Hey, it’s Tenille here from dog matters and today we’re gonna talk about diet and specifically raw feeding. So I’m a big advocate of raw natural diets. The way that I feed my dogs and people often ask me is a raw natural diet. And the reason that this is important and something to bring up while my talking about training and behavior is that diet affects behavior as well as the overall health of your dog. So why raw feed? Well it has a multitude of benefits that you can visibly see. The proof is in the pudding, you can look at the dog and see dramatic changes in their health, you can see shinier, move the coats, you can get rid of that dog smell and even have to bath your dog less often, just vitality for life. You can have a more settled dog. I’ve had dogs that we’ve changed their diet, not needed to do as much training anymore because it settled them down so much because we were getting rid of all of the fillers and additives that were are in dog food. It can fix allergies, it can help fix behavior problems as part of the all round training program and it can help fix a multitude of other ailments as well. It’s also good for your dog’s teeth, giving them raw meaty bones to chew on.

All the vets these days are saying that they need to get your animal in for dentals done as a regular thing or that you should be brushing your dog’s death every day. But if they’re on a raw natural diet, that shouldn’t be necessary. You’ll have healthier teeth and gums, get rid of bad breath, all sorts of benefits that’s great for your dog. And you’ll be saving on vet bills and have a dog that lives for a longer period of time which is a great benefit. Unfortunately in a lot of areas there’s traditional vets that aren’t onboard with raw feeding and still recommend to feed dog food. So if you’re in that situation and you don’t have a holistic vet, you can find holistic vets that will work with you and give you the support you need and to know that you’re on the right track from a distance. So a lot of holistic vets now will consult with you over the phone or email to make sure that you’re doing it right.

And I was lucky enough to meet Dr. Will Falconer when I went to the US and I highly recommend that you go and check out his website vitalanimal.com and there’s some information and reading that you can do on that site to make sure that you’re doing raw feeding right. Because one of the things that can be scary about raw feeding especially if you’re doing it yourself is you may wonder whether you’re giving your dog all of the right nutrients, or your cat. It’s good to just go by a guideline to give your animal a lot of variety with raw feeding and if you want a really safe, easy, and quick way to do that, there are now frozen pre-done for you raw foods that are all-natural, all-raw and you simply defrost it and pour it in the bowl and then supplement with some meaty bones for the chewing to keep your dog occupied and clean their teeth as well. That’s a great, easy, quick way to do it.

Of course, there’s also the do-it-yourself route which will cost you a little less but takes a bit more research on your part to make sure that you’re just mainly giving your dog or cat lots of variety so that they’re getting balance over time. It doesn’t have to be that every single meal your dog has is balanced you know, 100% each meal. It’s balance over time in the overall picture that really counts for optimum health. The reason that I don’t recommend feeding dog food is it’s full of fillers, corns, grains, preservatives, additives, and generally a lot of things that dogs aren’t meant to eat. We’ve bred dogs for their appearance and temperament to change through the years since they started coming from the wolf. But one thing that hasn’t changed is their digestive system, this is the same. So if you’re in doubt, think about what your dog would eat in nature if they were back to that primitive original form, having to hunt or scavenge for their food. Not every meal’s gonna be balanced, it’s gonna balance out over time and there’s gonna be good variety of fresh prey meats. Whether you by a prepared, frozen, raw, or do-it-yourself, either way, you’re dog’s going to be a lot healthier than if you feed it dog food.

So I recommend looking into it and coming up with a raw feeding plan that works for you to give your dog the best health and help them with any behavior problems especially hyperactivity or things like that that you might be having. Make sure you look up Dr. Will Falconer, vitalanimal.com and you can also sign up for more free training and behavior tips at my.dogmatters.com and I’ll see you in the next video.