Knee Boost Brownies

Bigdog is sore. He injured his cruciate before Christmas, its not blown just weakened. I've been trying to feed him glucosamine, elk antler velvet and yucca but I'm better at recommending such things than following through with them. The shoemakers children don't get new shoes (or whatever that saying is).

Last night he went to run up the stairs to go outside and made it almost to the top when he slipped and fell down the entire staircase. Ouch. This morning wasn't quite as bad but he slipped again, at least I was closer and ready to catch him so he didn't fall the whole way. Not sure yet what I'm going to do with him tonight to prevent another slip.

So today we are cooking. I mixed his supplements, enough for a week, with some canned pheasant mush, oatmeal, brown rice flour and some applesauce and made a brownie-ish type loaf. Baked a little bit at low temp, not sure just how heat stable all the supplements are. Now its in the dehydrator to firm up a bit. They're pretty crumbly as is, I think next week I'll use oat flour rather than the oatmeal.

Indy approves. He enjoyed cleaning the bowls and the tin foil from the pan. We'll be experimenting with recipes to make these workable and usable. He's not arguing as long as he doesn't have to share.

The Real Dangers of Raw Pet Food

Sure I hear concerns all the time about salmonella, bones, unbalanced meals and any other number of concerns about raw feeding but I'm here to tell you that those are not the real risks. Oh no, the real challenges occur during the most innocent seeming of tasks; preparing vegetables.

Allow me to paint you a picture:

Three dogs, 35, 75 and 90lbs respectively and 3 cats are all patiently, well impatiently for the cats, waiting for dinner to be prepared and served. I have weighed out the meaty portion of the dogs diet and added the appropriate supplements for each pup, I now simply have to add the vegetables. I had thawed them earlier, a lovely mix of lettuce, zucchini, broccoli, kale, bananas etc all pureed to a fine pulp, 6 cups in all, ready to dish out. As I reach with the spoon to begin adding to the first doggy dish, Bonze (all 12 impatient feline pounds) jumps up to the serving area startling me and causing the spoon to push the veggie container off the edge of the counter.

Begin slow motion video capture now:

The container falls, open end up, hits the tile floor wherein 6 cups of pureed vegetables and fruit go flying into the air all over the room. The floor is coated, the wall is smeared, even the ceiling is now spackled with veggies. The cats have vegetables in their fur only the dogs were spared due to their patient waiting outside the room. Myself, I am coated, having been the closest victim aside from Bonze. There is puree in my hair, all down my side, all over my face and across my glasses and somehow even in my eyes. I tell you, veggies bits in your eyes are painful, especially three hours later when they still aren't gone! At this point the cats have fled and the dogs break and come flying into the room to check out the commotion, now veggies are being tracked everywhere! It was quite the debacle.

Sigh.

So there you have it, the true, previously hushed dangers of raw feeding.

NB - while this episode seems truly frightening and horrifying the animals are now recovered and both paws and fur are veggie free once more. we now take extra precautions to prevent future recurrences of such horrors.

Ode to Tripe

Hello cow tripe my old friend,

I've trouble sourcing you again,

Because the government tells me

You are related to BSE

And the truth is that you are not a brain

Or spinal cord, but a ruminant's stomach.

O stinky dog delicacy

Enzymes and probiotics naturally

I've so many hungry dogs to feed,

Some who will not eat anything

And you are such a perfect food for them

From a cow, or sheep or buffalo

Pawsitively Healthy would like to thank Simon and Garfunkel for accompanying us in our search for a regular supply of fresh green tripe.

Bad To The Bone

My dogs might be bad to the bone but they're usually quite good for bones. At least until someone steals a second bone and then someone else is left without and then, well, you get the idea. Bones are a great way to keep your dogs entertained, out of trouble and burn off extra energy that they might have. That being said there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Do NOT, under any circumstances, feed your dog cooked bones. They have a much higher rate of splintering and causing severe problems.

2. Chicken necks are great for smaller dogs and cats but larger dogs may swallow them whole. Not necessarily a bad thing but it also renders the whole chewing goal useless.

3. If this is your first time giving your dog a bone, take it slow as there are two potential problems. Firstly, bone guarding, if your dog REALLY likes it he may become very possessive towards people over the bone. If this is the case he needs some work on his behavior before he can safely have bones. Problem number two is just a matter of tummy training, marrow is very rich and can cause diarrhea if your dog is not used to it. The first few times you give your dog a bone make it 15-20mins tops and then you can add 5mins at a time until your dog's digestive tract can safely handle the bone without you having to worry about the back end. Some dogs are simply not able to tolerate bones in their diet, if you are unsure due to a pre-existing health condition in your dog, contact your vet to be sure.

4. A word on bone chewing locations - my favorite places are outside or in a crate with a washable blanket or bed. You can also train your dog to always chew on a specific bed or blanket or if you have a bare floor that you are comfortable washing after bone chewing that can work as well. The floor here in the store is concrete, we chew a lot of bones at work.

Crossover training

Sounds like some cool thing you might train your dog for, like, "Hey, my dog does crossover!" Sadly, it’s a state that many dogs and owners (and even trainers) find themselves in as they discover the wonders of positive reinforcement training. For those of us who started our lives and dogs with coercion based techniques, ie choke chains, leash pops, forcing the dog into a sit or down position etc, trying to figure out how to get an unruly or over excited dog to do anything nicely using rewards is, frankly, counter-intuitive.

Working with Caramel has helped me immensely as I used as little of my previous (coercion-based) knowledge as possible and now have a very clicker-savvy dog who is an active participant in training every day. She helps to remind me that Indy really needs a lot more patience and love while he figures out this new way of life. His typical response to the appearance of the clicker is "sit" then "sit harder" followed by "lie down" finished with demand barking because I still haven't given him that darned click. He knows sitting is good and down is good but other things have gotten him in trouble in the past so he's wary to try anything new. I have good news though, he's starting to figure out the target stick and he did learn to bark on cue so I remain hopeful that with a few more created behaviors he will truly begin to participate in the learning process.

Have a crossover dog? Experiences as a crossover owner or trainer? We'd love to hear your stories and how you have overcome some of the challenges you faced.

Gardening for dogs

May Long Weekend is past, our snow from said long weekend is now gone as well. This made me think of all the gardeners out there itching to get some plants growing for the fall harvest. For those who planted already hope the ones you put in before the snow are all okay.

For those of you who love to grow but run out of people to feed, don't forget the dogs! Granted some dogs might be less than enthralled that you grew them some veggies (mine come to mind here) but others might be thrilled. For those of you feeding raw or home cooked foods this is a good way to stock up on veggies to save yourselves a few buck in the winter when veggies are expensive, long distance travelers.

So what veggies should you be growing for these canines? Here are a few choices that I would opt for myself but this list is anything less than exhaustive.

Pumpkins - yes and lots of them, its great for loose bowels brought on by any number of things dogs might get into.

Zucchini - a great and productive plant and a nice fibre-y veg to add to a mix.

Carrots - many dogs like these as treats - Caramel says they're crazy.

Lettuce - any type will do, less so the iceberg variety and I might avoid the salad mixes as some of the more bitter and pungent greens could make for a reluctant pooch.

Beets - not so much beets for the dog but beet greens are great, if you don't take them all for yourself, but c'mon, you've already got the beets for you, give a little something to the canine!

That was just a small list of possible options - now a few caveats - do not, under any circumstances, feed onions to your dog. Also keep in mind that some veggies are better for them lightly cooked, eg steamed beet greens. It doesn't need to be much but it will help them digest some of the fibre and breaks down some of the anti-nutrients in the plant material.

Any questions about specific vegetables you might want to try just send us a message!

In bed with the Devil

Recently one of the biggest players in the natural pet food market, Natura, was bought out by Proctor and Gamble, one of the biggest players in, well, pretty much every market. My initial response was to treat this as catastrophic news, fearing an inevitable cheapening of ingredients and the loss of several of the most popular brands in natural pet food including Innova, EVO and California Natural as well as Mother Nature dog cookies. So why did this happen and what are the possible ramifications of this deal?

To start, Natura pet products has been a leader in product quality and innovation, they started the grain free "revolution" with their EVO line of dog and cat foods. In the midst of the major recalls in 2007 they were one of few companies who could say they were unaffected by the tainted products. For several years they have had phenomenal market growth but recently that has slowed. The official reason for this deal is to bring natural pet products to a wider audience, thereby increasing the overall health of all pets, everywhere. P & G as a company can facilitate this because they have the market share and the resources to fund and pursue it.

The problem is that P&G is not well known for placing quality first. One of the reasons they are a huge player is that the bottom line has priority. How do they plan on bringing Natura products to a wider audience at a better price and maintain its current level of quality? I don't know, maybe they hired out Santa's elves? Seriously though, economies of scale are great but they don't run infinitesimally. At some point, something is going to give and considering Iams and Eukaneuba are P&G brands my bet is on ingredient quality. I know I will be watching for any news on changes to the formulas or changes in ingredient sources, you know, like stuff from China.

It’s a doozy of a situation and future is unknown, all we lowly pet food consumers can do is hope the overall good of reaching a greater market outweighs the possible future of decreased product quality. Remember, you can always express your opinion of this deal with your dollars and choose to continue buying Natura (P&G) products or switch to similar products made by smaller companies whose reputation you trust.