A DOG behaviourist from Emmer Green has published a book on nutrition.
 

What Not to Feed Your Dog, by Toni Ilsley, is a guide for owners to help them with their pet’s diet.
 

She was inspired to write the book after completing a master’s degree in dog behaviour at Stonebridge College in Bournemouth.
 

Mrs Ilsley, of Buckingham Drive, typically has about 35 dogs in her care at Charlie’s Dog Place, her dog care business in Kennylands Road, Sonning Common.
 

She said: “I thought I knew a lot about dog food but I actually didn’t really know anything. The main thing I learned was about how dog food was made and how it’s not really regulated, which means pretty much anything can go into it.
 

“Meat, which can come from lots of different sources, is put in these big vats and they cook it at really high temperatures to kill all the bacteria.
 

“All the stuff that comes off the top is then skimmed and then cheap kibble is added that smells nice and tastes nice to the dogs. I was surprised to find this out and I thought, if I don’t know, there must be a lot of other people who also don’t know.
 

“People can go to a supermarket or elsewhere and pick a top name that they have seen or heard on TV and they don’t always know what they are feeding their dog.
 

“I wanted to make a book to simplify it a bit so that people could understand a bit more and if it helps a few people, that’s brilliant.”
 

Mrs Ilsley published her first book, Never Give Up, in 2020 which was intended to help other bereaved families after her son, Charlie, died from a brain tumour, aged 13.
 

She then penned Surviving Grief with the Pack on her battle coming to terms with his death. The memoir recalled his tragic story from his initial diagnosis to his final moments.

However, What Not to Feed Your Dog is the first book she has written which doesn’t focus on her journey through grief.
 

It has taken her almost a year to write and Mrs Ilsley has undertaken a lot of her own research. The book is divided into chapters on the origins of Charlie’s Dog Place, the evolution of the canine diet, decoding commercial dog foods, healthy food alternatives, nutrition needed throughout a dog’s life stages and identifying and managing foods dogs can be sensitive to.
 

Mrs Ilsley said the effects of a poor diet can lead to vitamin deficiency and issues such as fatigue and indigestion. She said: “I was always led to believe that the food I fed my dogs was one of the best because it was being sold in the vets.
 

“It wasn’t until I did this course and looked at the ingredients that I found that the products contained a lot of wheat and a lot of cereal.
 

“The lightbulb moment was seeing dogs with behaviour problems. If you have dog food full of cereal and wheat, dogs can’t digest that very well so it comes straight out of them. A lot of dogs are allergic to wheat. Where there are fewer vitamins, and fewer minerals, dogs start getting deficient in certain things.
 

“A lot of the time, it affects their behaviour and it can make them hyperactive because of all the additives and colouring that’s in there so there are a lot of ways it can affect a dog.

“As a behaviourist, it’s one of the first things I ask when people come in with problems. I ask what they are feeding them. It’s like having a kid on Opal Fruits and Smarties, it’s just crazy. It really does affect them.”
 

She recommends owners check the back of the ingredients packet before buying to check its meat percentage.
 

Mrs Ilsley said: “Some of the worst food has four per cent meat derivatives, which means it’s a derivative of meat. It’s not even really meat. Mediocre food will have something like 40 per cent. The really good top end food has about 80 per cent meat.
 

“I know that a lot of people don’t have a lot of money to spend on dog food but try and buy from a more natural brand. They tend to have about 60 per cent meat and some super vegetables, super fruits and all the vitamins and minerals a dog would need in there.

“The only downside with some canned food is it probably has a lot of salt and sugar in it. If you wanted to feed your dog the best diet in the world it would probably be fresh fish, some mince and some vegetables. It has got to be a mix of everything.”