The mailbox here at Odog your online dog blog received some interesting mail from Royal Canin which I thought I would share with you. My Labrador since I got him as a pup has suffered from allergies caused by something we have never quite diagnosed. His symptoms include;

• Licking his paws all the time
• Scratching when its not fleas! ( i wash him every 14 days and use flea prevention)
• Patchy skin
• Weeping eyes
• Infection in his ears

As a young dog we took him to the vet and they suggested its possibly dust, pollen, plant related or food related and offered two options to control or fix the allergies.

A) An expensive allergies test that cost thousands of dollars or

B) A strictly regimented food that reduces the protein and fats in his diet so we reduce the flare up of allergies.

At the time we moved him onto a hypoallergenic food which normally works pretty good.

Additionally we raced around the backyard removing anything that we thought might remotely be causing the allergic reaction. There are some plants which cause this in dogs but I admit we took it to the extreme and it looked like the surface of the moon in our garden bed! Something which our puppy enjoyed immensely as he played in all the holes and with the things we had removed from the garden!

With these changes his comfort of lifestyle is quite good and I very rarely need to make use of the vets to fix issues. (keeping costs down).

A side result of this food is his coat is extra shiny and he has never gotten the tubby Labrador look you see in so many dogs!!

I am sure everyone has heard of reward programs the various pet food companies offer (the good ones anyway). Royal Canin runs a similar program where we receive free bags of food for every ten bags we buy and additionally I received in the mail some freebies!!

Whilst its not setting the world on fire I know I was impressed someone at Royal Canin was clued in enough to send free stuff to make sure we remain valuable customers.

So I am managing the dog allergies of my well fed happy pup who has a shiny new tag once I go an get the back engraved with this name and my mobile number. Win Win as far as I am concerned!

Till next time.

Odog your online Dog Blog.

 Thanks to telegraph.co.uk for the chubby lab picture.