The bowl you use to serve your dog's meals is just as important as what goes in the bowl. Avoid plastic bowls; they're porous, so they harbor bacteria and impart trace chemicals and an offputting taste to a finicky dog's food or water. This can lead to drinking and/or dining abstinence, which contributes to serious health problems. Stainless steel and ceramic are the best dog-bowl choices, because they're easy to keep clean. If your dog is a very messy diner, try the Neater Feeder, which houses a pair of stainless steel bowls"”one each for food and water"”in a unit that's designed to contain splashes and spills, so unwanted liquids and solids won't wind up on your kitchen floor; www.neaterfeeder.com
Some large dogs can't wait until you fill up their food bowls; they just help themselves to the contents of the fridge, so make sure your refrigerator door shuts tight to prevent raiding by Rover. If you have a large dog, or several, select a fridge with plenty of freezer space to stash raw knuckle bones (and, if you feed Spot raw food, frozen venison or beef patties). Liebherr fridges come with freezer drawers that do double duty as food containers, so if you're in a rush, just put Spot's frozen bones right in the drawer without taking extra time to wrap them first, and the odor won't migrate; www.liebherr-refrigeration.com
On the subject of food storage, if you have leftovers from a can of wet dog food, don't slap a plastic lid on the can and stick it in the fridge; once opened and refrigerated, pet-food cans and their contents wage a cold war, causing what's in the can to become totally unpalatable to dogs. The result of improperly refrigerated dog-food leftovers is wasted money, which nobody can afford. Invest in the gold standard of hygienic fridgeware for your leftovers and Spot's: glass containers with tight-fitting plastic tops, such as the sleek, stylish ones made by Frigoverre and sold at Crate & Barrel; www.crateandbarrel.com
Your dog would prefer that you avoid cooking and baking in aluminum pans, especially ones covered with a nonstick coating; studies have shown that PTFE, short for polytetrafluoroethylene, causes cancer in rats and is especially toxic to young animals. Curry favor with your "galloping gourrrmet" by cooking only with cast-iron or stainless steel pots and pans"”or get the best of both metals with Lodge's stainless-handled iron cookware. Enameled cast iron, meanwhile, is quite easy to clean up and looks wonderfully decorative hanging around the kitchen, plus Spot will agree that food cooked in it just tastes better; www.lodgemfg.com
Last, but certainly not least, a cook's most important tool is a great range. Your salivating dog is hoping you'll consider acquiring an efficient one that won't keep him waiting long for his meals. With an American Range, Spot gets the service he expects, with everything from baked treats to broiled meats to defrosted frozen raw-food patties coming out ready-to-eat in short order. Plus, you get the important safety feature of child-safe (and hence pet-safe) push-and-turn top burner controls. Most important from Spot's perspective, American Range sports the industry's largest oven cavity at 3.71 cubic feet"”just the thing for those oversize roasts every dog craves; www.americanrange.com
