Bernie’s Best Blog: Expert Tips for Dog Health and Happiness
Bernie’s Dog Health Blog
What Is Berner-Garde? Why It Matters for Dog Health
Why Every Dog Lover Should Know About Berner-Garde Recently, our founder (and more importantly, Bernie's dad!) Jim Finnigan received an email from an organization called Berner-Garde. It was asking Bernese Mountain Dog families to update their dogs' health records as...
What Is Crude Fiber in Dog Food? What the Label Number Really Means
What Does "Crude" Mean on a Dog Food Label? "Crude" sounds like a knock on the ingredients. It isn't. On a pet food label, the word describes the lab method used to get the number, not the quality of what's in the bag [1]. The same goes for crude protein and crude...
Why Does My Dog Keep Sitting Down on Walks?
Why Does My Dog Sit Down on Walks? The Everyday Reasons Plenty of walk stops have nothing to do with health. A spot where other dogs have been can be worth a long sniff. And some dogs sit because it's worked before. If sitting has ever ended in a treat, a pickup, or a...
Algae Oil vs. Fish Oil for Dogs: What’s the Difference?
Algae Oil vs. Fish Oil for Dogs: What's the Difference? You pick up an omega-3 supplement for your dog, flip it over, and there it is near the top of the ingredient list: marine microalgal oil. Algae, in a product you figured was basically fish oil. It's a fair thing...
How to Build a Better Bowl Without Changing Your Dog’s Entire Diet
Here's the thing: it probably is. But that doesn't mean there's nothing left to do. How to Improve Your Dog’s Diet Without Changing Their Food If your dog's food carries an AAFCO nutritional adequacy statement, it's already formulated to be complete and...
Water Bowl Biofilm and Why It Can Affect Your Dog’s Breath
That something is called biofilm, and it turns out it might be connected to more than just a gross feeling on your fingertips. What That Slime Actually Is Biofilm isn't just old water residue. It's a living structure. Bacteria (and sometimes fungi) attach to a...
Microchips, Health Records, and Year-Round Pet Safety
Here's the thing about safety month observances, though. The calendar moves on, but a missing dog doesn't check what month it is. At Bernie's Best, that's why we're talking about what that chip actually does, what it doesn't do, and how it connects to something...
How Oxidative Stress Affects Aging Dogs’ Mobility
It's easy to chalk this up to "just getting older." And in a way, that's true. But underneath that vague explanation is something a lot more specific happening at the cellular level, something that's been building for years before it ever showed up as a slower walk....
Why Does My Dog Have Loose Stool After a Walk or Exercise?
Most of the time, one soft stool after a walk isn't cause for alarm. Dogs eat, drink, sniff, get wound up and sometimes overdo it, and their guts notice all of it. It's a question we hear a lot at Bernie's Best, and the honest answer is that it depends on what else...