Product Review

-- Natural Pet Product -- 

I originally connected with Rick Jahnke for this project, but it was Mike Fried who arranged for me to review DPG forPets a natural supplement for dogs and cats, and he sent me a quick email letting me know the product was shipped out on Oct. 4^th – they arrived on Dec. 6^th in a padded yellow envelope, sent from New York (US). I received 2 green glass bottles that are closed with white plastic flip top caps. The safety seal came in the form of a soft plastic loop that peels off really easy, and under cap lies another safety seal lightly glued to the top of the glass bottle. The bottles contain 60 tablets that are smaller than a dime in size and the bottle seems to have a 2-year shelf life.

I had been using another brand of pet joint relief formula called "Recovery SA" for our dog Skyla who is only about 7 years old but she's showed early signs of hip issues (limping after a long run, for instance). Our other dog is only 5 years old but she also seems to get a bit stiff in the back end sometimes so we are thinking that we might have to put her on similar natural medication as well as prevention. Skyla seems to do very well with Recovery and hardly shows any issues since she has been on it (3 chewable tabs per day, about the size of a looney), but when I heard of DGP for Pets, I just had to try this product and see what effect it has.

The label claims the chewable tablets are “great tasting”, I wonder who gets the job to test that out? (ha, ha) This supplement designed for dogs or cats only to support joint mobility and flexibility, decreasing aches and pain due to ailing joints and help the pet enjoy exercise and activity, like play time. The label offers a brief table helping people determine just how many tablets should be give out. Both my dogs fit in the 60-90 lb. range, which means they should have 3 tablets per day.

I liked that this product is all natural - ingredients are: marine collagen extract, bosweilla extract, corydalis root, wheatgrass, turmeric, feverfew extract, celery seed extract, along with inactive ingredients: microcrystalline cellulose, magnesium stearate, beef extract, silicon dioxide and staric acid. It also contains two special blends of interesting and unusual ingredients:  mucopolysaccharide complex, malt extract, roselia capsicum extract, aniseed myrtle, mountain pepper, bromelain and papain.

Another aspect about this company that I liked was that they support many different cancer charities and a pet-specific charity – the Onyx & Breezy Foundation (http://www.onyxandbreezy.org). The company is also a member of American Pet Products Association  (http://www.americanpetproducts.org) and Natural Products Association (http://www.linkedin.com/company/natural-products-association).

Unfortunately, Skyla is a very picky dog and she just would not try this product – she spat it out and even when I mixed it in with her food she sorted it out and spat it out the side of her mouth… which was kinda cute and funny, but meant she was not about to use the product. Duchess, who tends to be easy going and will try anything you give her to eat as she just loves food, also wouldn’t eat the product. We have a neighbor who’s dog had a leg injury and he was known to eat anything too – but he wouldn’t have anything to do with it. The neighbor told me he spat it out and looked at it like “what the heck is that?” and then didn’t eat it. She tried a few times after that and he did eat a few but didn’t seem to want to. Her other dog also turned her nose up at the pills.

So in our situation, sadly, all 4 dogs (my neighbors and my own) just were not interested in the supplement. I was going to give the pills either to the local pet rescue center or to another friend with older dogs but after telling that friend of my own experience she felt it would be a waste of time to try the product on her dogs. So I ended up composting the pills and recycling the bottles.

As such, as much as I admire the ethics of this company, I personally did not have a good experience with the product and cannot highly recommend it. Perhaps, though you will have a different experience…

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