Beau's favourite word is ...

Raw convenience

If somone who already feeds a raw-food diet to their dog speaks to you, you’ll likely be bombarded with a whole bunch of benefits and reasons why it’s the ONLY way to feed a dog.  You might even be made to feel like a failure for not feeding your dog a raw-food diet, that you’re poisoning him with pouches and toxic, tinned food, killing him with kibble, denying your dog his birthright – that you’re a BAD DOG OWNER who should be TAKEN AWAY AND SHOT or at least NEVER BE ALLOWED TO OWN A DOG EVER AGAIN! 

Sound familiar? 

Well you’re not alone.  I’ve been in that firing line too.  Maybe you saw me … I was the one wearing the t-shirt that says “I’m not ignorant, but I do have a meat-phobic vegetarian husband who shakes, pales and vomits at the mere thought of having ‘bits of rotting carcass’ in the house.”

Being confident that I’m providing my dogs with a balanced diet is a huge issue for me.  One vital aspect of this balance is the calcium:phosphorus ratio, which for an adult dog needs to be around 1.2:1.  This is important because if the ratio is out of balance, it gives rise to a whole host of chronic health problems.  The calcium:phosphorus ratio is (allegedly) one of the reasons why commercially produced, ‘complete’ kibble foods came about – back in the day when vets were regularly seeing skeletal abnormalities and renal failure in pet dogs fed on home-made, meat-without-bone diets that were low in calcium and high in phosphorus.  You can read about calcium and phosphorus and the importance of the correct calcium:phosphorus ratio here … http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2&aid=652 .

A year or so ago, I came across a company that was making and selling 'veterinary approved', ready-made, raw-food meals for dogs.  This, I thought, could be the way to gently persuade (cajole, badger, nag, wear down) David into letting me give raw feeding a go.  This food was conveniently minced and packaged, no identifiable bits of dead animal, and no chopping and portioning up, so I mentioned the food to David and then kept quiet about it for a while.  Then I mentioned it again, and in time, again, until to my absolute astonishment, he agreed that if we bought a separate freezer for the dogs’ food, I could give it a go.
And so, my mission had suddenly changed from one of husband persuasion, to creating enough space in our miniscule kitchen for a freezer.  After a major clearout of the under-stairs cupboard and some very careful and precise measuring up, without the small fridge, there was in fact enough space for a fridge-freezer for our food and a chest freezer for the dogs’ food.  And here they are, all squeezed in, along with the vacuum cleaner, dogs’ kibble bin, and a rather large box of dog toys!

 

What I hadn’t considered up until this point was what an expensive risk I was taking.  I’d bought an entire chest freezer just to store raw meat and bone meals for the dogs, not to mention having to buy at least 5kgs of the stuff to meet the minimum order requirement.  What if the dogs turned their noses up at it?  What if it didn’t agree with them?  How would I dispose of 5kgs of frozen, raw dog food without causing a major health hazard?  Would my freezer purchase turn out to be a very expensive, top-loading cupboard mistake?

I have heard tales of people deciding to give raw feeding a go and either dogs refusing to eat it, or having some pretty major digestive upsets.  But my two had been used to a varied diet with different protein sources, and had had no digestive upsets to date.  And I think that this alone probably helped immensely with the switch to raw.  We didn’t do a gradual switch either.  Our first raw food order arrived on a Friday, and with David away for the whole weekend, the dogs dined exclusively on raw until Monday morning.  No upturned noses.  No digestive upsets.  I was slightly concerned that Beau’s eyes would pop right out of his head though.  So all in all, our adventure into raw feeding so far has proven successful.  The dogs still get Acana for breakfast to save David’s stomach and sanity in the morning, but they have a raw meal at teatime.  

The hardest thing about raw feeding has been training myself to remember to take a tray out of the freezer first thing in the morning so that it’s defrosted in time for tea, although whenever I go to get anything from the under-stairs cupboard these days, the dogs are right behind me, so I get reminded, constantly.

For all the hard-core, raw-food fanatics out there who might be reading this and scoffing at me for taking the ‘ready made’ route, I KNOW that these ‘convenience’ raw meals don’t provide the tooth cleaning benefits of whole, raw meaty bones, but there are other ways of keeping a dog’s teeth clean.  And as my dogs eat nothing that contains grain or cereal, their teeth appear to stay clean anyway.  And they do get the occasional lamb rib bone as a post-teatime extra.  My reason for wanting to feed raw is to provide a natural, whole food diet for my dogs, not to use chomping on bones to keep their teeth clean.  And to be honest, even after a month of feeding raw for one meal a day, I haven’t noticed any outward health improvements, although this could be because except for the occasional injury, my dogs have always remained in tip-top health – no digestive upsets, allergies or skin problems, good energy levels, glossy coats, cold wet noses.  I don’t use chemical tick, flea or worming products, and in place of vaccinating I use titer testing to check their immunity against the main diseases.  I don’t use chemicals to clean my home, I don’t use chemical room scenters, I don’t use fertilisers or poisons in the garden – what I’m saying is that for me, feeding my dogs a raw-food diet is the final piece in the holistic puzzle of long-term health.

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Update, 11th January 2012:

Since writing this article, I have stopped feeding my dogs a raw food diet.  Please see this article for further information: "Feeding for health and longevity ~ raw vs. kibble vs. calories"

My dog is fear-aggressive

"My dog is fear-aggressive" is a phrase that I hear a lot from dog owners.  The truth is, ‘fear-aggression’ does not exist.  It cannot exist.  Fear has an inhibitory influence over aggression.  Fear makes you want to run away and hide, not stand your ground and fight.  Fear and aggression arise along different pathways in the brain and simply cannot occur simultaneously.  That’s not to say that fear and aggression cannot be displayed in quick succession, they can, but when this occurs the behaviour is usually pathological in nature – abnormal or irrational.

Because fear and aggression cannot arise simultaneously, a dog is either fearful OR aggressive – there can be no motivational contradiction.  True contradictory behaviour or ‘conflicting signals’ is uncommon in dogs and specifically occurs when a dog is stuck between conflicting drives or emotions, simultaneously displaying behaviours from each.  For example, a snarling dog that has its ears raised but its tail between its legs is displaying true, contradictory behaviour.  A snarling dog that is cowering with flattened ears, is not.  Neither dog is displaying ‘fear-aggression’ though.  A dog cannot signal fear and aggression at the same time.  ‘Fear-aggression’ is not a contradiction – it’s an impossibility.

Confused?

Then let me try and explain …

Happy 3rd Gotcha Day Tilly!

It was 3 years ago today that I collected Tilly from the LRRSE transport van as it arrived from Ireland at Green Lane Kennels, near Chessington.  Until that point I had only a blurry photo and brief description to go on - she had looked nervous in the photo, but in reality, nervous didn't even come close.  She had been described by the Irish rescuers as being 'good with people', which I quickly came to realise was because she was absolutely terrified and if she had nowhere to run, she locked down into freeze mode instead.  After retrieving her from underneath the LRRSE transport van where she had bolted the second she was brought out, I got her into my van as quickly as possible, all the while wondering what on earth I was about to take on.  After a non-stop, noisy, overnight journey from Ireland with a dozen other dogs, she was clearly frightened and exhausted, and promptly hid herself in the blankets in the peace and quite of the travel crate.  At that point I knew that if she had a chance of being rehomed at all, it could only be with someone who had the knowledge and patience to rehabilitate her.  She clearly wasn't 'as described' but it was too late to change my mind.  I handed over my £150.  She was coming home with me.

She had been seized as an abuse/neglect case, and when I finally got her home, the physical evidence was all too clear.  She'd already been in Irish rescue for three weeks prior to being transported to England, but she was still a bag of bones and had that terrible smell of neglect and stress about her.  She had no hair on her ears, muzzle or neck, some nasty (but healing) rips in her ears, her tail had been docked to no more than an inch or so, she had a front top tooth missing and a broken canine, two cigarette burn scars on the back of her neck, what little fur she had was coarse and dull, and I had been told that she'd had puppies about 12 weeks previously.  She had been estimated by the Irish rescue to be between one and two years old.

Her physical recovery was fairly quick, but psychologically, it's been a long and challenging road for her.  In three years she has overcome so much, so many fears, and has taught me more about working with fears and phobias than I ever thought possible.  There will always be places that I will not be able to take her to, simply because it would cause her too much stress, but that's okay.  And she still has the occasional moment when fear takes over, but only if we come across something that sparks a memory for her.  On the whole, she does just fine now, and knowing what her limits are enables me to keep on working to ensure that any experiences she has are always positive as she continues to learn that the world is okay, that people are okay, that life is fun, and that she no longer has anything to fear. 

The following film is my tribute to her, to mark her 3rd Gotcha Day, and to celebrate in pictures and videos just how fabulous she is ...

Unwelcome visitors - ticks & fleas!

Dare I say it but for the past few days it has really felt like Spring has arrived, and whilst the dogs have been lazily soaking up the rays, the garden creep-crawlies have been quietly shaking off their winter sleep and going about their business in the sunshine – certainly here we have an abundance of ladybirds already, along with bumblebees and yellow butterflies.  But the warmer weather heralds the emergence of the not-so-pretty spring visitors too – ticks!   

Ticks are blood-sucking arachnids (spider family) and can be found in gardens, parks, woods and other rural and grassy environments.  Ticks are very active during the spring and autumn, but can remain a problem throughout the summer if weather conditions are favourable.  If you have never seen a tick, this is what one looks like in close-up: