible for the body’s ability to cope with stress, for the regulation of blood pressure and play a major part in regulating our sex hormones.

As you can see, anything that benefits those key areas of our bodily functions is a pretty major player in ours, and our dog’s health, so it should be worth examining whether kelp would be a useful addition to the diet.

We will take a look at Great Plains, one of the attractions is that it is made in the USA, and we will let you know if its something we would recommend. In the meantime, happy eating and good health to you all.

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