When it comes to buying or obtaining a dog, like a Labrador, many things have to be borne in mind and given serious consideration. Puppies are cute but have a tendency to grow, very quickly, into large dogs. They can, just as quickly, begin to lose their appeal. Taking on a dog is a big commitment and one that does not come cheap. Vets bills, insurance, purchase costs are just the beginning. By far the biggest ongoing cost will be the feeding of the animal. This, alone, should be enough to ward off some potential owners. Feeding your pet pooch the cheapest food money can buy is not necessarily the way to ensure the dog has a prolonged and healthy life. The cheapest tins from the local supermarket may not have the correct balance of nutrients that your particular breed needs.

All breeds are susceptible to unique, breed-specific health conditions through out their lives and, therefore, need to be fed with these conditions in mind, along with the size and lifestyle. For example, working dogs - like the American line of hunting Labrador will need a different type of feeding regime and nutritional content as that of, say, it's English 'show breed' equivalent. This is because the latter is more suited to a less active lifestyle. It is not sufficient to buy a dog with the sole intention of just buying the cheapest tins or dry mix on the shelf. This attitude is only going to doom the animal to a lower quality of life and, perhaps, a shorter life expectancy. Many of the cheaper brands of tinned dog food for example, are filled with chemicals and fillers to bulk the food out. What is the effect going to be on the dog's stomach? Well, flatulence, runny poop and a less than healthy looking coat to name a few.

Owning a dog should be akin to bringing up a child and to some owners they are just that. We, as humans, would not, in an ideal world, like to be brought up on the cheapest mush we can buy, so why should our pets? We spend a lot of our time in supermarkets nowadays looking at labels and checking the fat content of this, the calorific value of that. It isn't that much more work to look at the same info on the dog food on the supermarket shelves. Dogs require a balanced diet of not just meat (unlike cats) but of portions of vegetables, certain fruits and some types of fish. But it doesn't end there. The upshot is, when you have it mind to buy a Labrador, then research what its food requirements are going to be. There is plenty of opinion and advice out there on the Internet; there are also the local Vets, the Kennel Club, local dog breeders and your local Pet Shops with enough information to allow you to make an informed decision about what is the best diet for you dog.