Purina Pro Plan Bright Mind

Photo: Sunshine Winters Photography

My dog (Denali), is no spring chicken anymore. Actually, he’s not a chicken at all, he’s a teacup (haha) chihuahua that is now 14 years old.

For starters, I don’t know how I’ve kept something alive for 14 years, but that’s besides the point.

The point is, Denali is my buddy, and it’s a sad fact of life that he’s aging, so it’s more important than ever to take better care of him. The first thing is making sure he’s eating a healthy diet, and one that is catered specifically to his breed and his age, that’s why he is on Purina® Pro Plan® Bright Mind® Adult 7+, which is specifically for dogs over 7 years of age.

Kind of like human nutrition labels, the ingredients you read first are the ones more prevalent in the food and Bright Mind is high-quality protein, including chicken as the very first ingredient. No difficult words that are hard to pronounce or bad for the little guy.

I’ll be fully transparent here – sometimes I get lazy (or cheap) and buy Denali whatever’s at the closest grocery store or what’s on sale, but this is the second time I’ve had him on this diet and his mental alertness, sharpness and all around energy is just through the roof. Having seen him react so well to this just within 30 days, has me committed to keeping him on this plan moving forward.

I did learn one trick to transitioning your dog to new food, which is actually explained on the back of the package, and that’s to slowly transition the new food over a course of 7-10 days, and not just all of a sudden. I think that was what I did wrong last time, but he isn’t a big fan of immediate change, so this definitely helped him adjust and keep eating regular portions.

The other thing I make sure is that he remains as active as possible. I always say for myself that a body in motion stays in motion, and that’s also true with our animals. That’s actually one of the benefits of living The Millennium Kirby because there is a huge pet park right at our complex that he can run around in. (Granted, he’s pretty old, so he doesn’t do a lot of actual running, but he loves the space and the sunlight, so it’s perfect.)

Anyone else out there have an aging dog that is a huge member of your family?

*This post was part of The Blonde Side’s involvement with being a Women’s Health Magazine Action Hero, but the content is true and my opinions only.*