There are habits that seem harmless — or even affectionate — but that, over time, can put our dog's health at risk. We talked it through with a vet, who lined up the five most frequent mistakes he sees in the clinic every day and, above all, how to put them right.
Feeding a dog well doesn't just mean filling the bowl. It means choosing the right food, in the right amounts, stored the right way and suited to its age and lifestyle. These are the details that make the difference between a healthy animal and one that, year after year, builds up digestive, skin or weight problems. The good news is that all of these mistakes can be avoided with a few precautions. Let's go through them one by one.
It's the offer trap: you find the 15 or 20 kg bag at a good price, take it home and empty it little by little over a month or more. It looks like a smart choice for your wallet, but it's one of the most underestimated mistakes.
The reason is simple: a good-quality food should contain few preservatives, ideally none. And a food with few preservatives starts to oxidise as soon as it's opened. In the first few weeks it's still fresh, but as time passes the fats go rancid, the nutrients degrade and palatability drops. What was a good food slowly becomes something far less healthy — even though it looks identical in the bowl.
How to avoid it: buy quantities your dog can get through in a reasonable time, and store the food away from air, light and heat. Sealed single portions are the simplest solution: each serving stays fresh until the moment it's opened, without the compromise of an open bag sitting in the pantry for weeks.
"You can give your dog table scraps only if you also eat dog food": it's a joke that gets the idea across nicely. The morsel we slip from our plate under the table is nearly always a gesture of affection, but almost never a favour to its health.
The first problem is nutritional: a dog has different needs from ours. Our dishes are often too salty, too seasoned, or contain ingredients that are indigestible or even toxic for it. Even if it wags its tail happily, we're not feeding it correctly.
Then there's a second, less intuitive problem, and it's behavioural. While you're thinking "I love you, here's a little piece of my food", the dog reads it in a completely different way: "they're taking food out of their own mouth to give it to me, so I matter more than they do." Repeated over time, this message can fuel hierarchy and behavioural issues.
How to avoid it: keep your meal and its meal clearly separate. If you want to reward it, use snacks designed for dogs, in measured amounts, and never while you're at the table.
Even staying within the world of dog food, you can make the wrong choices. Two classics: carrying on giving puppy kibble to a dog that's now elderly just because it likes it more, or changing the food every day in the belief that variety is a treat.
Constant switching, in particular, stems from a very human misunderstanding: we'd get bored eating the same thing all the time, and we project that boredom onto the dog. But its gut works differently: it needs to get used to a stable diet. Changing all the time, or using foods that aren't suited to its life stage, is one of the most frequent causes of vomiting, diarrhoea and digestive upsets.
How to avoid it: choose a food suited to your dog's age, size and activity level, and stick with it over time. If you do need to change, do it gradually, over seven to ten days, mixing the new food with the old in increasing proportions. If you're unsure how to interpret what's really in the bowl, our guide on how to read dog food labels can help.
It often happens like this: for years the dog eats an excellent chicken-based food with no trouble at all, then suddenly starts scratching, develops dermatitis or has recurring intestinal upsets. It's a warning sign that's all too often overlooked or blamed on something else.
Food is, in fact, one of the main causes of allergies and food intolerances in dogs. Recognising the symptoms early is essential, because it lets you act before the problem becomes chronic. In these cases the approach uses specific diets and, often, single-protein or novel-protein recipes, which drastically reduce the sources of sensitisation and help pinpoint the ingredient responsible.
How to avoid it: watch your dog and don't underestimate itching, redness or recurring gastrointestinal upsets. Talk to your vet: an elimination diet, built on a single protein source, is often the first step to understanding and solving the problem. Pappa Fresh recipes are created with exactly this logic — a single protein, no preservatives and no superfluous ingredients — to make managing sensitive dogs simpler.
"He looks at me with those big eyes, how can I say no?" It's the line vets hear most often. We tend to measure affection in spoonfuls of food: the more I love them, the more I give them. And this is exactly where the last, big mistake hides.
Too much food leads straight to being overweight, and excess weight — just as in people — opens the door to a long list of problems: cardiovascular disorders, joint strain, knee conditions so serious they're sometimes hard to resolve even with surgery, right up to diabetes, often linked precisely to a poor, excessive diet.
How to avoid it: the amount shouldn't be proportional to your affection, but to the dog's real needs. Weigh out the portions, take weight, age and physical activity into account, and count snacks too in the daily calorie tally. The true gesture of love is helping it stay in shape, so it can live a happy life for as long as possible.
The five mistakes to avoid, then, are: buying bags that are too big to store well; giving your dog food from your table; using a food that isn't suited to its age or lifestyle; ignoring the signs of possible allergies or intolerances; and overdoing the amounts. They're all common mistakes, but all easily fixable too. The underlying rule is just one: choose a quality food, suited to the individual dog, and serve it in the right portions.
This is exactly the idea Pappa Fresh is built on: single-protein recipes formulated by a vet, with no preservatives, in portions calculated for your dog's weight and lifestyle. If you'd like a few more answers, you'll find everything in our frequently asked questions.
Veterinary surgeon, medical director of the Clinica ARS Veterinaria di Modena. He works every day on canine nutrition, prevention and wellbeing, with a particular focus on food intolerances and weight management.
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