Healthy Dog for Life

9 responses so far ↓

• 1 Yngvil Grøvdal // Oct 31, 2010 at 1:55 pm

  Hi! I am a Norwegian woman owning a Rottweiler. I was introduced to raw food by my vet, and have worked my way through Billinghurst to Lonsdale. I constantly discover new things about feeding raw meat, offal and bones to dogs, and I am amazed at how many people actually do this. I am very glad to discover your website. My only question is why people who try to promote this way of feeding do not unite. In Norway we are a few enthusiasts who try to talk and write about this to others. I fear competition in this field will be detrimental to dogs’ health. In my view you are all absolutely right. I have been feeding raw meat and bone to my dog for three and a half year now, even though it is a bit difficult to come by bony meat in my country these days, and I am certainly convinced: No tartar on teeth, no foul smelly mouth, dog poo that is small and “handy”, no disease, beautiful coat, no allergies and maybe most of all: A totally happy dog eating what she does best: Raw meaty bones! Keep up the good work!

• 2 Yngvil Grøvdal // Oct 31, 2010 at 1:57 pm

  Hi! I am a Norwegian woman owning a Rottweiler. I was introduced to raw food by my vet, and have worked my way through Billinghurst to Lonsdale. I constantly discover new things about feeding raw meat, offal and bones to dogs, and I am amazed at how many people actually do this. I am very glad to discover your website. My only question is why people who try to promote this way of feeding do not unite. In Norway we are a few enthusiasts who try to talk and write about this to others. I fear “competition” in this field will be detrimental to dogs’ health. In my view you are all absolutely right. I have been feeding raw meat and bone to my dog for three and a half years now, even though it is a bit difficult to come by bony meat in my country these days, and I am certainly convinced: No tartar on teeth, no foul smelly mouth, dog poo that is small and “handy”, no disease, beautiful coat, no allergies and maybe most of all: A totally happy dog eating what she does best: Raw meaty bones! Keep up the good work!

• 3 Dan // Nov 8, 2010 at 5:58 am

  Thankyou for writing in, much appreciated and sentiments I can attest to. Yes there is some in-fighting which has a background to it that I wont go into.

  Method variation aside our dogs are the winners here with the outcomes you mention happening across the board.

  What we need now is coverage and continued growth of simply feeding dogs the RIGHT food-(real food). I still find it amazing that so many people cant get over feeding a dogs natural food to their pet. Three generations of media mindlock and voila!

  Folks if your reading this remember two things:

  1-Kibble and canned dog food is very highly processed, loaded with artificial additives and CANNOT fulfil your dogs biological needs which leads to disease and a shortened lifespan of national average 12.5yrs.

  2-Natural dog food as developed by nature over millions of years will fortify, envigorate, protect from disease and lenghthen your dogs life (from my current research) to 18yrs.

  The greatest impact on any dogs physical life is its diet-period.

• 4 Yngvil Grøvdal // Nov 8, 2010 at 12:13 pm

  I registered one vet student telling that the curriculum on nutrition in vet school is next to nothing. That is also the case in my country. I have it from my first vet, and later I have looked more closely into the matter. I am trying to promote dog health by writing articles in a Norwegian magazine for dog owners published by the Norwegian Kennel Club. That is my small contribution, to try and inform dog owners. I have had a conflict with the magazine because they keep a vet imployed by Eukanuba as their “expert” on nutrition. Most dog owners in my experience believe anything a vet says, until they actually dare try otherwise. Then most are easily convinced, like the people commenting on this blog. The special edition the magazine ran on nutrition for dogs was a disaster. They mostly told dog owners not to “experiment” with so called home made food, and keep giving the dogs kibble, that was described as good and balanced nutrition. As a researcher, mother of four and someone who likes good and healthy food, I could never subscribe to such a statement. It is really kibble that is experimenting, kibble is (bad) “home made food,” whereas all you have to do with bones and meat is to portion it for your dog! Luckily the editor of the magazine worries that we will go public telling about how they have “sold themselves” to the pet food industry, so they normally print what I write. That way the info is at least spread to thousands of dog owners.

  I think what you said about foul smelling gas as a result of feeding kibble, is very interesting. My mothers old boxer had this problem when they switched him to kibble in the early years of its existence. This summer I took care of my neighbours two vorstehers, both on kibble, for two weeks, and we often had to hold our breath when they were in the room with us because of the awful smell. This happens once in a blue moon with my bone fed dog, and only if she has eaten something that is not really on her menu….

• 5 Dan // Nov 9, 2010 at 2:53 am

  Yes I can confirm this myself from my own research and from a vet technician who voiced the same concerns over just how little nutrition education he recieved and that it was voluntary-students did not have to attend these few classes!

  It seems there’s a resident (vet) expert on every panel, board, dog magazine, dog show ad in finitum. I spoke with the people in charge at Cesar Milan’s business about promoting a natural diet for his dogs but alas they take their cues from a “resident vet” which involves feeding commercial kibbles.

  All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. –Arthur Schopenhauer

  With that in mind the outcome will prevail. Your contribution is enough and well recieved-thankyou. This is all it takes to change the world and set dogs on the right path to healthier lives.

  When we sold our last house the viewers coming in to look the place over could not believe we had a dog with zero evidence of dog smell. With very little shedding, gas or dog odour the house is always fresh and any occasional accidents are either neat little almost smell free firm pellets or low odour non staining urine. These benefits alone are worth the switch to ‘real food’.

  I wish you well, talk again soon, Dan.

• 6 Yngvil Grøvdal // Nov 9, 2010 at 3:29 am

  I totally agree with Schopenhauer on this! But luckily you do not have to be a philosopher to think for yourself. Like one breeder Tom Lonsdale had given the good message to said: The proof is in the pudding. Once you start using your sence of logic, it all becomes clear. I think a lot of people do not change because they think kibble is convenient. So I try to assure them that also goes for meat and bones!

  There is one thing I wonder about though: Do we know (scientifically) that dogs live longer on a natural diet? To my knowledge even people on very good diets sometimes die before “time”. To me the argument about long life is not the most important one here. I think we should be careful with our promises too. Many dog owners – including myself – love their dogs infinitely, and want to see them live for many, many years. My concern is rather that we should tell the story about the good life, about all the benefits we now know about through experience and not least the joy of the food for the dog. The short time I fed kibble my dog never went to “dinner” with joy. After I changed, she is all excited when we come back from walking the woods and she knows it is dinner time. And the first time I gave her something else than kibble to eat, it was almost as if she could not believe her own nose and eyes: Was it really true that I was going to give her these raw bones? So that, low vet bills and the clean smell of the house as you call it, should really be sufficient reason for changing diet. If the dogs also live longer lives in good health, then that is a fantastic extra benefit.

  P.S. In Norway we often give dogs some raw, dried fish, that most dogs love (very good for those that otherwise only eat kibble too). It is fished in the north of the country, and dried out by the coast in summer. It only has one negative side to it: It smells quite a lot, although never “in” the dog, only in the bag!

  I wish you well too, and lots of luck in your work. I myself must return to my research of violence against women. Yngvil

• 7 Dan // Nov 12, 2010 at 12:39 pm

  People dont use logic, (it’s emotions that sell not logic) they use what they have been told to use a thousand times over-by repatition!(four legs good, two legs bad-Orwell) Kibble is used because of subconcious repatition not because it’s convenient per se.

  Scientifically I know that dogs have genetic memory to their late twenties, so it’s a case of using diet (among other things) to acheive as long and healthy a life as possible. Agreed about the benefits along the way though, the excitement seeing a dog during and after a raw food dinner is still amazing to me even after all these years. The sheer buzz a dog gets from natural food is life affirming.

  The short time I fed kibble my dog never went to “dinner” with joy. After I changed, she is all excited when we come back from walking the woods and she knows it is dinner time.

  The fish sounds interesting, cant be as smelly as tripe though?
  Good luck in your research, Dan.

• 8 Yngvil Grøvdal // Nov 12, 2010 at 2:31 pm

  What I know, is that most of the people I talk to about food for dogs, mention convenience as the main reason for using kibble. I won’t go into the question of what’s subconsciousness or not. In my country it may also be a question of money. Food is relatively expensive here, even meaty bones. The main thing for me, is to be able to make people curious about feeding in a different way.

  By the way: Do you have any experience with raw food and trouble with what looks like arthrosis? My neighbour’s dog can hardly walk anymore at the age of nearly ten. I keep thinking that we are what we eat, to a great extent, and I wonder what so much grain and other strange substances do to a dog’s cartillage and bone.

  As for the fish – no it does not smell as much as tripe, but it is pretty smelly, only with a totally different odour. Excellent food for dogs. My dog will not eat raw fish and bone, but she loves those dried fish, and they too have the bones still.

• 9 Dan // Dec 4, 2010 at 7:05 am

  Hi, just returned from honeymoon in Antigua… wonderful!

  “Convenience now pain later”- yes I know that one!
  Cheap food now expensive medical bills later, causing financial hardship, mental anquish and the dog is still suffering!

  Re arthrosis- commercial dog food strips away collagen leading to greatly increased loss of the tough elastic properties of this vital fiber. the dog is simply missing out on the high quality biological protein from fresh meat, bones and organs. For alleviation your neighbour must get their dog started immediately on a raw food diet with no drugs or supplements.

  I like the dried fish you talk about, a great alternative for fussy fish eaters.

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