Dogs may be our best friends but that doesn’t mean we can always share our lunch with them. There are plenty of foods that are safe for us but toxic for dogs—so many, in fact, they can be hard to remember. 

Fortunately, there’s a new app called Om Nom? to help us keep track of what foods—and, in some cases parts of foods—should be avoided. For instance, apples are a good source of Vitamin A for your dog, but the stems, leaves and seeds contain substances that can cause vomiting, diarrhea, decreased heart rate, and, if large amounts are ingested, respiratory failure.

The app also provides instruction on what to do if your dog accidentally eats something he wasn’t supposed to. While it’s not a substitute for a veterinarian, it is a guide that can be used preemptively to prevent feeding your dog something that could cause him harm. All of the information featured in the app comes from the developer’s own research based on published papers on toxicology and veterinary medicine from the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Chris Morrell, the brains behind the Om Nom? app, was inspired by his own cluelessness about his new friend, a now three-year-old Havanese named Scottie Pippen. “Once we actually adopted Pip, we quickly realized that neither of us knew the first thing about how to care for him,” Morrell says.  

After his vet ran through the list of foods to avoid, Morrell became concerned about what else might be on the “do not eat“ list. Pip had a strong urge to snap up remnants left on the cutting board, which meant Morrell and his wife were constantly Googling ingredients.

“Each website had a slightly different list, so I figured I’d do everyone a favor and compile the most comprehensive resource available.” Morrell also had a researcher interview Pip’s vet about specific foods when he couldn’t find the information anywhere else.

Om Nom? also includes a Chocolate Toxicity calculator, which pops up when you hit the “chocolate” entry. “The type of chocolate and the weight of the dog are both important factors in how dangerous chocolate is, so I thought an interactive tool would be particularly useful for that entry,” Morrell says. In addition, users can submit requests for missing ingredients or foods to Morrell from the app itself.  

And what about the peculiar name? Om Nom refers to the sound that people make when they’re eating something tasty. (Think: Cookie Monster on Sesame Street).

Om Nom? is a neat utility app for new and veteran dog owners alike, and at 99 cents it doesn’t cost much to ensure your dog is eating right. Currently, available for iPhone and iPad.

Got a portly Pug, a meal-loving mutt, or perhaps a chubby Chihuahua? How about a Labrador who loves lounging a little too much or a rambunctious Rat Terrier always raring to go? How do you figure out how many calories they need?

The new Doggie Dietitian app by Dr. Sheri Cone is designed to take some of the guesswork out of calorie-counting with a program calibrated to your dog’s breed, weight and activity level.

Pros

• Easy and intuitive to use.
• You can store and keep track of multiple pets in your home.
• Offers an extensive list of dry and canned commercial dog foods.
• Offers many types of popular commercially prepared treats.
• Offers a good list of commercially prepared raw diets.
• Offers a brief overview of common toxic foods to avoid.

I feel this could be an especially useful app for people who have growing puppies. You can easily reenter their rapidly changing body weight and adjust their food amounts to meet their nutritional needs as they grow.

Cons

I found it was not easy to go back and add a treat to the list of the day’s food intake, which can be somewhat of a nuisance if your dog’s food intake changes each day. For example, if you feed 2 cups of kibble and 1 broccoli stem, but later add a slice of deli turkey and want to figure where you are calorie-wise for the day, you have to go back and reenter the amount of kibble, the broccoli and then add turkey. This would not be an issue if your dog’s daily food and treats remained steady each day.

If you find you are over- or under-feeding your pet, the app only gives you the option of adding or taking away a portion of dry food. I prefer to give additional “people foods,” so this fell short for my needs.

The app has a very limited list of people foods and I would beg for a more extended reference.

Finally, I feel this app would not be quite as useful for people who fully prepare home-cooked diets and treats from scratch. However, the app would give even home-cooks a target calorie range that they should be feeding.

One size doesn’t fit all

The Doggie Dietician offers a database of hundreds of dog breeds with their ideal weight. While this is good information, take the “ideal” weight loosely because every dog is different. For example, the ideal weight for a Doberman came out as 88 pounds. My boy, Bauer, is slim and trim at 97 pounds, while my girl, Dharma, begins to verge on voluptuous if she is over 72 pounds.

Putting it to the test

I gave this app a go using my two Dobies as, well, guinea pigs. I “plugged and chugged” the app’s recommendations of breed, sex, weight and activity level and compared it to the actual calories I feed my dogs on a daily basis. Here’s what I found as I worked through the process:   

The formulation I use to calculate my dogs’ daily caloric needs can be found in my previous blog (Weight Management Made Simple). This is a formula for “obesity-prone” dogs and is therefore a little more calorie-conservative than the app’s formulation.

For example: Bauer’s calorie requirements using my formula equates to needing 1,370 calories per day, while the Doggie Dietician recommends I should feed him 1,885 calories per day. Although the app accurately calculates a pet’s daily requirement needs, I can say from experience that if I fed the caloric amount recommended by the app, that he would begin to pack on a few pounds.

However, I don’t think that this should deter its use; I only mention this to highlight the point that it may take some adjustment to find your dog’s daily caloric “sweet spot.” I feel the app is a good starting point that will allow you to get a big picture and then you can fine-tune from that point based on your pets’ weight gains or losses. 

Quick fix

I get asked all the time, “How much should I be feeding my dog?” This app allows me to quickly and easily calculate the cups of food an owner should roughly be feeding his or her pet right while I’m in the exam room.

Although it’s a more basic app, I feel that it is one worth fetching, and for just under two bucks, I give it two paws up.

The search for perfect gifts for the holidays is on. I’m spending excessive amounts of time online and studying catalogs in order to succeed in this quest. Though I’ve found few gifts to give to family and friends, I have noticed that products for dogs are showing up in new places all the time. The most surprising pet product placement I’ve seen this year is the dogbrella in the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog and on their website.

The dogbrella is just what it sounds like—an umbrella for dogs. It is inverted so that a person can hold the handle from above while the dogbrella protects a small dog from the rain. The leash attaches to the underside. The product description will sound out of date to many modern dog lovers because of such phrases as “enabling canine and master to maintain a walking regimen in inclement weather.”

My first thought was, “Really?” (It was late afternoon, which is when I’m least articulate.) What I meant by that was, “Do dogs really need an umbrella to go out in the rain?” Then I thought about all the dogs who don’t like the rain and hesitate to go out in it. With my Oregonian roots, I sometimes forget that there are dogs and people who not only notice the rain, but actually have an adverse reaction to it. Of course, the dogbrella won’t help dogs who dislike stepping on wet ground, but it offers protection for dogs who object to the water falling from the sky.

Though I had not thought about it, the catalog emphasizes the benefit for people, which is that the dog will not bring so much water into the home after the walk. Few of us love it when a dog comes inside and performs a satisfying shake to disperse all that wetness onto nearby furniture, windows, people and anything else in the house. (How dogs know how to choose the most damaging spot for this behavior is a mystery.) Nor do many of us enjoy the aroma of eau de dog, which can be as strong and long lasting as it is unpleasant.

Would you use (or have you already used) the dogbrella?

Companies are always trying to improve on the good old identification tag. I've seen USB memory stick tags, Quick Response (QR) codes tags, and now GPS units that attach to collars.

GPS technology for collars typically sends a text or email notificaiton when your pet leaves home and gives you the ability to track your dog on a map using a computer or cell phone.

Having a GPS unit on your dog's collar seems a bit excessive and it could give people a false sense of security. A GPS unit isn't going to stop your pet from running in front of a car or eating something toxic. However, if one of my pets ever got lost, being able to track their exact location would be invaluable.

GPS units for dogs are surprisingly small, but they're still a bit bulky to have on my dog all of the time. For now I think I'll stick to the good old metal identification tag and microchip.

Would you get a GPS unit for your dog?