Kim Barnett, a well-renowned dog trainer from England, had the opportunity to evaluate Halo Spot’s Stew after we made a significant donation to two shelters that benefit from her services – Adopt a Boxer Rescue, and Save Our Strays. Kim, lead behaviorist of Follow My Lead UK, believes that feeding a quality, natural diet improves behavior and strengthens the human/animal bond.

By Kim Barnett, Follow My Lead IACP

Working as a dog trainer and behaviour consultant for several rescue organizations as well as having private clients, I get to see a broad spectrum of dogs, many of whom are suffering from anxiety based issues to various forms of aggression, and everything in between. In as much as it’s possible with a rescue dog, we like to see them provided with the best possible nutrition for both physical and mental well being. Many rescue dogs have been fed poor diets, and due to either neglect or because they are strays, some have been fed little or nothing and are found literally with just days left to live. In these cases it’s clear to see why the most nutritious and easy to digest diet would help these dogs get back to physical health as fast as possible, but how does it help their mental health you might wonder.

Just as good quality food and a balanced diet helps a person to feel at their emotional best, the same is true of our pets. The old saying You are what you eat is as relevant to our dogs and cats as it is to ourselves. If I’m working with a behaviorally challenged dog, I find that good food, free of unnecessary preservatives and additives helps the dog to achieve emotional well being. Foods that are high in sugars or contain cheap grains and other carbohydrates will not help my anxious or hyperactive dog to be calm and may not give him the quality protein that he needs.

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Davey the dog’s mom switched to Halo for an important reason:

“We regularly supplement Davey’s daily diet with things like carrots, berries, apples and other whole foods,” she writes on her blog.

“So having an actual whole food in Davey’s daily meal makes me feel great about what I feed him,” she writes. “The Halo dry food ingredient list reads like a healthy grocery list and not a chemistry experiment.”

Davey, we hope you are enjoying your wholesome, well-rounded meals!!

Echo, whose owner describes her as old, transformed once she started eating Spot’s Stew:

“I have to say, since switching Echo to Halo we’ve seem a dramatic difference in her,” writes Claire, 25, on her blog.

“As some of you know, she is a puppy mill rescue & shes been abused & is VERY skittish! I’ll say that more than one person has said ‘I think you’re wrong, she isn’t that old, she has ALOT of life left in her!’ since we’ve began Echo on Halo products.

“She is happier, has more energy & spunk & she actually smells better ( ohthankgod) I dont have enough time in a day to say all the good things I have to say about Halo & their amazing food for pets. If you have a pet that you care about I STRONGLY recommend you look for a local store, or order a trial package online.”

Thank you, Claire, for feeding Echo Halo!

The information recently released from the Environmental Working Group about the high levels of fluoride in dog food is concerning. Although there have never been “safe” levels of fluoride determined for dogs and cats, the levels in the dog food tested well exceeded the safe limit levels for humans. When you consider the combined fluoride exposure dogs are getting from their food and tap water, there may be real health concerns.

Follow these tips to avoid excess fluoride consumption in your pet:

1. Choose a natural high quality diet like Halo. Halo foods contain no bone meal or inferior by-products which were found to be the primary source of excess fluoride.

2. If your pet has food restrictions and their food cannot be changed (from one containing bone meal or inferior by-products), decrease the amount of tap water they drink. Tap water contains fluoride and eliminating this source of fluoride will be beneficial. Most forms of spring water and bottled water have less than 0.1ppm fluoride. You should call the company and ask how much fluoride is in their water to insure a low intake. Some water filters will remove fluoride and some will not—again a quick phone call to the company will give you this information. Distilled water is fluoride-free.

3. If you cook for your pet, avoid using Teflon-coated pans as they may increase the fluoride levels in the food.

4. Avoid using human toothpaste and oral rinse products that contain fluoride in pets. Dental health products designed for pets are fluoride-free to avoid dangerous levels.

In late 2008, Cathy DiMatteo was browsing the aisles of Whole Foods in Princeton, New Jersey. An owner of three dogs, she mistakenly picked up a can of Spot’s Stew for cats. “When I placed it back on the shelf, a man standing there with a clip-board said ‘Excuse me, can you tell me why you put that can back?” recalls DiMatteo, who told the man she was looking for Halo dog food. “And the man said, ‘I’ll help you find it.’”

The man turned out to be Alan Kerzner, Halo’s president, visiting the store with other Halo employees. During this chance meeting, DiMatteo told Kerzner she was a volunteer at Sayreville Pet Adoption Center, a no-kill animal shelter in Sayreville, N.J. She told him that the center was always in need of food, and that when volunteers brought in cans of Halo, the cats went wild.

Kerzner, impressed that people were donating Halo, decided to make a much larger gift: Soon after that fortuitous meeting, Halo donated 100 cases of dog and 300 cases of cat Spot’s Stew to the shelter. “As animal lovers it makes us feel great,” Kerzner says. “It’s good to help any animal, and especially gratifying to help those in need.”

Barbara Keegan, director of the shelter, was ecstatic when a truck pulled into the shelter driveway. “That was such a blessing they gave us that food, beyond belief,” she says. “This is over and above anything we’ve ever been given.”

This good fortune for Sayreville almost didn’t happen. DiMatteo planned on shopping earlier in the day but a stroke of luck put her in the aisle with Kerzner. “It would have never have crossed my mind he was so high up in the company,” says DiMatteo, noting Kerzner never told her he was Halo’s president. “He was so down to earth.”

Sayreville, a privately-owned shelter, is completely dependent upon donations; one of its biggest expenses is for food at over $10,000 annually for the approximately 25 dogs and 170 cats that are there at one time. “So far this year,” says Keegan, “we haven’t had to spend a cent on food, which is awesome.”

When the cases of Spot’s Stew arrived in late January, so did a homeless American bulldog that the shelter staffers named Halo. “We really wanted to honor the company,” Keegan says. “And he was the number one lover of the Halo food.”

DiMatteo says that the shelter’s normally noisy cats now quiet down when it’s feeding time. “It’s so funny,” says DiMatteo, “everyone shuts up and eats. The cats are in heaven with the Spot’s Stew.”

The Halo donation has helped Sayreville care for what Keegan notices is a tremendous rise in homeless pets. “It’s very bad, especially now,” Keegan says. “We’re seeing more abandoned pets, animals being found in parking lots, animals that were clearly someone’s pets.” Why? “Because of the economy,” says Keegan, who has seen a spike in owners whose homes have gone into foreclosure come in to give away their pets. “It’s horrendous.”

Still, at least these strays will be well fed. One top feline aficionado of Spot’s Stew is Big Boy, a toothless Siamese mix cat with feline AIDS. Says Keegan: “He has no teeth left but he loves the Halo.”