i wrote a series of articles on nutrition for Schutzhund USA 1999. This article continues to have helpful information so i will share it here. There have been a few edits which are annotated.
THE JOY OF COOKING FOR YOUR DOG
By Joan Andreasen-Webb
Published in Schutzhund USA November/December 1999
"Hey, mate—You know if you feed a dog fresh meat, it will just turn it into a killer! It’ll go after the stock and before you know it, it will be after the wee little children."
This was an argument many years ago among sheep farmers in New Zealand that I purposefully stayed out of. I did wonder if New Zealand dogs were much smarter than the pack I had at home. Would my dogs associate meat unwrapped from the freezer with the stock that was grazing at the farm nearby? I sincerely doubted it.
In the years since then, I have participated in herding and watched many herding events. There are dogs that gather, and there are dogs that separate. There are dogs that bring the stock to the handler, and there are dogs that bark out, “Start up the grill and get the mint sauce ready!” There has been no connection to what they eat. It merely depends on what kind of prey drive they have.
As a friend was tracking her dog, the dog became painstakingly careful along a section of the track. When she walked forward to see what was requiring such thoroughness, she saw her dog was munching on wild strawberries. Not the kind of tracking behavior you like to see, but interesting from a dietary standpoint. When I was walking along our road last summer, I stopped to eat black raspberries. I glanced down and there was one of my females, Cora, plucking raspberries and eating them. She was not haphazard in her choices but careful to choose only the deep, black, ripened berries. I assumed this was nearing genius intelligence from her, only to realize from talking to others that their dogs eat berries too.
We have long had to barricade our dogs from the garden and fruit trees. In fact, our dogs first sparked my curiosity in alternative diets because of their insistence on supplementing their diet. As I have watched them over the years, I have learned much and realize that they make deliberate choices.
Tender, young grasses are prized for munching, leaves of young Beech saplings seem to settle stomachs, our older dogs will sometimes seek out certain expanding clays that are rich in organic material. The dogs also vary the amounts of certain ingredients for effect. They eat large quantities of the sharp blades of crab grasses for vomiting while a smaller amount of this will pass in their stool. Is this a little colon cleansing going on? Green beans, lettuces, over-ripe apples, and pears have been among the assortment of tastes. About five years ago, we were plagued with grasshoppers. Grasshopper parts began appearing in all the stools. Was this recreational eating or did this fulfill some nutritional need? I long ago gave up trying to stop them from selecting snacks in nature - although I do keep an eye on their choices - and respect that they may know more about what is good for them than I do. However, there will be trouble if they begin competing for my morels in the spring! (edited to add that although morels are not considered toxic for dogs, they can cause gastric distress.)
When I wrote the article, “Give Your Dog a Bone: Easier Said than Done,” for the Jan/Feb 1999 issue of Schutzhund USA, I didn’t expect that our phone would ring for months with inquiries about diet. I suggested to our editors that a summary of diet choices could be useful for interested readers.
Summary! I sent some 25 letters and questionnaires to breeders and dog food companies. The volume of information that has been streaming back to me has tempted me to escape somewhere very far away. New Zealand, perhaps?
This article is not intended to promote any particular way of feeding your dog. It is also not judging commercial dog food. If you are unfamiliar with the controversy on ingredients, quality, and politics of manufacturing pet foods, I suggest you turn to the end of this article and investigate the titles and web sites listed. Diet, I have learned, is as hot an issue as politics and religion. The choices are many, and each of us will make the decision on what we feed our dogs largely on the sum total of our own life experiences. I do hope that sharing a variety of choices will help with those examining their options.
Home-Prepared Diets
For home-prepared diets, your basic choices will be cooked or raw, with grains or without, meat with calcium supplementation, or meat and meaty bones. Proponents of each have success stories for their preferences. Many of these success stories are based on dogs who were changed from grain-based, by-product meal commercial foods, and the mere fact that the dogs are eating fresh, whole ingredients contributes to changes in a dog’s health. Which of these diets is best suited to dogs? It will require several generations before we can discern which are optimum diets. In short, evidence does point to a diet incorporating whole, fresh, and human-grade ingredients as steps in a wise direction. The breeders with whom I communicated have all been feeding dogs for many years—and feeding premium diets. There were certain repeated observations noted when they converted their dogs to home-prepared food. The coats they thought were lush became incredibly lush, skin problems (including fleas) diminished, ear problems—gone muscle development increased concentration increased endurance and energy increased puppies were more muscular and vigorous there were fewer still-births and infrequent whelping complications. Yes, you will read some incredible stories of dogs lumbering under the effects of diseases that have been restored to health merely by going natural. And yes, many of these are anecdotal without scientific data to back them up. However, the sheer number of improvements noted with people who would find it easier to pour food out of a bag makes one ponder. Could this be real?
During the 1970’s, I visited our local library and found some ancient, out-of-print books that supplied recipes for feeding dogs. These were books published before the widespread use of commercial dog food. The books are no longer on the library’s shelves. How I wish I remembered their titles!
We began experimenting with home-prepared diet almost 15 years ago (edited to add date: 1985) with the traditional ground beef and cottage cheese addition to kibbled food. When we traveled to Germany, we found breeders feeding concoctions of fresh meats/organs, whole grains, vegetables, and fruits. It was at Herbert Oster’s Bimsgrube kennels that we saw dogs gnawing on large slabs of green or unbleached tripe. There is nothing quite so hideous as tripe that has been drug around a kennel for a couple days! There is nothing quite so appropriate for an omnivorous carnivore, either. My German friends were amazed that we did not feed our dogs green tripe. Their attitudes indicated a disappointment with me, and I felt I was mistreating my dogs! Between you and me, I have not even looked for green tripe in the intervening years. Our dogs can get their probiotics and digestive enzymes some other way. (edited: not true anymore, our dogs eat green tripe! and yes, it is still gross!)
We progressed to cooked stews of grains, tissue/organ meats, and vegetables as a base, with supplements and raw ingredients mixed in. This seemed a natural evolution at the time and brought obvious improvements in health and development. As years went by, the raw food portion increased. Not only was this more appropriate for a dog but tons easier in preparation. Cooked vegetables changed to finely grated or what I call “smushed veggies.” Breeders from all around this country were evolving their diets in much the same way until the current explosion of books and web sites on raw diets.
Raw diet! Have we come so far only to regress to raw food for our dogs? Unless other species are concealing their culinary activities, humans are the only species who cook their food. Cooked food is dead food and has different cell structures than living cells. It is deficient of naturally occurring amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. Enzymes make the world go around! Every part of our functioning bodies needs enzymes to operate and they must be replenished or we face eventual breakdowns. The weakest link will be the first to go. Will it be a dog’s pancreas, liver, heart, or kidneys? Will the immune system go haywire and begin attacking friendly forces within the body?
If you are contemplating a home-prepared diet, it is wise to read several books before deciding which diet you are comfortable with. Individual dogs will thrive on some diets and not on others. An open mind is essential! You will find devotees of various diets. Listen and learn—then experiment on your own. You are not likely to kill your dogs with your concoctions. Follow the guidelines of respected nutritionists and feel free to alter aspects to suit your needs. As much as we appreciate the dog’s need for gnawing on bones, we tend to feed ground meat/bone in bowls because many of our kennels are gravel and small gravel sticks to meaty bones. Stones are not good for a dog’s intestines! We provide chewing exercise when dogs are on solid flooring. If your dogs are already in excellent condition, you may not see immediate and striking changes. If your dogs have been struggling with food intolerance, allergies, chronic ear or skin problems, and immune-related problems, there may be a period of detoxification where your dog’s condition may appear to worsen. Your dog is merely ridding its system of garbage collected over its life. Give diet changes several months to take effect. The body needs time to recalibrate and balance itself. Healing begins at the cell level. It may take some time before improvements are apparent. When the dog changes coat, the new coat is likely to be more supple and gleaming. The new coat may actually appear wet with the radiance and shine. If we provide the essential tools in diet, the body has an incredible ability to heal and balance itself.
Books to Study Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats is a comprehensive guide not only on diet but on general health and remedial care. Dr. Pitcairn supplies recipes for a complete home-prepared diet as well as recipes to supplement commercial dog food. The ingredient list includes a wide variety of foods from dairy, vegetables, grains, and legumes and uses both cooked and raw meat. The book describes diseases, known causes, and presents homeopathic and common sense treatments. Dr. Pitcairn has long been a strong force for a holistic approach to rearing and healing animals. He has a veterinary practice using homeopathy and nutrition and has established the Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy. This book is a must.
The books, Wendy Volhard's Natural Diet for a Healthy Dog, by Wendy Volhard, and The Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog, by Ms. Volhard and Kerry Brown, are comprehensive guides as well. The first book has clear, concise instructions including a shopping list and suggested amounts to feed by weight of dog. (Although, one must always evaluate a dog’s actual appearance and condition.) The diet includes cooked grains, raw meats, bone meal, vegetables/greens, and a comprehensive list of natural supplements. Organic ingredients are suggested in these books as they are in most publications on diet.
Now, on we go to Dr. Ian Billinghurst. This man’s ears must ring most of the time. Every conversation I have had in preparation of this article has led to his BARF (Bones and Raw Food) diet. Whether I was speaking with a food manufacturer or breeder, we eventually landed in BARF! If a person can estimate his or her success by the extremes of accolades and criticisms, then Billinghurst has arrived! He has published two books, Give Your Dog a Bone and Grow Your Pups With Bones. He makes some distinct claims of diet affecting reproduction and orthopedic development and does so with absolute candor. If you are breeding, rearing, or working German Shepherd Dogs, you must read his books. Agree or disagree with what he says but read them! His diet centers on edible meaty bones as in chicken wings, backs, and necks. Raw, of course. Tissue meat, vegetables, fruits, some dairy products, and natural supplements round off the diet. His explanations are succinct, direct, and wonderfully provocative! Even if you are adamantly opposed to the feeding of edible bones, read these books for the valuable information on strengthening the brood bitch, stud dog, and rearing of puppies. Billinghurst examines necessary nutrients and which foods provide them in a direct fashion.
The Ultimate Diet by Kymythy Schultze recommends a diet similar to the Billinghurst diets. This book is small in size but generous with information. Ms. Schultz details ingredients for a species-appropriate diet with explanations of their nutrients and function. She has practical suggestions for preparation, traveling, pregnancy, and rearing of puppies. The book has a quick reference table of nutrients with foods that provide these nutrients as well as holistic yellow pages with associations, holistic/homeopathic practitioners, books, videos, and product sources. A handy reference guide with clear, concise explanations.
What Would Your Dog Choose?
What would dogs eat if given a choice—and does it matter? Since we dictate what our dogs’ diet will be, I have often wondered what our dogs would choose to eat if given the opportunity. I have run some very unscientific experiments with our own dogs. I have offered platters with choices of fruit, vegetable, meat and grains to various dogs. Some dogs will consistently choose one food over the other while others just grab for the biggest portion. Interestingly, I have noted there is a tendency to choose fruit and vegetables in very hot weather, while in winter, many dogs pass over the fruit or vegetables in favor of the meat and grain.
There is a book by Norman Ralston, DVM and Gale Jack, called Raising Healthy Pets: Insights of a Holistic Veterinarian, that touches on this. Dr. Ralston employs nutrition, macrobiotics, and acupuncture for healing disease and solving behavior problems in his veterinary practice. Traditional Chinese medicine for dogs? Do dogs have Qi? Do Yin and Yang affect them? If you think I am speaking of the Y litter of a famous breeding kennel, buy this book. It is a simple, plainspoken book with some huge insights on our home—the earth. Dr. Ralston’s rugged childhood on a farm in east Texas forms the cornerstone for his appreciation of balance found in nature and how this understanding can be used for the treatment of disease in animals. He incorporates the basic concept of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) that health results when compatibility exists between a body and its internal and external environment and disease occurs when there is an imbalance in this relationship. Qi or Chi is the Vital or Life Force energy that keeps us all humming along! Qi has two polar or opposite forces: Yin and Yang. The Yin are passive, inward, and negative forces while Yang is active, out-going, and positive forces. Everything has some measure of Yin or Yang. The dog’s place of origin, and its intended use weighs heavily in determining a dog’s Qi. Relating this history and its interaction with the dog’s current environment can help formulate the nutritional needs for optimum health. There are cool foods, as in vegetables, and hot foods, as in animal protein. Adding together the dog’s inherent characteristics, the dog’s current activity level and diet, one can adapt a diet that balances and initiates healing. Yin and Yang form the backbone of acupuncture by targeting either Yin organs or Yang organs.
Alas, this is another topic and I sense you, dear Reader, are nodding off! Dr. Ralston explains these principles far better than I have. More importantly, it is time for dinner. Will it be a pizza or a greasy burger and fries for us?
(edited 2021: this list was compiled in 1999 so these titles and resources may have changed or may be unavailable currently.)
Resources for Further Information on Diet and Natural Rearing: 1) Natural Rearing Newsletter: Ambrican Enterprises 541.899.2080 ambrican@cdsnet.net http://www.naturalrearing.com (A must-visit site information on diet, health, homeopathy, and supplies) 2) The Whole Dog Journal: 1.800.829.9165 3) Animal Protection Institute: 800.348.7387 http://www.api4animals.org (information on commercial pet foods excellent site) 4) AAFCO Publications: 404.656.3637 5) Wysong Companion Animal Health Letter: 517.631.0009 www.wysong.net (ask for their catalog of health supplies and reading materials) 6) Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation Health Journal: 800.FOODS-4-U 7) Dogwise (formerly Dog and Cat Book Catalog: Direct Book Service) 800.776.2665 www.dogwise.com (catalog for books & videos) 8) http://aloha.com/~wolfepack (general diet information and links) 9) Feed That Dog (superb in-depth series on diet and dog foods published in Dog World in 1994) This can be ordered from Dogwise using catalog number DN127. 10) Foods Pets Die For by Ann Martin 11) Pet Allergies: Remedies for an Epidemic by Alfred J. Plechner, D.V.M. & Martin Zucker 12) Are You Poisoning Your Pet? By Nina Anderson and Howard Peiper 13) Consumer’s Guide to Dog Food: What’s in Dog Food, Why It’s There and How to Choose the Best Food for Your Dog by Liz Palika 14) Reigning Cats and Dogs by Pat McKay 15) The Complete Herbal Handbook for Dog and Cat by Juliette de Bairacli Levy 16) The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care by C J Puotinen (comprehensive, easy to access format) 17) Keep Your Dogs Healthy the Natural Way by Pat Lazarus 18) Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives by Ruth Winter 19) Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Medicine Principles and Practice edited by Allen Schoen D.V.M., MS, and Susan Wynn, D.V.M. 20) Macro-biotic and Traditional Chinese Medicine information: Kushi Institute P.O. Box 500, Becket, MA 01223-0500 or http://www.macrobiotics.org .
By Joan Andreasen-Webb
Published in Schutzhund USA November/December 1999
"Hey, mate—You know if you feed a dog fresh meat, it will just turn it into a killer! It’ll go after the stock and before you know it, it will be after the wee little children."
This was an argument many years ago among sheep farmers in New Zealand that I purposefully stayed out of. I did wonder if New Zealand dogs were much smarter than the pack I had at home. Would my dogs associate meat unwrapped from the freezer with the stock that was grazing at the farm nearby? I sincerely doubted it.
In the years since then, I have participated in herding and watched many herding events. There are dogs that gather, and there are dogs that separate. There are dogs that bring the stock to the handler, and there are dogs that bark out, “Start up the grill and get the mint sauce ready!” There has been no connection to what they eat. It merely depends on what kind of prey drive they have.
As a friend was tracking her dog, the dog became painstakingly careful along a section of the track. When she walked forward to see what was requiring such thoroughness, she saw her dog was munching on wild strawberries. Not the kind of tracking behavior you like to see, but interesting from a dietary standpoint. When I was walking along our road last summer, I stopped to eat black raspberries. I glanced down and there was one of my females, Cora, plucking raspberries and eating them. She was not haphazard in her choices but careful to choose only the deep, black, ripened berries. I assumed this was nearing genius intelligence from her, only to realize from talking to others that their dogs eat berries too.
We have long had to barricade our dogs from the garden and fruit trees. In fact, our dogs first sparked my curiosity in alternative diets because of their insistence on supplementing their diet. As I have watched them over the years, I have learned much and realize that they make deliberate choices.
Tender, young grasses are prized for munching, leaves of young Beech saplings seem to settle stomachs, our older dogs will sometimes seek out certain expanding clays that are rich in organic material. The dogs also vary the amounts of certain ingredients for effect. They eat large quantities of the sharp blades of crab grasses for vomiting while a smaller amount of this will pass in their stool. Is this a little colon cleansing going on? Green beans, lettuces, over-ripe apples, and pears have been among the assortment of tastes. About five years ago, we were plagued with grasshoppers. Grasshopper parts began appearing in all the stools. Was this recreational eating or did this fulfill some nutritional need? I long ago gave up trying to stop them from selecting snacks in nature - although I do keep an eye on their choices - and respect that they may know more about what is good for them than I do. However, there will be trouble if they begin competing for my morels in the spring! (edited to add that although morels are not considered toxic for dogs, they can cause gastric distress.)
When I wrote the article, “Give Your Dog a Bone: Easier Said than Done,” for the Jan/Feb 1999 issue of Schutzhund USA, I didn’t expect that our phone would ring for months with inquiries about diet. I suggested to our editors that a summary of diet choices could be useful for interested readers.
Summary! I sent some 25 letters and questionnaires to breeders and dog food companies. The volume of information that has been streaming back to me has tempted me to escape somewhere very far away. New Zealand, perhaps?
This article is not intended to promote any particular way of feeding your dog. It is also not judging commercial dog food. If you are unfamiliar with the controversy on ingredients, quality, and politics of manufacturing pet foods, I suggest you turn to the end of this article and investigate the titles and web sites listed. Diet, I have learned, is as hot an issue as politics and religion. The choices are many, and each of us will make the decision on what we feed our dogs largely on the sum total of our own life experiences. I do hope that sharing a variety of choices will help with those examining their options.
Home-Prepared Diets
For home-prepared diets, your basic choices will be cooked or raw, with grains or without, meat with calcium supplementation, or meat and meaty bones. Proponents of each have success stories for their preferences. Many of these success stories are based on dogs who were changed from grain-based, by-product meal commercial foods, and the mere fact that the dogs are eating fresh, whole ingredients contributes to changes in a dog’s health. Which of these diets is best suited to dogs? It will require several generations before we can discern which are optimum diets. In short, evidence does point to a diet incorporating whole, fresh, and human-grade ingredients as steps in a wise direction. The breeders with whom I communicated have all been feeding dogs for many years—and feeding premium diets. There were certain repeated observations noted when they converted their dogs to home-prepared food. The coats they thought were lush became incredibly lush, skin problems (including fleas) diminished, ear problems—gone muscle development increased concentration increased endurance and energy increased puppies were more muscular and vigorous there were fewer still-births and infrequent whelping complications. Yes, you will read some incredible stories of dogs lumbering under the effects of diseases that have been restored to health merely by going natural. And yes, many of these are anecdotal without scientific data to back them up. However, the sheer number of improvements noted with people who would find it easier to pour food out of a bag makes one ponder. Could this be real?
During the 1970’s, I visited our local library and found some ancient, out-of-print books that supplied recipes for feeding dogs. These were books published before the widespread use of commercial dog food. The books are no longer on the library’s shelves. How I wish I remembered their titles!
We began experimenting with home-prepared diet almost 15 years ago (edited to add date: 1985) with the traditional ground beef and cottage cheese addition to kibbled food. When we traveled to Germany, we found breeders feeding concoctions of fresh meats/organs, whole grains, vegetables, and fruits. It was at Herbert Oster’s Bimsgrube kennels that we saw dogs gnawing on large slabs of green or unbleached tripe. There is nothing quite so hideous as tripe that has been drug around a kennel for a couple days! There is nothing quite so appropriate for an omnivorous carnivore, either. My German friends were amazed that we did not feed our dogs green tripe. Their attitudes indicated a disappointment with me, and I felt I was mistreating my dogs! Between you and me, I have not even looked for green tripe in the intervening years. Our dogs can get their probiotics and digestive enzymes some other way. (edited: not true anymore, our dogs eat green tripe! and yes, it is still gross!)
We progressed to cooked stews of grains, tissue/organ meats, and vegetables as a base, with supplements and raw ingredients mixed in. This seemed a natural evolution at the time and brought obvious improvements in health and development. As years went by, the raw food portion increased. Not only was this more appropriate for a dog but tons easier in preparation. Cooked vegetables changed to finely grated or what I call “smushed veggies.” Breeders from all around this country were evolving their diets in much the same way until the current explosion of books and web sites on raw diets.
Raw diet! Have we come so far only to regress to raw food for our dogs? Unless other species are concealing their culinary activities, humans are the only species who cook their food. Cooked food is dead food and has different cell structures than living cells. It is deficient of naturally occurring amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. Enzymes make the world go around! Every part of our functioning bodies needs enzymes to operate and they must be replenished or we face eventual breakdowns. The weakest link will be the first to go. Will it be a dog’s pancreas, liver, heart, or kidneys? Will the immune system go haywire and begin attacking friendly forces within the body?
If you are contemplating a home-prepared diet, it is wise to read several books before deciding which diet you are comfortable with. Individual dogs will thrive on some diets and not on others. An open mind is essential! You will find devotees of various diets. Listen and learn—then experiment on your own. You are not likely to kill your dogs with your concoctions. Follow the guidelines of respected nutritionists and feel free to alter aspects to suit your needs. As much as we appreciate the dog’s need for gnawing on bones, we tend to feed ground meat/bone in bowls because many of our kennels are gravel and small gravel sticks to meaty bones. Stones are not good for a dog’s intestines! We provide chewing exercise when dogs are on solid flooring. If your dogs are already in excellent condition, you may not see immediate and striking changes. If your dogs have been struggling with food intolerance, allergies, chronic ear or skin problems, and immune-related problems, there may be a period of detoxification where your dog’s condition may appear to worsen. Your dog is merely ridding its system of garbage collected over its life. Give diet changes several months to take effect. The body needs time to recalibrate and balance itself. Healing begins at the cell level. It may take some time before improvements are apparent. When the dog changes coat, the new coat is likely to be more supple and gleaming. The new coat may actually appear wet with the radiance and shine. If we provide the essential tools in diet, the body has an incredible ability to heal and balance itself.
Books to Study Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats is a comprehensive guide not only on diet but on general health and remedial care. Dr. Pitcairn supplies recipes for a complete home-prepared diet as well as recipes to supplement commercial dog food. The ingredient list includes a wide variety of foods from dairy, vegetables, grains, and legumes and uses both cooked and raw meat. The book describes diseases, known causes, and presents homeopathic and common sense treatments. Dr. Pitcairn has long been a strong force for a holistic approach to rearing and healing animals. He has a veterinary practice using homeopathy and nutrition and has established the Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy. This book is a must.
The books, Wendy Volhard's Natural Diet for a Healthy Dog, by Wendy Volhard, and The Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog, by Ms. Volhard and Kerry Brown, are comprehensive guides as well. The first book has clear, concise instructions including a shopping list and suggested amounts to feed by weight of dog. (Although, one must always evaluate a dog’s actual appearance and condition.) The diet includes cooked grains, raw meats, bone meal, vegetables/greens, and a comprehensive list of natural supplements. Organic ingredients are suggested in these books as they are in most publications on diet.
Now, on we go to Dr. Ian Billinghurst. This man’s ears must ring most of the time. Every conversation I have had in preparation of this article has led to his BARF (Bones and Raw Food) diet. Whether I was speaking with a food manufacturer or breeder, we eventually landed in BARF! If a person can estimate his or her success by the extremes of accolades and criticisms, then Billinghurst has arrived! He has published two books, Give Your Dog a Bone and Grow Your Pups With Bones. He makes some distinct claims of diet affecting reproduction and orthopedic development and does so with absolute candor. If you are breeding, rearing, or working German Shepherd Dogs, you must read his books. Agree or disagree with what he says but read them! His diet centers on edible meaty bones as in chicken wings, backs, and necks. Raw, of course. Tissue meat, vegetables, fruits, some dairy products, and natural supplements round off the diet. His explanations are succinct, direct, and wonderfully provocative! Even if you are adamantly opposed to the feeding of edible bones, read these books for the valuable information on strengthening the brood bitch, stud dog, and rearing of puppies. Billinghurst examines necessary nutrients and which foods provide them in a direct fashion.
The Ultimate Diet by Kymythy Schultze recommends a diet similar to the Billinghurst diets. This book is small in size but generous with information. Ms. Schultz details ingredients for a species-appropriate diet with explanations of their nutrients and function. She has practical suggestions for preparation, traveling, pregnancy, and rearing of puppies. The book has a quick reference table of nutrients with foods that provide these nutrients as well as holistic yellow pages with associations, holistic/homeopathic practitioners, books, videos, and product sources. A handy reference guide with clear, concise explanations.
What Would Your Dog Choose?
What would dogs eat if given a choice—and does it matter? Since we dictate what our dogs’ diet will be, I have often wondered what our dogs would choose to eat if given the opportunity. I have run some very unscientific experiments with our own dogs. I have offered platters with choices of fruit, vegetable, meat and grains to various dogs. Some dogs will consistently choose one food over the other while others just grab for the biggest portion. Interestingly, I have noted there is a tendency to choose fruit and vegetables in very hot weather, while in winter, many dogs pass over the fruit or vegetables in favor of the meat and grain.
There is a book by Norman Ralston, DVM and Gale Jack, called Raising Healthy Pets: Insights of a Holistic Veterinarian, that touches on this. Dr. Ralston employs nutrition, macrobiotics, and acupuncture for healing disease and solving behavior problems in his veterinary practice. Traditional Chinese medicine for dogs? Do dogs have Qi? Do Yin and Yang affect them? If you think I am speaking of the Y litter of a famous breeding kennel, buy this book. It is a simple, plainspoken book with some huge insights on our home—the earth. Dr. Ralston’s rugged childhood on a farm in east Texas forms the cornerstone for his appreciation of balance found in nature and how this understanding can be used for the treatment of disease in animals. He incorporates the basic concept of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) that health results when compatibility exists between a body and its internal and external environment and disease occurs when there is an imbalance in this relationship. Qi or Chi is the Vital or Life Force energy that keeps us all humming along! Qi has two polar or opposite forces: Yin and Yang. The Yin are passive, inward, and negative forces while Yang is active, out-going, and positive forces. Everything has some measure of Yin or Yang. The dog’s place of origin, and its intended use weighs heavily in determining a dog’s Qi. Relating this history and its interaction with the dog’s current environment can help formulate the nutritional needs for optimum health. There are cool foods, as in vegetables, and hot foods, as in animal protein. Adding together the dog’s inherent characteristics, the dog’s current activity level and diet, one can adapt a diet that balances and initiates healing. Yin and Yang form the backbone of acupuncture by targeting either Yin organs or Yang organs.
Alas, this is another topic and I sense you, dear Reader, are nodding off! Dr. Ralston explains these principles far better than I have. More importantly, it is time for dinner. Will it be a pizza or a greasy burger and fries for us?
(edited 2021: this list was compiled in 1999 so these titles and resources may have changed or may be unavailable currently.)
Resources for Further Information on Diet and Natural Rearing: 1) Natural Rearing Newsletter: Ambrican Enterprises 541.899.2080 ambrican@cdsnet.net http://www.naturalrearing.com (A must-visit site information on diet, health, homeopathy, and supplies) 2) The Whole Dog Journal: 1.800.829.9165 3) Animal Protection Institute: 800.348.7387 http://www.api4animals.org (information on commercial pet foods excellent site) 4) AAFCO Publications: 404.656.3637 5) Wysong Companion Animal Health Letter: 517.631.0009 www.wysong.net (ask for their catalog of health supplies and reading materials) 6) Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation Health Journal: 800.FOODS-4-U 7) Dogwise (formerly Dog and Cat Book Catalog: Direct Book Service) 800.776.2665 www.dogwise.com (catalog for books & videos) 8) http://aloha.com/~wolfepack (general diet information and links) 9) Feed That Dog (superb in-depth series on diet and dog foods published in Dog World in 1994) This can be ordered from Dogwise using catalog number DN127. 10) Foods Pets Die For by Ann Martin 11) Pet Allergies: Remedies for an Epidemic by Alfred J. Plechner, D.V.M. & Martin Zucker 12) Are You Poisoning Your Pet? By Nina Anderson and Howard Peiper 13) Consumer’s Guide to Dog Food: What’s in Dog Food, Why It’s There and How to Choose the Best Food for Your Dog by Liz Palika 14) Reigning Cats and Dogs by Pat McKay 15) The Complete Herbal Handbook for Dog and Cat by Juliette de Bairacli Levy 16) The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care by C J Puotinen (comprehensive, easy to access format) 17) Keep Your Dogs Healthy the Natural Way by Pat Lazarus 18) Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives by Ruth Winter 19) Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Medicine Principles and Practice edited by Allen Schoen D.V.M., MS, and Susan Wynn, D.V.M. 20) Macro-biotic and Traditional Chinese Medicine information: Kushi Institute P.O. Box 500, Becket, MA 01223-0500 or http://www.macrobiotics.org .
