When it comes to your dog's well-being, nutrition is of the utmost importance. Feeding your pet properly can mean the difference between a long, healthy life, and a sickly, miserable existence. And since our dogs can't select what they eat, their health ultimately rests on us, their owners who choose for them.

There are a lot of options out there for dog food and dog treats, but many of them aren't as good for your pet as the manufacturers would have you believe. In fact, some of these ingredients, when consumed over a long time and in large amounts, can be seriously harmful for your dog. Read each ingredient label carefully: these things that make up the dog food are listed by weight, so look at what your dog food is mostly made of.

Don't buy foods and dog treats that list "meat byproducts" or a lot of wheat and grain ingredients like "potato product" or "grain fermentation solubles." These grain by-products tend to add large amounts of carbohydrates in your dog's diet. Many of these foods have up to 70 percent of carbohydrate ingredients, while the dog's body is typically made to handle a diet that is less than 30 percent carbohydrate. Many cheap pet food manufacturers like to use wheat by products like corn and wheat because they act as extenders- letting them make more food from inexpensive ingredients. Excessive carbohydrate intake, though, may cause health problems for your dog: maldigestion, and obesity, along with all the health problems that being overweight brings.

Animal by-products aren't much of an improvement. While they do contribute protein in the diet, this meat is basically parts that are thrown away because they're unfit for human consumption: lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, liver, blood, bone, and stomach and intestines. To make things worse, there is little to no regulation for the sources of this meat: it could be from a meat processing plant, but it could also be roadkill, or 4-D (dead, diseased, disabled, dying) livestock.

So please- take the time to read those labels and understand what they mean. Find a premium dog food that can assure you that your pet is receiving only the best nutrition. There are brands out there like Wellness dog food, which produce dog treats and food made of mostly whole foods like human-grade chicken and lamb meat. It may cost a bit more than the cheap brands, but it pays off more: you'll have a healthy, happy canine companion.