Many dog parents who know good, clean nutrition is the surest way to help our dogs live long and well are jumping into homemade dog food.

It's a clear way to know the source, freshness, and overall quality of ingredients we're giving our dogs every day to be their healthiest selves. But where and how to begin exactly with cooking for your dog?

If you've been wanting to start making your own homemade dog food (or raw dog food), we've got you covered. Our Dogly Nutrition Advocates, all certified canine nutritionists, have put together these 7 guides to take you step by step through all the basics so you can try their favorite homemade food recipes and create your own for your dog with confidence. And we're here for you for any questions along the way!

In these 7 guides in the Home Cooking Channel here on Dogly, you'll learn all the basics you need to know about homemade dog food:

• Why Cooking Your Dog's Food Is Good (and Doesn't Destroy Nutrients)
• How to Understand Ingredients and Nutrients in Your Dog's Food
• Understanding Your Dog's Energy Needs & How That Factors into Your Dog's Food
• Why & How to Understand Macronutrients to Make Nutritionally Complete Homemade Dog Food
• Understanding Fatty Acids in Homemade Dog Food
• Understanding Vitamins & Minerals in Homemade Dog Food
• Understanding the Good Protein & Fat Sources in Your Dog's Food

**plan-panel

Here's an overview of each of these 7 guides to home cooking basics from canine nutritionists...

Dog Food Home Cooking Basics Guide 1: Why Cooking Your Dog's Food Is Good (and Doesn't Destroy Nutrients)

You may have heard the often repeated idea that cooking destroys nutrients in food. Dog owners often ask if that's true and if they should avoid cooking and only serve their dog a raw food diet.

It's simply not true that cooking destroys nutrients and raw dog food is the only way to go. (The high-heat processing of commercial kibbles is another story.)

In this guide, certified canine nutritionist and Dogly Advocate Alicia Boemi dispels that myth and shares the details of how and why many foods' nutrients are actually enhanced with cooking.

What you'll learn in this guide on cooking for your dog:

• Why cooking your dog's food can be a very healthy choice
• Which cooking methods to use with which ingredients to maximize nutrients in your homemade diet
• What that all means when cooking meat - with liver as an example, including the nutrient numbers broken out before and after
• What that means when cooking vegetables - with spinach as an example and its nutrient numbers cooked vs raw (also kale + other veggies made more nutritious with light steaming)
• What that means when cooking grains - with oatmeal as an example of how cooking increases minerals like iron and zinc

+ Pro tip: How you cook matters - with proper cooking, dogs' digestive systems access more nutrients.

You'll learn 4 keys to remember during the cooking process to increase availability of nutrients.

To get right into the why and how of cooking your dog's food for higher nutritional value, you can find this guide here. Or see what's next with taking a nutrient-driven approach to your homemade meals...

Dog Food Home Cooking Basics Guide 2: How to Understand Ingredients and Nutrients in Your Dog's Food

Many dog owners worry about getting the right balance and right amount of nutrients when starting to make a home-cooked diet for their dog. That's why certified canine nutritionist and Dogly Nutrition Advocate Savannah Welna created this guide and series - to give you a clear, simple foundation as you begin making your own dog food for your pup.

It starts with a nutrient-driven approach to homemade dog food recipes and understanding ingredients and nutrients.

What you'll learn in this guide on cooking for your dog:

• Why to focus on building your dog's diet from the inside-out with a nutrient-driven approach
• How it works whether you're making raw dog food or cooked dog food
• Both raw and cooked food can provide needed nutrients
• 3 advantages of raw food
• 3 advantages of cooked dog food
• how to get a start on dog food recipe formulation with a consistent nutrient/ingredient mindset

To get started understanding nutrients and ingredients for your homemade dog food recipes, you can jump into this guide and the accompanying video here. Or take a look at what's next in the process with your dog's energy needs and factoring them into your dog's food.

**follow-panel

Dog Food Home Cooking Basics Guide 3: Understanding Your Dog's Energy Needs & How That Factors into Your Dog's Food

Meeting your dog's energy needs is central to creating a homemade diet to keep your dog thriving and well. Figuring out how to do that is always a big question with pet parents.

You'll get answers and more useful info you need to know in this guide to your dog's energy needs from Savannah (certified canine nutritionist and Dogly Nutrition Advocate).

What you'll learn in this guide on cooking for your dog:

• The difference between a calorie and a kcal - important to know in formulating dog food recipes to fit your dog
• How much dog food your dog needs - and how much should be protein, carbohydrate, fat
• How to calculate your dog's daily kcal requirement for energy maintenance
• How to read your dog's body condition (ideal weight, etc)
• How to adjust ingredients to optimize your individual dog's energy and weight for your dog food recipe

Savannah takes you through it all step by step in this guide and accompanying video - you can find it all here if you're ready to get started. Or see what's next with a look at understanding macronutrients...

Dog Food Home Cooking Basics Guide 4: Why & How to Understand Macronutrients to Make Nutritionally Complete Homemade Dog Food

Setting macronutrient goals (for the % of protein, fat, and carbs) for your individual dog is a fundamental building block in creating homemade dog food recipes.

Macronutrients bring energy (calories) and nutrients to food. Balancing them to your dog's needs is the goal and being able to do that is part of the beauty of building your own dog food recipes. Certified nutritionist and Dogly Advocate Savannah takes you step by step through what you need to know about macronutrients and how to include them in your balanced dog food recipes.

What you'll learn in this guide on cooking for your dog:

• What you need to know about fats in your dog's diet
• What you need to know about protein in your dog's diet
• What you need to know about carbohydrates in your dog's diet
• The role of fiber in your dog's diet

+ Pro tip: Each macronutrient has a set number of calories per gram

For example, fat has the most energy per gram at 9 calories while protein and carbs each have 4 calories per gram. Important as you choose ingredients/quantities for your dog's nutritional needs.

You can get started learning about macronutrients in your dog's food here in this guide and video. Or take a look at what's next - understanding fatty acids...

**plan-panel

Dog Food Home Cooking Basics Guide 5: Understanding Fatty Acids in Homemade Food

There's a lot of discussion around omega-3 and omega-6 in both human and canine nutrition as awareness has grown on the benefits of the right fats in the right forms. And plenty of confusion along with it - with misperceptions and questions about what's good, what's not so good.

You can dive right into the answers about fatty acids, omega-3, and omega-6 with certified nutritionist and Dogly Advocate Savannah in this guide. Savannah takes you step by step through what you need to know as you begin to prepare a balanced diet for your individual dog's health.

What you'll learn in this guide on cooking for your dog:

• Why omega-3 & omega-6 are "essential" fatty acids
• What omega-3 does for dogs
• What omega-6 does for dogs
• What are good sources for omega-3 and omega-6 in your homemade dog food recipes
• What's the right omega ratio number (how much of each of omega-6 and omega-3)

+ Pro tip: Omega-6's reputation as a "bad fat" always causing inflammation is a myth

Savannah explains why and what that means for how much omega-6 you want to plan in your dog food recipes.

You can get started with this guide and the accompanying video here to learn about good fats, "bad fats", and omegas 3 & 6. Or take a look at the next guide on the all-important vitamins and minerals...

**channel-panel

Dog Food Home Cooking Basics Guide 6: Understanding Vitamins & Minerals in Homemade Dog Food

Most of us are fascinated by the role of vitamins and minerals in our own lives and in our dogs'. Which ones fuel energy, which are antioxidants... how do they work in our dogs' bodies and how do we make sure we're delivering them as we make homemade dog food?

Savannah created this guide in the series to give you a foundation for these important elements and their essential contribution to your dog's homemade dog food and overall wellness.

What you'll learn in this guide on cooking for your dog:

• Whether certain nutrients can be balanced over time rather than daily
• How to balance nutrients relative to other nutrients
• Which nutrients often fall short in homemade diets and how to fill gaps with foods
• Which vitamins are water soluble, what that means, what each one does for our dogs, and where to find them in foods
• Which vitamins are fat soluble, what that means, what each one does for our dogs, and where to find them in foods
• Good-to-knows about minerals (calcium, zinc, etc.)

+ Pro tip: Water soluble vitamins can be lost in the high heat cooking process - includes how to plan around that potential issue in your homemade food.

Pro tip 2: Sweet potato should always be cooked - Savannah tells you how.

Pro tip 3: Minerals are quite hardy, so they stand up well in cooked homemade dog food recipes.

If you're ready to learn about vitamins and minerals now, check out this guide and video here. Or continue on for a look at what's next: good protein and fat sources for your homemade dog food...

Dog Food Home Cooking Basics Guide 7: Understanding the Good Protein & Fat Sources in Your Dog's Food

Now that you have a good base of knowledge about all the nutrients you'll want to make part of your home-cooked food - why and how much - the next step is knowing where to find them in fresh food and human food.

In this guide in the series, Savannah shares one of the easiest parts of putting together your homemade food whether it's cooked or raw dog food - sourcing good protein and fat to optimize your dog's healthy diet.

What you'll learn in this guide on cooking for your dog:

• Good sources of protein for your dog
• How to prepare eggs - a great protein source - if your dog doesn't tolerate them raw
• Why plenty of good protein matters
• What increases the digestibility of both plant and animal protein
• How to think about good fat sources for your dog
• What to know about the fat that's in your protein sources
• What are good fats for your dog - what to know about omega-3, omega-6, coconut oil
• Where to find good fats in foods

You can get started on where to find your needed protein and fats in foods in this guide and video. Or if you haven't already, get started with the first guide in Home Cooking Basics - Why Cooking Your Dog's Food Is Good (and Doesn't Destroy Nutrients) followed by How to Understand Ingredients and Nutrients in Your Dog's Food.

Check out the Home Cooking Channel on Dogly

Once you have a good grounding in the basics of nutrients and how they factor into your home-cooked dog food, check out the many other step-by-step guides in the Home Cooking Channel where you'll find complete and balanced recipes to try like a collagen-rich bone broth recipe or 4 nutritionist favorites formulated for young, active adult dogs at 4 different weights or the turkey, cod, veggie recipe for a 35 lb active adult dog.

And if you need help, you can ask the Dogly Advocates in any channel or work with them one-on-one through Dogly.

If you want to keep learning about how and why to cook for your dog, you can continue here in the Home Cooking Channel or jump to the Basic Nutrition Channel or any of the other channels in Nutrition to learn all things nutrition for your dog's best, and healthiest, life.