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We have always tried to feed our dogs as if they are members of our family, because THEY ARE. We fed our dogs mostly fresh food for a long time, and our dogs were never healthier. It eventually became more work than we could maintain as we began to homeschool as well, and of course feeding your dog shouldn't be adding stress to your life. We have found that we can still enhance the quality of our dogs' food and balance the amount of work needed to make it maneageable by adding a few things to their diet. However, if you read this and think this still sounds like more work than you have time for there are great brands out there that have made balanced fresh food for your dog that can be fed as a primary food or as a topper for the health benefits like JustFoodForDogs and they conveniently ship it straight to your door. 

As a base food we have really liked Diamond Naturals brand. Our dogs have always done really well on their large breed lamb and rice flavor with no gut issues. We start our puppies on their puppy version of it. By feeding dry food we can be confident that our dogs are getting a balanced diet. This can be a concern when feeding fresh or raw diets. However, we feel like our dogs thrive when some fresh food is added to their diets. Also, it makes our dogs happy and we all want our dogs to be happy, right?

First, we highly recommend adding hydration to your dog's dry food. Even simply adding water to their food will help them tremendously to keep them hydrated, but we really like adding bone broth. The powdered version is really easy to just sprinkle over their food and stores easily without refrigeration. Another simple and cost effective thing we regularly give our dogs is a raw egg broken right over their food as well as canned sardines and canned mackerel. These are cost effective and the omega 3's are so good for skin and coat health. Another way to add these benefits in a more convenient way is by adding salmon oil as a topper on their dry food. You will most certainly notice your dog's coat being more smooth and shiny by adding eggs and omega 3s. 

There have also been many studies about the benefits of adding organ meat to your dog's diet. This goes for livers and hearts. Studies have shown that adding hearts to your dog's diet can improve their own heart health. You may not want to go down to your local butcher and purchase beef or deer hearts like we have been known to do, but you can still very easily add dehydrated chicken hearts on occasion to your dog's food and he or she will absolutely love you for it. 

Many Berners have been known to have sensitive guts and can struggle with mushy poops and even diarrhea. Thankfully, our dogs have never had much of a problem with that, but there are a few things we do that we believe help deter this. Adding pumpkin to their diet is an easy thing you can do. It has been known to help firm up a dog's stool. You can pick this up from the grocery store, but make sure it is 100% pumpkin puree and not pumpkin filling as that can have lots of sugar. They make a powdered pumpkin version of this as well that stores much easier. We have had several cans go bad before it is all used even feeding multiple dogs so if you are just feeding one this may be a better solution for you. Another product that is highly recommended and specifically for Berners, although of course can benefit other breeds as well, is Bernie's Perfect Poop. Full of Fiber, Probiotics and Prebiotics, it has helped many a Berner parent get their pup's poops under control. Some other things we like to add occasionally to our dog's food for this is plain greek yogurt from the grocery store as it is also full of probiotics. 

For dental health, there are some things you can add to their diet to clean their teeth that they will love, rather than brushing their teeth yourself, which they will more than likely not love. We opt to feed our Berners Chicken feet, Duck feet and Rabbit ears. These are great at scraping tarter off of their teeth as they chew and, as I said, they absolutely love them. We try to give them one of these weekly or bi-weekly. You can certainly give more often as well. Your Berner would thank you for it!

If your pup struggles with gobbling down their food too quickly a slow feeder bowl will help them slow down, which is much safer for them.

Then lastly, sometimes your Berner just needs a treat for simply being a good boy or good girl, right? Also, a busy pup is a good pup! We love the 12 inch bully sticks for this purpose. Our pups are some of the best pups and this is one of their favorite ways of being spoiled. Chewing is so mentally enriching for our dogs too. 

Do we add all of these things every meal? Of course not. Again, we are trying to make this less stressful! We do always add some form of hydration to their food and add at least one of the things to their food I mentioned before and rotate these out randomly. Another benefit is that your dog will never be bored with their food and Berners are known to be quite picky eaters. We all want our pups to be healthy and stick with us as long as possible and we believe a dog's diet is one of the best ways to keep your pup as healthy as possible!

Mental exercise for your dog can be just as exhausting as physical exercise. Obviously, your dog will still need physical exercise, but there are ways you can get some energy out on rainy days or days when you are needing to stay home. Maybe you work from home and need a way to occupy your pup while you're on the clock. We like to take a dish towel and put some dog food inside, roll it up and tie it in a knot. Magnus in particular really loves to try to work out that knot. This is great mental excersice and he always concludes this game with a long nap. 

We also love freezing a combination of pumpkin puree and bone broth in tubberware or a lick mat and letting them enjoy until it is gone. It keeps them very occupied and the licking releases endorphines in their brains. 

A game that they love is searching for treats in their snuffle mat. This requires them to use their nose to sniff the treats out and problem solve. 

There are some other toys that they have to problem solve to and work for the treats to dispense that we really like. The treat puzzle ball and our dogs' favorite of all, the Bob-a-lot. They have a great time swatting that toy and watching it bob back and forth waiting in suspense for the treat to dispense. It is a great way to keep them engaged for fifteen to twenty minutes.

We recommend crate training your puppy. Your puppy has already been introduced to the crate with us to help this training be easier when they go to their new homes. To keep them safe when they are unsupervised, for nap times, and to give them their own personal safe space to decompress are all reasons we recommend using a crate with your puppy. Our dogs love their crates, but that is because we never use it as punishment and created positive associations with their crate. We recommend starting with short periods in the crate, just a few minutes at a time and working up to longer stretches of a few hours. Also, make sure your crate has a divider or start with a smaller crate because if the space is too large they will potty on one side and sleep on the other. Some people even feed their dogs in their crate and have them nap 45 mins to an hour afterward, which is a great way to prevent bloat as well, which is common within all large breed dogs. We highly encourage setting a schedule with your new puppy to include nap times in their crate because an overtired puppy is a mouthy and cranky puppy, and we've all seen toddlers who has skipped their nap time! There are lots of similarities. 

Speaking of toddlers, do we give our toddlers free reign of our homes unsupervised? Definitely not a good idea! We recommend keeping your puppy on a leash or long line next to you so they can't wander off and find a potty spot or find some trouble to get into. This also teaches them how to settle down on their own and be bored, which is a great learned behavior in our dogs. Another option is getting a puppy playpen to set up in your living room when you want your puppy to be present with the family, but hasn't matured enough to be trusted to have full access to the whole house. 

Training your puppy and teaching them some basic obedience commands is very beneficial for you and your puppy. Many trainers recommend hand feeding all of their meals over the first few weeks while you do your obedience training commands with them. We didn't do this with all of our meals in our experience raising puppies, but we did do it several times a week with them and just had them run through their basic commands and they were rewarded with their kibble. Hand feeding really does help create a strong bond between you and your new puppy. If your puppy isn't very food motivated, you can try some high value treats. 

If you want to take your pup to the park for training sessions after they have finished all of their vaccinations that is great. We recommend keeping them on the long line we discussed earlier until they are consistent with their "come" command. 

Socialization is so important for your puppy, but it has to be balanced with safety. The time period of your pup not being fully vaccinated and your pup's socialization time window (3-16 weeks old) will be overlapping. It is very important that we expose our pups to many experiences during this time, but we want to keep them away from unvaccinated dogs and from common areas that dogs frequent, at least keeping them from the ground and surfaces where parvo virus lives. For this reason we recommend a puppy stroller that keeps them safely zipped up so they can't jump out, but offers a mesh window for them to see all the new sights and sounds without coming in contact with the dreaded parvo virus. Of course carrying them is also an option, but your pup will be packing on the pounds quickly and carrying them will be quite uncomfortable for longer periods of time. 

A Dog Pouch and Clicker may also be helpful as you train your puppy.

Berners have moderate grooming requirements. Many people take them to the groomer for a deshed two or three times a year, but with the right products you can do all of their grooming from home if you prefer. 

Bernese Mountain Dogs are bred for the Swiss Alps and therefore have a LOT of fur to protect them from that harsh, frigid environment. All that fur will come out all over your house no matter what you do, but there are some ways to make it maneagable. We brush ours with an undercoat rake once a week, more when they are blowing their coat. In areas where their coat is longer we use a dematting comb like behind the ears, tail and butt floof.

We typically bathe our berners quarterly or when they get smelly. We try to use natural products with as little chemicals as possible. This all natural dog soap bar is made with 100% natural products and is very moisturizing for the skin and coat. If you prefer a shampoo in a bottle we also really like the Natural Dog Company and their itchy dog shampoo. For a conditioner we have found this Earthbath brand to be a good choice. The most difficult part of the bath is when it is over with a Berner. Airdrying is typically not recommended because they can get hot spots if moisture gets trapped under their double coat. Having a good skin balm for this is usually a good idea because it does happen from time to time. If happening frequently then their is probably an allergy as an underlying cause and would seek veternarian advice. For drying it is certainly easiest to have a grooming kit with an attached high duty blow dryer. It is just not possible to towel dry these pups with their undercoats. You can also use the grooming kit to vaccuum hair if grooming indoors and do some light trimming if you need to trim paw pads or cut out a mat. It really is a game changer. 

Our Berners rarely have their nails get long enough to need trimming as they naturally get filed as they play outdoors, but on occasion you will need to clip their nails with a nail clipper kit.

If you're worried about your new puppy being comfortable in his or her new crate there are a few things you can get to make crate time more relaxing for them. The goal is for the crate to be their safe space and somewhere they enjoy being. Finding a crate mat that is comfortable, easily cleaned and able to keep our double coated pups cool is a challenge, but this crate mat will ease right in and help keep those pups comfy and cool. Licking for dogs helps easy anxiety and releases endorphins in their brain so giving them a crate lick mat specifically designed for the crate will help created those positive associations with their crate and help make it feel like their safe space.

If looking for a dog bed for the family area I would definitely recommend getting a cooling gel dog bed. Without the cooling gel your Berner will get easily overheated and seek some tile floor somewhere to lay on to try to cool off. 

If you have carpets or rugs like we do vacuuming just isn't enough to remove all the hair sometimes. Every once in a while a deep clean is needed and this uproot clean kit will help remove all the deep imbedded hair out of your carpet, stairs and car.

What if your new pup escapes from your yard? This apple air tag gives our family peace of mind by allowing us to track on our phones where all of our dogs are at any time. We even have a waterproof plastic air tag case that attaches to their collars so they can wear their air tags any where without worry of them becoming damaged.