Dog Digestion

Dog digestion starts at the mouth. The teeth useful for ripping an animal apart and cutting the tissue off arelonger and sharper than the equivalent teeth in our mouths. Our backteeth (molars) are flatter and more useful for grinding foods into pow-der. Dogs' habits of eating consist of tearing their food apart, cuttingoff pieces with the back teeth, and gulping them with only sufficientchewing to make them small enough to swallow.

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The next difference is in the saliva. Dogs, on the other hand, have very little of that starch digesting enzyme, ptyalin. It was this discovery years ago that caused peoplestudying dogs' eating habits to say that they couldn't digest starch.Probably these people never saw a human wash down a huge mouthfulof a doughnut with a gulp of coffee - and stopped to think that thattoo is digested.

Our pets' stomachs secrete somewhat stronger juice than do ours. For example, a bone ingested into a healthy dog's stomach becomes softand pliable in less than an hour. This bone is acted upon by thisstronger juice which is rich in hydrochloric acid and pepsin, and it actually dissolves in the stomach. Actually the same thing might hap-pen in the human stomach, but it would take much longer.Upon leaving the stomach the food in a dog is mixed with the samekind of juices - pancreatic enzyme and bile - which affect our food.Here, then, is where most of the digestion of starch takes place. Thehuman who washes down the half-chewed doughnut and the dog whogulps its starchy meal both live and thrive because digestion takes placein the small intestine. When the pancreatic enzyme (amylase)works on these starches in our case, they are so fine that the enzymehas little trouble breaking them down. In the dog, when the starchyfoods are fed in too large lumps, the enzyme cannot do its work effec-tively. To some degree the same thing happens in the human digestivetract if a person fails to chew a nut or a kernel of sweet corn - neither isdigested anymore than it would be by a dog. Occasionally a dog willregurgitate any such indigestible material, but inure often it will not.In feeding dogs it has been found that it indeed pays to feed eithervery finely ground raw starch or precooked starches. Cornmeal fed rawis an inefficient food, but cornmeal that has been boiled until the starchgranules have been cracked open, so that they are vulnerable to theattack of the amylase, is an efficient, if incomplete food. Another pointof difference between dog owners and their dogs is the length of thesmall intestine. Food travels through it more quickly in dogs and thereis less time for absorption - another reason for feeding easily digestedfoods. Cereals, vegetables, and fruits should be cooked to facilitatedigestion. Meats are digested as easily raw.

Now, there are certain known requirements that must be met in thediet of every dog of every breed. These are the essentials without whichour pets develop nutritional deficiencies. First of all it is obvious that adog must have enough food. This is another way of saying that theremust be sufficient food to furnish energy for its daily life. We measurethis energy in the food by burning it in a device called a calorimeter tosee how many heat units it holds. The heat units are called calories. Itis now known how many calories any resting animal of a given sizerequires. An animal needs more, of course, as it exercises or worksmore. Living, exercise, or work all require energy, and this energy isextracted from the food. If a dog gets too few calories it will live on itsfat; in other words, it'll get thin. If it gets too many, it may discard the must be cautious. Some very fat dogs become so inactive that theirhearts cannot stand exercise. Their spirits are willing, but their heartsmay be weak, their muscles flabby, and their lung capacity greatlyreduced. In cases like this gradual daily increase in the pets' activity isimportant.
Thyroid extract, which causes a dog to burn up its food and fat morerapidly, should be used with great care, if at all. Owners have beenknown to kill their pets by giving human doses of thyroid extract.Drugs are not necessary if common sense and willpower are used.Some people find it easier to pamper a dog by overfeeding than totake care of its health by regulating its diet. This may be easier for atime, but only for a time. The wise owner knows that obesity is danger-ous to the dog and that in the long run firmness in matters of diet isperhaps the greatest kindness he or she can show the pet.