I Changed My Dog's Food, and It Changed Her Life

I have made my cat-lady tendencies well-known. What I haven't shared about as much is my other love: my 14-year-old first love, Winnie. She is a sweet old Boxer mix who we rescued from a field 14 years ago and brought home to join our family. While the whole family loves her, she's my dad's best friend.

As can be expected with old age, Winnie's health has started to decline a bit. She can't hear very well, she can't see very well, and she has pretty significant arthritis. However, when any of my young nieces or nephews are around, Winnie tries her hardest to play with them and exerts all the energy she can manage. And while we know she's inevitably going to slow down even more as her days go by, our family couldn't help but see if there was any way we could help keep her as healthy as possible. That's when we learned about Purina Pro Plan Bright Mind for senior dogs.

This dog food comes in two categories, one for seniors over 7 and one for adult dogs. The senior variety is designed to keep old dogs' minds sharp, and the adult variety is more of a protective formula to keep your dogs' minds from aging as rapidly. The food is chock-full of botanical oils that supplement the brain, which encourages it to behave how it did when the dogs were younger.

But would it actually work? Can you actually help keep a dog from aging? I met with Dr. Brian Hare, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at Duke University and all-around dog expert, to discuss my Winnie and see what this food could do for her. He asked me a lot of questions about her behaviors and her life overall and said we should try Bright Mind for 30 days to see if we spotted a difference in anything.

My dad, aka Winnie's bestie, was in for anything to keep his dog happy. So we got the food, and my dad painstakingly measured out the old and new to switch her over properly before she was solidly on Bright Mind.

And then we waited.

I visited Winnie about three weeks into her 30 days, and I immediately noticed a difference. You know how when animals get old their eyes get really milky and cloudy? Winnie's had been that way previously, but after being on Bright Mind, her eyes had cleared up. They'd gone back to being deep brownish black with no cloudiness at all. My mom also said she'd been perkier, which is saying a lot considering she is 14 years old and can't handle much activity.

Thinking maybe the nutritional value in Bright Mind had added to Winnie's overall well-being, I asked Dr. Hare about it. He said, "The thing about Bright Mind is that it nurtures the mind and the body," rather than just helping dogs physically. Because, according to Dr. Hare, when older dogs start to forget their basic commands or routine activities, it's very possibly a mental deterioration rather than a physical one.

It's now been several months since Winnie's been on Bright Mind, and she's as perky as she was 10 years ago. It's actually pretty incredible to see. So if you've got a senior dog (7 years old or older) whose mind just doesn't seem as sharp, I highly recommend trying Purina Pro Plan Bright Mind for senior dogs. It'll give you your pup back.