As you may know, because for months I’ve talked about almost nothing else, I’ve been on a puppy-fostering jag since November. My shelter has a hard time with keeping large litters of puppies clean, warm, dry, and healthy, particularly in the winter; I guess that’s true for many if not most shelters. So I’ve been taking on one litter after another, starting with my first-ever foster-fail pup Woody, who was one of nine puppies; then a litter of six Chihuahua/terrier-mixes, all boys; another litter of nine cattle dog/pit-mixes, all adorably freckled; and I’m at the tail end (no pun intended) of a litter of seven German Shepherd/hound/who-knows-what-mixes. Playing with and caring for the pups has been fun, challenging, messy, expensive, and interesting! But here is the latest thing I’ve been fascinated with: the people who come to adopt a puppy – and end up walking out, or at least trying to walk out, with two.
It’s happened every single time that I brought the pups to the shelter. As soon as the pups in a given litter were judged to be big enough, healthy enough, and socialized enough to be put up for adoption, and I brought them (tearfully) to the shelter, a parade of potential adopters came to meet and greet them. Not a single person walked in saying “I want to adopt two puppies!” – but almost everyone said, at some puppy-covered point, “Oh honey, should we get two?”
For some people it’s a joke – someone teasing his or her partner. For some, it’s a fleeting impulse, one that’s quickly banished by the reality of the size (and cost!) of the commitment. But some people jump in with both feet! They hadn’t considered it before, but by gosh, they have every reason to do so now.
My shelter doesn’t have a policy against such a thing, as much as I wish they did. Perhaps shelters in less economically challenged parts of the country are more selective about sending puppies out the door; here, they are happy to place two at once . . . even if I’m standing on the sidelines, wringing my hands.
My hand-wringing and dire predictions worked to dissuade adopters every time, until this last litter. I wasn’t there to cheerily let the owners know everything that could go wrong when adopting two, and guess what? The shelter put me in touch with the young couple with the five year old son who did adopt two pups. Of course, they are having trouble managing both puppies. I’m giving them lots of advice and encouragement – and begging them to stay open to the idea of returning one while they are still young enough to be relatively undamaged by time getting away with the sort of behaviors that lead many people to return pups as adolescents: a lack of housetraining, barking at novel things, and chasing, jumping up on, and biting the baby.
Why am I and so many trainers against this practice? The biggest reason is that puppies tend to bond more to each other than to their new human family members, making training and management much more difficult. It takes MORE than twice as much time to properly train two puppies than one (and few people take enough time to train even one!). Many dogs raised full-time with a sibling also develop crushing separation distress when they finally have to be separated.
What’s your opinion? Do you have problem-free sibling dogs? Or have you experienced all the bad things that, later, trainers told you would happen?
Chippy, our Toller, is a terrible food thief. (Of course, the use of the word terrible is one of perspective. Given his impressive success rate, Chippy would argue that he is actually a very good food thief). He’s an incredibly sweet-looking dog; just don’t turn your back on your toast. Or any delicious food! Chip has become so proficient at his food thievery that our dog friends all know to “keep eyes on Chippy” whenever we celebrate a birthday or have snacks after an evening of training. We are often reminded of the now-infamous “birthday cake incident” during which Chip and Grace, an equally talented Aussie friend, succeeded in reducing a section of cake to mere crumbs, no evidence to be found. Suffice it to say, we watch food in our house.
Like many other expert food thieves, Chip is quite careful in his pilfering decisions. He will steal only when we are not in the room or when we are being inattentive. The parsimonious (simplest) explanation of this is a behavioristic one: Chip learned early in life that he was more likely to be successful at taking forbidden tidbits when a human was not in the room, and more likely to be unsuccessful if someone was present and attentive to him. In other words, like many dogs who excel at food thievery, Chip learned what works!
However, while a behavioristic explanation covers most aspects of selective stealing behavior in dogs, a set of research studies conducted by cognitive scientists suggest that there may be a bit more going on here.
Do Dogs Have a “Theory of Mind”?
Many dog owners can attest to the fact that dogs will alter their behavior in response to whether a person is actively paying attention to them or is distracted. For example, in separate studies, dogs were more apt to steal a piece of food from an inattentive person, and would preferentially beg from an attentive person. (Cited references1,2)
One could explain this in very simple terms, based on well-established observations about how animals learn. For example, a dog could learn over time that human gaze and attentiveness reliably predict certain outcomes, such as positive interactions and opportunities to beg for food. Similarly, a lack of eye contact and attention might reliably predict opportunities to steal a tidbit (or two or five).
But it’s also possible that, just like humans, dogs use a person’s gaze to determine what that person does or does not know. This type of learning is considered to be a higher-level cognitive process because it requires “perspective-taking”- meaning that the dog is able to view a situation through the perspective of the human, and can then make decisions according to what that individual is aware of. The import of this type of thinking is that it reveals at least a rudimentary “theory of mind” – the ability to consider what another individual knows or may be thinking.
So, while it’s established that dogs are sensitive to the cues that human eye contact and gaze provide, it’s not clear whether they can use this information to determine what the person may or may not know.
Enter the cognitive scientists!
The Toy Study
Here’s one approach to teasing out “theory of mind” evidence: Researchers set up a scene that causes the test subjects to change their behavior based on the inferences they draw from watching another being, whose own view of the scene is limited. They wanted to see what a dog does when he can see that a human may or may not be able to see what the dog sees.
In 2009, Juliane Kaminski and her colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology set up a clever experiment (reference 3) in which they used a barrier that was transparent on one end and opaque on the other end. A dog and a human were positioned on opposite sides of the barrier, and two identical toys were placed on the same side of the barrier as the dog. The dog was then asked to “Fetch!” They found that the dogs preferred to retrieve the toy that both the dog and the person could see, over the toy that only the dog could see.
The results suggested that the dogs were aware that their owners could not know that there was a toy located out of their view, and so retrieved the toy that they (presumably) assumed that their owner was requesting.
An additional finding of this study was that the dogs were capable of this distinction only in the present, at the time that the owner’s view was blocked. When the researchers tested dogs’ ability to remember what the owner had been able to see in the past, such as a toy being placed in a certain location, the dogs failed at that task.
Food Thievery Study
Recently, the same researchers (reference 4) provided additional evidence that dogs are able to consider what a human can or cannot see. Twenty-eight dogs were tested regarding their tendency to obey a command to not touch a piece of food under various conditions; the variation had to do with the commanding human’s ability to see the food.
The testing took place in a darkened room that included two lamps, one of which was used to illuminate the experimenter and the second to illuminate a spot on the floor where food was placed. During the test conditions, the experimenter showed a piece of food to the dog and asked the dog to “leave it” while placing the food on the ground. The experimenter alternated her gaze between the dog and the food as she gradually moved away and sat down.
In two subsequent experiments using the same design, the experimenter left the room after placing the food, and the degrees of illumination were varied. For each experiment, four different conditions were tested, and the dog’s response with the food in each set of conditions was recorded. The conditions were:
1. Completely dark; both lamps off
2. Food illuminated, experimenter in the dark
3. Experimenter illuminated, food dark
4. Both food and experimenter illuminated
There were several illuminating results in this study (sorry, I could not resist this opportunity to make that pun):
1. Dogs steal in the dark.
When the experimenter stayed in the room, dogs were significantly more likely to steal the food when the entire room was in the dark. (They do have excellent noses, after all). If any part of the room was illuminated while the experimenter was present, the dogs were less likely to steal. Conversely, when the experimenter was not present, illumination made no difference at all and most of the dogs took the food. (Lights on or off; they did not care. It was time to party!)
2. Smart dog thieves work fast.
Within the set of dogs who always took the food, when the experimenter was present, they grabbed the tidbit significantly faster when it was in the dark, compared to when the food was illuminated. This result suggests that the dogs were aware that the experimenter could not see the food and so changed up their game a bit. (“I’ll just weasel on over to the food and snort it up, heh heh. She can’t see it and will never know. I am such a clever dog!”) Chippy would love these dogs.
3. It’s not seeing the human that matters, it’s what the human sees.
Collectively, the three experiments in the study showed that illumination around the human did not influence the dogs’ behavior, while illumination around the food did (when a person was present). This suggests that it is not just a person’s presence or attentiveness that becomes a cue whether or not to steal, but that dogs may also consider what they think we can or cannot see when making a decision about what to do.
Take Away Points
Without a doubt, gaze and eye contact are highly important to dogs. They use eye contact in various forms to communicate with us and with other animals. We know that many dogs naturally follow our gaze to distant objects (i.e., as a form of pointing) and that dogs will seek our eye contact when looking for a bit of help. And now we know that dogs, like humans and several other social species, can be aware of what a person may or may not be able to see and, on some level, are capable of taking that person’s perspective into consideration.
As a trainer and dog lover, I say, pretty cool stuff indeed. Chip, of course, knew all of this already.
Just One More Thing
I was excited about this research because these results continue to “push the peanut forward” regarding what we understand about our dogs’ behavior, cognition, and social lives. Learning that dogs may be capable of taking the perspective of others, at least in the present, adds to the ever-growing pile of evidence showing us that our dogs’ social lives are complex, rich, and vital to their welfare and life quality.
That said, because these studies had to do with dogs “behaving badly” – i.e., “stealing” food – I was a bit hesitant to write this article. These studies provide evidence that dogs have a lot more going on upstairs than some folks may wish to give them credit for. And as can happen with these things, evidence for one thing (understanding that a person cannot see a bit of food and so deciding to gulp it on down), may be inappropriately interpreted as evidence for another (“Oh! This must mean that dogs understand being ‘wrong!’). Well, no. It does not mean that at all.
If you have ever thought, “My dog knows he was wrong!” or “I trained him not to do that; he is just being willful!” or “He must be guilty; he is showing a guilty look!” – then I have a message for you: These studies show us that dogs understand what another individual may and may not know, based upon what that person can see. This is not the same, or even close to being the same, as showing that dogs understand the moral import or the “wrongness” of what they choose to do. Chippy knowing that I cannot see that piece of toast that he just pilfered is not the same as Chippy feeling badly that he took it. (For more on this, see “Debunking the Myth of the ‘Guilty Look,’ ” WDJ October 2015.)
The bottom line: These studies show us that dogs may be sneaky, but neither the studies nor the results say anything at all about whether the dogs feel guilt when they sneak a bite of food they’ve been told to leave alone.
Linda P. Case, MS, owns AutumnGold Consulting and Dog Training Center in Mahomet, Illinois. She is the author, most recently, of Beware the Straw Man (2015) and Dog Food Logic (2014), and many other books about dogs. Check out her blog at thesciencedog.wordpress.com.
Nature’s Variety was founded in 2001 by Bob Milligan, a Nebraska businessman with experience in pork production and pet food manufacturing. As indicated by the name, he founded the company on the principle that dogs (and cats) should be given a variety of dietary options, both in terms of ingredients (chicken, beef, lamb, pork, etc.) and in the very form of food they are given (kibble, canned, etc.). While many companies offer a dry and a canned form of their products, Milligan was ahead of the curve in adding frozen raw diets to the Nature’s Variety offerings from the get-go. To ensure that consumers were well educated about these unique products and the concept of “rotational feeding” – very new at the time – Nature’s Variety products were sold only in independent pet supply stores when they were introduced to the retail market in 2002.
The company has experienced continual growth since then, to the extent that a complete review of the company’s offerings is a monster of a task because of the sheer variety (sorry about the pun) and number of skus (stock-keeping units) offered by the company. And it’s not a sitting target! At press time, the company was announcing a number of changes to its lineups.
Nature’s Variety offers two distinctly different lines of food: Instinct and Prairie. True to the promise of “variety” present in the company’s name, each line offers several forms of food – which may include kibble, canned, raw frozen, dehydrated raw, and/or treats – that are all formulated in accordance with the precepts of that line.
INSTINCT
All of the products in all of the Nature’s Variety Instinct lines are grain-free and contain raw meats – some, more raw than others.
Raw Frozen Diets
Nature’s Variety’s frozen raw diets are the foundation of the Instinct line. Eight different formulas are available: beef, chicken, duck, lamb, rabbit, tuna, turkey, and venison. Three of the formulas (beef, lamb, turkey) contain protein from only the species of animal in the name. The rest contain various proteins from a second species: The chicken products also contain turkey heart and liver; the duck products also contain turkey heart, liver, and ground bone; the rabbit products also contain pork liver, heart, fat, and ground bone; the tuna products also contain chicken meat, ground bone, and liver; and the venison products also contain lamb ground bone, kidney, heart, and liver.)
All of these diets are comprised of 95 percent animal ingredients: named meats, organs, and ground bone. The rest is comprised of vegetables, fruit, and other foods, including pumpkin seeds, flaxseed, yeast culture, Montmorillonite clay (a natural source of trace minerals), salt, cod liver oil, dried kelp, and dried chicory root.
These foods do not contain vitamin/mineral premixes.
All of the products contain a minimum of 14 or 15 percent protein (depending on the formula) and a minimum of 8 or 9 percent fat on an as-fed basis. (See chart below.)
These frozen raw formulas are offered in four different forms: “raw bites” (grape-sized nuggets); “raw medallions” (1-ounce, coin-shaped); “raw patties” (8-ounce, hamburger-patty-shaped); and a 5-pound “chub” (a solid tube of food). All eight formulas are available in the raw patties; seven formulas are offered in “bite” form; six in the medallions; and only two in the chubs. The ingredients for each variety are the same, no matter the form it comes in; in other words, the Chicken variety has the same ingredients whether it’s in the bites, medallions, patties, or chub form.
Each of the formulas provides “complete and balanced” nutrition for dogs of all life stages. Each of the products carries the statement that they are “comparable in nutritional adequacy to a product which has been substantiated using AAFCO feeding tests.” This statement should alert the consumer that the product has qualified as “complete and balanced” by virtue of what’s known as the AAFCO “family rule.” For an explanation of the strengths and weaknesses of this qualification, see “Complete and Balanced Dog Food.”
Though it is under no obligation to disclose which product was actually subjected to feeding trials – the “lead product” – Nature’s Variety disclosed to WDJ that the company subjected its Raw Chicken diet to feeding trials between 2007 and 2010; that’s the lead product. The company’s other raw frozen diets have met the criteria for inclusion in that product’s “family.”
As of press time, complete nutrient analyses for these or the other Nature’s Variety products are not made available to consumers upon request, nor are they available on the company’s website, though, according to a company spokesperson, the company websites are undergoing a complete redesign and this information may well be available at some time.
All of the raw frozen products are made in Nature’s Variety’s own facility in Lincoln, Nebraska (a facility that I toured in 2005, and again, a decade later, in September 2015). After production, all of the Instinct raw frozen products are treated with high pressure processing (HPP) by Universal Pasteurization, also in Lincoln, Nebraska. HPP kills pathogenic bacteria that might be present in raw meats and renders this finished product free of any possible pathogens. (For more information about HPP, see “High Pressure Processing” in the April 2015 issue of WDJ.)
As Fed VS. Dry Matter
The percentages of protein, fat, etc., shown on a pet food label are expressed “as fed” – meaning, as the food is delivered in its package. Some percentage of the food is comprised of moisture (water), which of course contains no protein, fat, fiber, or any other nutrients. Kibble generally contains about 10 percent moisture; wet foods (canned, frozen, or fresh) contain as much as 80 percent or more moisture.
If you feed your dog in a manner as varied as the Nature’s Variety offerings, using some combination of kibble, canned, dehydrated, and frozen-raw foods, it’s important that you know how to compare the amounts of fat and protein in each form of the food, so you don’t radically overfeed or underfeed your dog.
Let’s compare, for example, the raw-frozen Instinct Chicken food with the Chicken variety of the Instinct Raw Boost dehydrated food. The frozen food says it contains 15% protein and 9% fat; the dehydrated food says it contains 32% protein and 24% fat. You might be tempted to think that the dehydrated food has a LOT more protein and fat in it, and that you’d better not feed very much of it – but that’s exactly wrong. Let’s take moisture out of the equation and compare the foods on a dry matter basis. To do so, you also need to look at the moisture content listed in the guaranteed analysis.
To calculate dry matter (DM) percentages of protein and fat, first determine the amount of dry matter in the food by subtracting the percentage of moisture from 100. The raw-frozen Instinct contains 67% water, leaving 33% dry matter. The dehydrated Instinct contains 6% moisture, leaving 93% dry matter.
Next, divide the “as fed” percentage of the nutrient you want to compare by the amount of dry matter in each product; this will give you the dry matter percentage of each.
PRODUCT
MOISTURE
DRY MATTER
“AS-FED” PROTEIN
“DRY MATTER” PROTEIN
“AS FED” FAT
“DRY MATTER” FAT
INSTINCT RAW FROZEN
67%
33%
15%
45%
9%
27%
INSTINCT DEHYDRATED
6%
97%
32%
34%
24%
25%
As it turns out, on a dry matter basis, the frozen diet has just a little more fat (27%)than the dehydrated version (25%) , but way more protein: 45% to the dehydrated version’s 34%. It’s a good idea to make these comparisons any time you feed foods of different forms, such as canned and kibble foods, too.
Freeeze-Dried Foods
Instinct’s raw-food offerings also include freeze-dried products. These offerings are much more limited than the raw-frozen line; only three complete and balanced formulas are made: beef, chicken, and lamb.
As with the raw frozen food, the chicken variety also contains turkey liver and turkey heart, and the beef and lamb varieties only contain protein from those animal species.
Comparing the freeze dried foods to the raw frozen foods is interesting; we assumed that Nature’s Variety simply freeze-dried the raw frozen products to make its freeze-dried food, but that’s not the case. Because they fall into a different moisture content category (the freeze-dried products are in the “less then 20 percent moisture” category, and the raw frozen products are in the “more than 65 percent moisture” category, the products cannot be considered in the same nutritional “family.” Therefore, they have to meet an AAFCO standard of their own, in this case, the AAFCO nutrient levels standard. And in order to meet that standard, added vitamins and minerals were needed.
The Instinct freeze-dried foods contain a lot of the same ingredients as their raw frozen counterparts, but in slightly different order. A vitamin/mineral pre-mix is added to these freeze-dried products. Some carb sources (like butternut squash) and an apparent higher percentage of non-animal ingredients appear in these products than in the raw-frozen ones. As a result, these products contain less protein and fat than the raw frozen diets, though you have to compare them on a “dry matter” basis to see this. (Read the “As Fed” sidebar again, to make sure you understand how to compare the protein and fat content of different forms of food.)
The Instinct freeze-dried diets (and their new incarnation, Raw Market Meal Blends) carry the AAFCO “nutrient levels” claim of nutritional adequacy for dogs of all life stages.
All of the Instinct freeze-dried products are mixed in Nature’s Variety’s own production facilities in Lincoln, Nebraska. They are then treated with HPP, and then sent to a freeze-drying facility in either Oregon or California.
Supplemental Products
Nature’s Variety makes a number of “Instinct Raw Boost” freeze-dried products that are not complete and balanced, but labeled as “for supplemental or intermittent feeding only.” The ingredients are very similar to those of the complete and balanced diets, without the addition of vitamin or mineral sources. These products include Instinct Raw Boost Munchies, Instinct Raw Boost Minis Treats (same as Munchies only smaller), and Instinct Raw Boost Mixers.
Raw Boost Kibble
This line consists of grain-free kibble with pieces of freeze-dried raw food mixed in the bag, a bit like Lucky Charms (human) cereal, only likely much healthier. The kibble in made at CJ Foods in Pawnee City, Nebraska; the bits of freeze-dried food (made as previously described) is mixed with the kibble and bagged at CJ Foods.
All of the foods in this line contain more than one source of animal protein. Nature’s Variety says these foods are comprised of 70 percent or more “animal ingredients and nutritious oils,” with the balance comprised of vegetables, fruit, herbs, vitamins, and minerals.
There are five “regular” adult foods: Beef (the formula includes protein from beef, turkey, whitefish, lamb, and Menhaden fish); Chicken (includes protein from chicken and turkey); Duck (includes duck, turkey, and salmon); Lamb (includes lamb, salmon, and whitefish); and Venison (includes venison, turkey, salmon, lamb, and whitefish). Then there are two small breed products (a chicken and a duck variety), a “toy” breed chicken variety, a puppy and a large breed puppy variety. All of the regular, small breed, and puppy varieties meet the AAFCO “nutrient levels” requirements for dogs of all life stages. There is also a variety meant for senior dogs that meets the AAFCO “nutrient levels” requirements for adult maintenance.
The Instinct Raw Boost kibble ranges from 32 to 38 percent protein and 12 to 21 percent fat, as fed. (The small breed varieties contain the least amount of fat.)
Kibble
There are several sub-sets of grain-free kibble products within the Instinct line. All the kibble are made at CJ Foods.
There are three varieties of Instinct Ultimate Protein Kibble. All three of these foods are complete and balanced as per the AAFCO “nutrient levels” requirements for dogs of all life stages. These products contain the highest amounts of protein of any of Nature’s Variety’s kibbled foods.
The Chicken variety contains fresh chicken (no chicken meal), as well as freeze-dried chicken, turkey, and turkey liver, and are labeled as containing a minimum of 47 percent protein and 17 percent fat on an as-fed basis. There is a similarly formulated “small breed” chicken variety with a minimum of 18 percent fat (as fed).
The Duck variety contains fresh duck, chicken, and eggs, as well as freeze-dried turkey, turkey liver and duck. This variety also is labeled as containing a minimum of 47 percent protein and 17 percent fat (as fed).
There are six products in the line of “regular” Instinct dry foods: Beef, Chicken, Chicken for Small Breeds, Duck, Rabbit, and Salmon. All contain more than one animal protein source, and range from a minimum of 33 to 38 percent protein and 15 to 20 percent fat (as fed).
There are five “Limited Ingredient” Kibble products. All of these foods are complete and balanced as per the AAFCO “nutrient levels” requirements for dogs of all life stages. Each contains just one source of animal protein. They are: Duck, Lamb, Rabbit, Turkey, and Turkey for Small Breeds. They range from a minimum of 22 to 32 percent protein and 13 to 18 percent fat on an as-fed basis.
The last Instinct kibble product is called Healthy Weight. Its animal protein sources include chicken meal, chicken, whitefish meal, Menhaden fish meal, and freeze-dried turkey, chicken, and turkey liver. It contains a minimum of 32 percent protein and 12 percent fat. It meets the AAFCO “nutrient levels” for adult maintenance.
Canned
There are nine “classic” foods in the Instinct canned line. Seven of these are formulated to meet the AAFCO nutrient levels requirements for dogs of all life stages: Beef, Chicken, Duck, Lamb, Rabbit, Salmon, and Venison. Two products are intended for small breeds and meet the requirements for “adult maintenance” only; these come in chicken and salmon varieties.
The foods are pâté-style or what industry folks call “loaf” products (as opposed to “stews”). Ninety-five percent of the ingredients in each of these foods are animal protein sources; the rest consists of vegetables, fruits, herbs, vitamins, and minerals. Consumers who read labels may be impressed by the inclusion of ingredients such as artichokes, cranberries, pumpkin, tomatoes, blueberries, broccoli, cabbage, kale, and parsley. While these ingredients are certainly nice, when they appear on the ingredients list after the vitamin and mineral supplements, you should be aware that they are present in miniscule, perhaps irrelevant quantities.
Very recently, these foods were reformulated, with most of them showing a small reduction in the amount of protein and a slightly larger (but still small) reduction in the amount of crude fat. For example, the Chicken variety went from 11 percent protein and 8 percent fat to 10 percent protein and 6.5 percent fat. The major ingredients appear to be the same, with very small changes in order of some of the lesser ingredients on the label.
There are five Instinct “limited ingredient” canned foods; these, too, are loaf-style foods. All of them are formulated to meet the AAFCO nutrient levels requirements for dogs of all life stages. These products contain protein from only one animal source apiece: Duck, Lamb, Pork, Rabbit, and Turkey.
The Instinct website indicates that the Turkey, Lamb, and Duck formulas have been slightly revised, but only the old and new ingredient lists are available for comparison; with only one guaranteed analysis panel appearing on the website as of press time for this issue – and no indication as to whether they are the old or the new GA – it’s unclear whether these foods, too, have seen a reduction in the amount of protein and fat they contain.
In our opinion, the advantage of feeding canned food to your dog is that you can purchase a complete and balanced diet that is mainly comprised of meat that is shelf-stable and that cannot contain live pathogenic bacteria, such as Salmonella or Listeria (as the heat of the canning process cooks the meat in the can and kills the bacteria). Therefore, it makes sense to look for canned foods such as the Instinct products that are mostly animal products and do not contain grain or other carbohydrate sources; if you want to feed them, these ingredients can be sourced in other forms (such as kibble, or even added as individual ingredients from your cupboard) much less expensively.
The Instinct canned products are made by Simmons Pet Food; Simmons has canned food production facilities in Kansas, Arkansas, New Jersey; and Ontario.
Bones and Bully Sticks
Nature’s Variety sold raw, frozen beef bones as part of its rotational lineup from the beginning of the company, but recently discontinued this offering.
Its bully sticks are made by Dakota Treats in Hawarden, Iowa.
PRAIRIE
Prairie is Nature’s Variety’s more conventional line of dog foods. These products do contain grains, and they cost less than the Instinct foods. This is how the company describes the Prairie foods on its website: “Prairie offers holistic foods that deliver optimal nourishment through a variety of simple, natural ingredients.”
Kibble
There are four Prairie kibble formulas: Beef, Chicken, Lamb, and Salmon. All four contain more than one animal protein source, and each ingredient list starts with a fresh, whole, named meat source. All four meet the AAFCO nutrient levels requirements for dogs of all life stages. Each is labeled as containing a minimum of 14 percent fat and from 23 percent to 27 percent protein (as fed). A vitamin/mineral premix has been added to each formula. The guaranteed analysis (GA) of each food contains nutrient levels for not only the macronutrients that are required to appear (protein, fat, fiber, moisture) but also micronutrients including vitamin E, and omega 3 and 6 fatty acids.
Like the Instinct dry foods, the Prairie dry foods are made by CJ Foods in Pawnee City, Nebraska.
Canned
Prairie’s canned foods were reformulated several years ago, and are now called Homestyle by Prairie. There are seven varieties, and each is a “stew” style food: Beef, Beef & Bison, Chicken, Lamb, Pork & Sweet Potato, Salmon, and Turkey & Duck. Only the chicken variety contains only one animal protein source. All of the foods are labeled as meeting the AAFCO nutrient levels for “growth and maintenance,” meaning they meet the standards for all life stages.
Homestyle by Prairie foods do contain carbohydrate sources, such as brown rice, sweet potatoes, barley, oats, oatmeal, and potato starch (any given product may contain two or three of those; none of the foods contain all of them!). It follows, then, that they also are lower in protein (ranging from 7.5 to 8 percent) and fat (from 4 to 5 percent), as fed, than the Instinct canned foods. They also cost less.
The Homestyle by Prairie foods list omega-3 and -6 fatty acid levels on the GA on the label. In addition, the prairiepetfood.com pages for the Homestyle by Prairie canned foods list a lot of extra nutrient levels on the GA.
Like the Instinct canned foods, the Homestyle by Prairie canned foods are made by Simmons Pet Food.
Biscuits
There are four varieties of baked biscuit-style treats that are sold under the Prairie name: Bacon & Apples, Chicken & Cheddar Cheese, Peanut Butter & Bananas, and Pumpkin & Cranberries. None of the varieties contain corn, wheat, soy, or artificial preservatives, color, or flavors. They contain 8 percent protein and 7 percent fat (as fed), except for the Chicken & Cheese variety, which contains 10 percent protein and 8 percent fat (as fed). The biscuits are made by Mountain Country Foods in Okeene, Oklahoma.
1. Nature’s Variety had revenue in 2015 of $126.7 million.
2. The company has two production facilities in Lincoln and three warehouse facilities, including frozen. In 2008, Catterton, an international private equity firm, invested in Nature’s Variety and CEO Reed Howlett came on board. In 2009, the company headquarters was moved from Nebraska to St. Louis, though manufacturing and warehouse operations remain in Lincoln.
3. Early on, NV formed an in-house “Nutrition Council” of experts within the company who meet to improve old products and develop new products. In 2011, Nature’s Variety added two outside members to that group, both of whom are well respected holistic veterinarians: Susan Wynn, DVM, CVA, CVCH, RH (AHG), of Georgia Veterinary Specialists, Atlanta, Georgia; and Lea Stogdale, DVM, Diplomate ACVIM Holistic and Integrative Medicine and Care, of Aesops Veterinary Care in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Council meets a minimum of three times per year.
4. The NV foods are formulated with input from the Nutrition Council by Susy Tejayadi, Ph.D., Food Science; Ricardo Moura, Ph.D., Grain Science and Industry; and Jason Meents, B.Sc., Animal Science.
5. For years, Nature’s Variety had engaged in a number of smaller philanthropic and volunteer initiatives that supported its corporate mission, “empowering people to transform the lives of pets.” A number of these involved donations to or volunteer work at facilities that took care of homeless pets.
6. In 2014, the company began evaluating potential partners for a formal, nationwide program that focused on furthering the no-kill movement. NV initially reached out to Best Friends in the summer of 2014. After realizing the match between their organizational philosophies and cultures, NV began formally developing a partnership with Best Friends, culminating in Nature’s Variety Instinct being named Best Friends’ Official Pet Food Partner of 2015. In 2016 NV continued as Official Pet Food Partner and expanded the relationship to also provide food and treats for Best Friends’ NKLA (No-Kill Los Angeles) Pet Adoption Center and Spay/Neuter Center, both in Los Angeles; and Best Friends Adoption Center and its Spay/Neuter Clinics in Salt Lake City, part of NKUT (No-Kill Utah). And when it opens later this year, Instinct will also feed the dogs and cats at Best Friends’ new adoption center in New York City.
7. NV uses a “test and hold” program, and doesn’t release foods for sale until test results have indicated that each batch is free of Salmonella and other pathogens. And yet, in mid-2015, one of NV’s products was recalled for Salmonella. What happened? A company spokesperson answered, “The recalled lot was produced in our older facility, where we manufactured both pre- and post-HPP diets. In May of 2015, we entered a new, state-of-the-art facility to form our products post-HPP. It is possible that a cross contamination from pre-HPP product to post-HPP product occurred in the recalled lot. However, with the new facility our pre- and post-HPP products are segregated into separate buildings, providing an added assurance that potential cross-contamination cannot occur again. As a result of the recall, we have increased our sampling plan to be even more robust, strengthening our testing.
8. “As we understand more of the capability of HPP and the characteristics unique to Nature’s Variety raw materials and finished goods, we continue to challenge the current available research with new university-driven studies. The goal of these studies is finding ways to continue to use proven and possibly new technologies to provide the safest, highest quality raw diets in the industry.”
There are three ways that a pet food can earn the right to be labeled with an “AAFCO” statement that says the product is “complete and balanced.” AAFCO – the Association of American Feed Control Officials – does not test or regulate pet foods; it creates model regulations that may be adopted by states and acted on by state feed control officials. Nevertheless, the organization lends its name to the standards that are applied nationally. The three methods of substantiation are:
– Passing an AAFCO feeding trial
– Meeting the AAFCO Nutrient Profiles
– Resembling a product that passed an AAFCO feeding trial, also known as the “family rule”
Each of these methods has some merit and at least one deficiency in its ability to guarantee the nutritional adequacy of a pet food, so it’s good to know what standard your dog’s food met, and what it means!
Feeding Trial
Every aspect of an AAFCO feeding trial is meant to ensure that a food is capable of maintaining a population of a minimum number of dogs for a minimum period of time (26 weeks for a “maintenance” claim; 23 weeks for a “growth” claim). At a minimum, products that pass a feeding trial have at least demonstrated that they are palatable and digestible – its nutrients are adequately bioavailable – enough to keep a dog alive and well for the period of feeding trial.
However, these products are not required to be formulated to meet the Nutrient Profiles (the next standard), so it’s possible that they are deficient or excessive in some nutrients deemed essential.
Nutrient Profiles
AAFCO has developed a table of nutrients that dogs of different “life stages” need, in varying amounts. There is a table for “adult maintenance” and another for “growth and reproduction.” If a product is labeled as being for dogs of “all life stages,” it meets the standards for the life stage with higher nutritional requirements, the “growth and reproduction” standards.
Foods that have been labeled as complete and balanced by virtue of having nutrient levels within the parameters proscribed by the AAFCO Nutrient Profiles have demonstrated that they contain adequate but not excessive amounts of the nutrients that are essential to dogs of the life stage in question. But whether those nutrients are bioavailable, and the food is sufficiently palatable and digestible for the dogs who will be expected to eat it, is not addressed by this method.
Family Designation
The family designation indicates that the company subjected a “lead product” to an AAFCO feeding trial, and, once it passed, developed other products that are nutritionally similar to the one that passed the feeding trial.
There are a number of requirements for a product to be judged to adequately resemble the lead product:
– It must be of the same processing type as the lead product; its moisture content must fall within the same moisture content category (in the case of raw frozen diets, the category includes products with a moisture content of more than 65 percent).
– It must have within 7.5 percent of the lead product’s dry matter metabolizable energy (ME).
– It must meet the dry matter nutrient levels and ratios of the lead family product for crude protein, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, lysine, and thiamine.
– It must possess nutrient levels and ratios (for the nutrients in the AAFCO Nutrient Profiles) that meet or exceed the levels and ratios found in the lead product, and must not exceed the maximums established by the Nutrient Profiles.
Pet food companies strongly promote the idea that a “family member” product is every bit as good as the product that passed the feeding trial. But the fact is, since “feeding trial” products are not required to meet the AAFCO Nutrient Levels (and so, may have nutrient levels that do not meet the AAFCO Nutrient Levels), and “family” products (other than the lead product) have not themselves been tested in a feeding trial, we feel that the family designation is the weakest qualification of nutritional adequacy of all.
If a pet food company were to make a complete nutrient analysis of a typical batch of its product available to consumers, they could easily see whether a product labeled with a “family” designation would be able to meet the AAFCO Nutrient Levels qualifications, too. This would address at least that concern for educated consumers.
It was a beautiful fall day, and I was at a dog show. In the ring was a gorgeous veteran Greyhound – strutting his stuff in one of those peacock moments that transport gray-faced show dogs back to their youthful selves, with nothing but time and promise before them. A short time later, I heard a commotion from the parking area, and then the awful news: The handsome old dog was bloating.
Thankfully, this was a group of highly experienced dog people, and the dog’s handler immediately ran to her van to procure the bloat kit that she always traveled with. As several people helped hold the dog, she inserted a tube down his esophagus to help expel the trapped gas that was causing his ribs to expand like barrel hoops, taped the tube in place, and sped off to the nearest emergency vet. I heard through the grapevine later that the dog had, mercifully, survived.
There’s good reason why veterinarians call bloat “the mother of all emergencies.” It can come on suddenly and, if left untreated for only a handful of hours, can spell a death sentence for a dog.
Symptoms of bloat, which is incredibly painful for the dog, include pacing and restlessness; a distended abdomen; turning to look at or bite at the flank area; rapid, shallow breathing; retching without actually vomiting up any food, and excessive drooling.
Bloat is a two-part disorder, telegraphed by its formal name: gastric dilatation and volvulus. The first part, gastric dilatation, refers to an expansion of the stomach due to the presence of gas and/or food. The second part, volvulus, is the fatal blow: The distended stomach begins to twist, cutting off the blood supply and causing its tissue to die off. As if that wasn’t trouble enough, the enlarged stomach may press on the blood vessels that transport blood back to the heart, slowing circulation, creating cardiac arrhythmia, and sending the dog into shock.
Once the stomach has torsioned, emergency surgery is required to restore it to its normal position, and to evaluate whether so much tissue has died off that the dog has any hope of surviving.
This was precisely the scenario that the quick-thinking Greyhound handler had sought to avoid: By inserting the bloat tube down the esophagus and into the stomach, she not only created an avenue of escape for the trapped stomach gases, but also ensured that the stomach could not twist while the tube was inserted. As you can imagine, this is not something that most dogs entertain willingly, and, indeed, on the ride to the veterinarian, the dog struggled and the tube was dislodged. Still, it bought enough time for his survival.
Many owners, however, don’t have the inclination or the fortitude to stick a tube down their dog’s throat, even if he is bloating. And for those who have breeds that are at a higher risk for bloat, the constant stress of worrying “Will she bloat?” after each meal is enough to prompt them to consider gastropexy, a preventive surgical procedure where the stomach is sutured to the body wall. While gastropexy won’t prevent a dog from dilating, it does greatly reduce the likelihood that the stomach will flip – which is the life-threatening “volvulus” part of gastric dilatation and volvulus.
Dog Bloat Risk Factors
Owners who are determined to prevent bloat nonetheless want to understand its causes before submitting their dogs to an elective surgery like gastropexy. The problem is, veterinary science is still unclear about precisely what triggers an episode, and instead can only offer a long and varied list of risk factors.
The mother of all bloat studies was done two decades ago by Dr. Lawrence T. Glickman and his colleagues at the Purdue University Research Group, and is still being discussed and quoted today. The 1996 study and its follow-up research found that many food-management practices that were initially believed to help reduce the risk of bloat – like feeding from a raised food bowl, moistening dry food before serving, and restricting water access before and after meals – actually increased the odds of a dog bloating.
Other risk factors include eating only one meal a day; having a close family member with a history of bloat; having a nervous or aggressive temperament; eating quickly; being thin or underweight; eating a dry-food diet with animal fat listed in the first four ingredients, and/or eating a moistened dog food, particularly with citric acid as a preservative.
Not surprisingly, certain breeds were found to be at high risk for bloat, particularly large or giant breeds. Topping the list were Great Danes, followed by St. Bernards and Weimaraners. The study found that breeds with deep and narrow chests – like the Greyhound that started this story – are also at higher risk for bloating, as are males and older dogs.
Also according to the Purdue study, the risk of bloat was more than twice as high in dogs seven to 10 years old compared to dogs two to four years old, and more than three times as high in dogs age 10 and older.
Reducing the Risk of Bloat
While not a guarantee that your dog will avoid experiencing an episode of bloat, these steps can help lower the risk.
1. Feed several smaller meals per day.
Feeding a large, once-a-day meal can extend the stomach and stretch the hepatogastric ligament, which keeps the stomach positioned in the abdominal cavity. Dogs that have bloated have been found to have longer ligaments, perhaps due to overstretching.
2. Slow down fast eaters.
Some theories suggest that air gulping can trigger bloat. To keep your dog from gobbling down his meals, invest in a slow-feeder bowl, which has compartments or grooves to require dogs to pace themselves; there are several brands available. For a low-tech version, try placing a large rock in the middle of your dog’s food bowl, which will force him to eat around it. (Of course, make sure the rock is large enough so it can’t be swallowed.)
3. If you feed kibble, add some variety.
Dogs that are fed canned food or table scraps have a lower incidence of bloat. If you feed kibble, try to avoid food with smaller-sized pieces, and opt for brands that have larger-sized pieces. While some raw feeders maintain that feeding a raw diet prevents bloat, there are no studies to support this, and raw-fed dogs are not immune to bloating.
4. Don’t go for lean and mean.
Studies show that thinner dogs are at greater risk for bloat; in fatter dogs, the extra fat takes up space in the abdomen and doesn’t give the stomach much room to move. While no one is advocating that you make your dog obese, keeping a bloat-prone dog on the slightly chunkier side might have some merit.
5. Reduce your dog’s stress.
Easier said than done, of course. But if at all possible, opt for a house sitter instead of taking your dog to a kennel. If you have multiple dogs, feed your bloat-prone dog separately, to avoid the stress (and resultant gulping) from worrying that his meal might be snagged by a housemate.
6. Don’t eat and run.
Veterinary experts recommend that you avoid giving your dog hard exercise one hour before and two hours after he eats. Many give the green light to walking, however, as it does not jostle the full stomach and in fact can help stimulate digestion.
Assembling a Bloat Kit
Because bloat strikes when you least expect it – often at night, when most veterinary practices are closed, and the nearest emergency vet might be a distance away – a bloat kit can be a literal lifesaver.
Some dog-care sites sell pre-assembled bloat kits. (One option is available from A Better Way Pet Care.) Most include clear vinyl tubing (the kind sold by aquarium stores); a wooden mouth block, to keep the mouth open while the tube is being inserted (a piece of PVC pipe can work in a pinch), and water-soluble lubricant.
Ask your vet to show you how to measure the tubing so that it is the correct length, how to insert it, and how to tell if you are passing the tube down the trachea rather than the esophagus.
Remember that a gastric tube is not a treatment for bloat; it is a first-aid measure. If you are unsure of how to use the kit, or if you are alone and don’t have someone to transport you while you work on the dog, make getting to the vet your first priority.
Deciding on Surgery
If your dog bloats and her stomach has torsioned, surgery is the only recourse if you want her to survive. And if you get to the vet in time, the odds are with you: In a retrospective study of 166 cases between 1992 and 2003, researchers found that short-term mortality resulting from bloat surgery was a relatively low 16.2 percent.
Risk factors for a fatal outcome included having clinical signs more than six hours before surgery (i.e., the longer you wait, the worse your dog’s prognosis), hypotension during any time of the hospitalization, peritonitis, sepsis, and administration of blood or plasma transfusions. Dogs whose tissue damage was so advanced that they required part of their stomach or their spleen removed (partial gastrectomy or spleenectomy, respectively) also had worse prognoses.
But the decisions regarding a gastropexy – essentially, “tacking” the stomach so it cannot torsion – are not as clear-cut. If your dog has never bloated, you’ll need to weigh the risk factors: Is your dog’s breed prone to bloat? (Great Danes, for example, have a whopping 42.4 percent chance of bloating in their lifetime.) Do you know of any siblings, parents, or other close relatives who have bloated? Is your dog nervous, aggressive, or a super-fast eater?
And, most important, has your dog bloated before? Studies indicate that such dogs have a recurrence rate of more than 70 percent, and mortality rates of 80 percent.
Types of Tacks
There are several kinds of gastropexy surgery. Securing the bottom of the stomach to the right side of the body so it cannot rotate during an episode of bloat is the common goal of each type of surgery, but slightly different methods are used to accomplish this. There are no studies that compare the efficacy of the various types of gastropexy, but the general consensus is that there is not a huge difference between them. Most veterinarians will choose one over the others based on their own preference and amount of experience.
Incisional gastropexy is a straightforward procedure in which the bottom of the stomach (the antrum) is sutured to the body wall. It relies on only a few sutures until an adhesion forms.
Belt-loop gastropexy involves weaving a stomach flap through the abdominal wall. Though a relatively quick procedure, it requires more skill than an incisional gastropexy.
In a circumcostal gastropexy, a flap from the stomach is wrapped around the last rib on the right side and then secured to the stomach wall. Proponents of this approach note that the rib is a stronger and more secure anchor for the stomach. This type of gastropexy requires more time and skill to perform; risks include potential rib fracture and pneumothorax, in which air leaks into the space between the lung and chest wall.
Gastropexy is now being performed with minimally invasive approaches such as laparoscopy and endoscopy, which shorten surgery and anesthesia times, as well as the time needed for recovery. Though both use remote cameras to visualize the surgery area, the laparoscopic-assisted approach requires an extra incision through the navel, which allows the surgeon to directly visualize the position of the stomach and make any modifications necessary.
A 1996 study of eight male dogs compared those that had laparoscopic gastropexy with those that had belt-loop gastropexy, and concluded that the laparoscopic approach should be considered as a minimally invasive alternative to traditional open-surgery gastropexy.
Complications from gastropexy are relatively minor, especially for young, healthy dogs who are undergoing the surgery electively, before any incidence of bloat. As always, be sure that your dog has a complete pre-surgical work-up to ensure there are no chronic or underlying conditions that might compromise her ability to successful recover from surgery. And again, while gastropexy isn’t foolproof, Dr. Glickman has been quoted as saying that the risk of bloat and torsion after the procedure is less than five percent – not bad odds at all.
If you do elect to have a gastropexy performed on your dog, many veterinarians do the procedure at the same time as spaying or neutering. That way, the dog doesn’t have to go under anesthesia again, or, in the case of conventional surgery, be “opened up” another time.
In the end, the question of whether or not to have a gastropexy done is arguably tougher for those whose dogs who are not at very high risk: The owner of a Great Dane has a greater incentive for getting a gastropexy than, say, the owner of a Shih Tzu, whose bloat rates are not as comparably high.
A 2003 study that looked at the benefits of prophylactic gastropexy for at-risk dogs used a financial metric to assess the benefits of surgery: Working under the assumption that elective gastropexy surgeries cost about $400 and emergency bloat surgeries cost at least $1,500 – or as much as four times that – the study concluded that the procedure was cost effective when the lifetime risk of bloat with torsion was greater than or equal to 34 percent.
As with any complex decision, assess your dog’s risk factors, as well as your individual circumstances, and then make the choice that seems right for the both of you.
Denise Flaim raises 12-year-old triplets and Rhodesian Ridgebacks, on Long Island, NY.
We all teach our dogs commonly used cues such as “Sit,” “Down,” and “Come,” and most of us probably use them every day. I am betting that, in addition to those common cues, we each have some cues that are unique to our relationships with our own dogs – cues that are never taught in your basic “good manners” classes.
I have long had a love affair with an “All done!” or “That’s all” cue that tells my dogs that whatever activity we were engaged in is now over (similar to the “That’ll do, pig” from the beloved movie, Babe). It started in the mid-1980s with our first Australian Kelpie, Keli, who was seriously ball-crazy. Only her “All done!” cue would work to get her to stop bugging me to throw the beloved ball one more time.
I taught the cue to Keli by giving the “All done” cue and then placing the ball in a closed cupboard where she couldn’t even see it, and then steadfastly ignoring every behavior she offered to try to get the ball to come back out. Eventually she learned that there was no point in trying, and the “All done” cue effectively resulted in a calm, non-demanding Kelpie. I’ve used it with all my dogs ever since.
Some of my favorite trainers confirmed that they, too, have unconventional cues that they use with their dogs, many of which “just happened” as a result of daily life. Here are some of them:
Enough
Renee Amodeo of Vienna, Virginia, is a volunteer with Fairfax County Animal Shelter. She uses “Enough” much like I use “All done.” Her dog Dexter is an attention sponge, and when she tries to work on her laptop or read, he will paw her for attention.
To counter this, she says, “I will pat the top of his head and say ‘Enough!’ He stops and goes to the other end of the couch. I taught him this by doing just that; a tap on the head with ‘Enough,’ then ignoring any of his attempts to engage me. Initially I gave a very short timeout – just a few seconds – then would pile affection and praise on him. I gradually increase duration, and now he can go for as long as I need.”
Inside/Outside
Valerie Balwanz of Pampered Pets in Charlottesville, Virginia, uses the cue “Inside” in place of “Come” to get her dogs to come into the house from the backyard. Her “Come” cue means “Come to me,” and her “Inside” cue means to run past her into the house.
It’s useful to have an alternative to “Come” for the behavior that specifically means to come into the house, especially if your dog prefers playing in the yard to coming indoors. You can inadvertently “poison” your “Come” cue (give it a negative association) if you frequently use it to mean that the fun for your dog is over and he has to come inside now. Doing so can make “Come” become less effective when you need your dog to run happily to you. The method Valerie uses to teach “Inside” keeps her dog’s “Come” cue happy, and gives a very positive association to her “Inside” cue.
“To teach this,” Valerie describes, “I began with my dog Trixie outside when there were no distractions. I opened the back door and stood in the entryway. I tossed some kibble onto the floor, making sure that it was bouncing and rolling far into the house, and let her run toward it. As she passed through the doorway, I said, ‘Yes!’ (that’s my verbal marker – you could click instead) and let her gobble up the food.
“The kibble makes a distinct sound when tossed on the hardwood floor. The sound and the kibble’s rolling movement encourages Trixie to run inside. To increase the value of the kibble, I coat it with beef liver powder (made with a liver cube and a cheese grater).
“When Trixie was chasing the kibble into the house reliably, I introduced the cue, saying, ‘Inside!’ just before I tossed the kibble on the floor. I gradually started using the cue when she was farther out in the yard and we didn’t necessarily have eye contact. Then I started using it when there were distractions present, such as squirrels and deer. I mixed very high-value food with the kibble when she came away from distractions involving wild animals. I kept a jar of treats by the back door for years and heavily reinforced this cue. Now, when they hear the word ‘Inside!’ both of my dogs come running at top speed into the house.”
Indoor/Outdoor Toys
Estie Dallett of Civil Dogobedience in Washington, D.C., also has unique cues for indoor/outdoor-related behaviors, but with a different purpose. Kip, her Sheltie/Border Collie-mix, has toys that are specific to indoors and outdoors. When Kip wants to come inside but has a toy in his mouth that belongs outside – particularly dirty or noisy – she says, “Outside toy,” waits until he drops it, then lets him in. She uses “Inside toy” when he wants to go out but has a toy in his mouth that she wants to keep indoors (to keep it clean and fuzzy or to prevent it from getting lost under bushes).
Estie says, “Now he’s pretty quick to drop an item when he hears this. Sometimes it still takes him a little while to decide if he wants to stay outside to play with his favorite toy – a plastic water bottle with pebbles in it – or come in without it. So we close the door until he asks again to come in. We didn’t aim to teach it, but it evolved well!”
Go Lie Down
Carolyn Kerner of Dog Gone Right in Hammond, Louisiana, reminded me of an unconventional cue I frequently use with my own dogs: “Go lie down,” which is different from the formal “Down,” which means “lie down right now wherever you are.” “Go lie down” means “You can wander around and find a comfortable spot in which to lie down.”
Carolyn says, “I use ‘Go lie down’ with all the dogs that come into our house; it means for them to go find a comfy spot to chill, chew a bone, or just be out of the way for a little while. Most of the time I use it when I have a dog who continuously wants attention or petting and he has gotten more than his share already. I generally start the new dogs off by saying the cue, then encouraging them to go to a dog bed, and giving them something to keep them occupied. After a week or so they start picking up on it. I started using this many years ago in general conversation with my dogs.”
Usually, we tell people not use the same word for two different behaviors, but the dogs seem to understand the difference with this phrase!
Find the Poop
Lisa Marino of Head of the Class Dog Training in Winchester, Virginia, taught her Samoyeds to find hidden poop in her yard so she could scoop and keep the yard clean.
Lisa says, “It was kind of unintentional. With four dogs out at the same time in the dark (or in the snow, autumn leaves, etc.) one dog poops in one corner of the yard, and one goes in another corner. By the time I bag one deposit, the next dog has moved away from where he pooped. So even with a flashlight, I can’t always find the pile right away.”
To teach her dogs to help her find stray poops, Lisa “captured” the behavior. “As the dogs sniffed where poop was likely to be, I watched for more intense interest and got there to praise and reward them as soon as I found the poop. After a few times, when I was confident about reading the body language signs accurately, I would say, ‘Did you find the poop?’ and it eventually became a cue. I either toss a cookie to the side, so I can scoop the poop, or say, ‘Leave it’ if I am unarmed. The cue is especially useful in the autumn, when poop is hard to find among the fallen leaves in the yard.”
Go Now
Simone de Lima of Brasilia, Brazil, is the founder of Pro Anima, an animal advocacy group. She lived in New England for a time and, as a Brazilian native, was unaccustomed to the cold New England winters, complete with blizzards. She taught her Lab-mix, Mali, to poop on cue so she could get back inside the warm house as quickly as possible.
Simone remembers, “I had to teach her something to get her to poop quickly because this poor Brazilian woman wanted nothing to do with the outdoors in such weather!”
To teach it, she simply gave Mail positive reinforcement (treats) for defecating, and added the cue “Coco, Mali” (a slang Portuguese term meaning “poop”) when she knew her dog was about to oblige. Simone says, “It’s the best thing I ever taught her!”
Took us a Minute
Kelly Fahey, of The DogSmith of Hunterdon in New Jersey, has a cue she uses to position her dog Cooper when she has to clean off his rear end when he has loose stools due to allergies.
Kelly describes, “In the beginning stages of Cooper’s allergy issues, he would have times where he would poop and, well, it didn’t come off clean. I would need to clean off his butt. I figured if I tossed treats on the floor he would likely move in a circle as I tried cleaning him off. I decided to toss high-value treats on the top step in our garage that comes into the house.
“There are three steps. I figured by tossing the treats on the top step, he would likely walk up and have his front paws on the second step and his hind legs still on the garage floor, keeping him at an angle where he wouldn’t walk in a circle. I made sure to scatter plenty of food on the top step so I could clean him off the entire time he was eating. If he finished eating before I was done, I stopped, scattered more treats, and continued cleaning. As I was cleaning him off I would say ‘Tookus, wanna clean your tookus?’ After a while, all I had to do was say, ‘Wanna clean your tookus?’ and he would run to the steps and get into position.
“I selected the word ‘tookus’ rather than ‘butt’ because he loves having his butt rubbed, and already has a cue for that. He will roll into a half somersault position and keep his butt in the air while we scratch it or pat it and say, ‘Where’s your butt?’ His tail wags like a weapon and he makes sounds that rival a dinosaur. I didn’t want to confuse his fun game of ‘Where’s your butt?’ by using ‘butt’ for the cleaning behavior.”
Pills
Kelly Fahey, the trainer who taught her dog Cooper the “tookus” cue, also taught him an inadvertent cue when it was time to take his allergy medication.
Kelly recalls, “I didn’t set out to teach this cue. It was my intention to make Cooper’s pill-taking a fun game. Each time I needed to give a pill (or pills), I would call him over and happily say, ‘Do you want your pills?’ I’d hide them in various pieces of food.
“Each time I would stuff a pill and go to give it to him I would repeat, ‘Do you want your pills?’ in a super happy, playful tone. Now, all I have to say is ‘Do you want your pills?’ and he will come running from anywhere.
“For a bonus behavior, my other dog, Brynn, has learned that ‘Do you want your pills?’ means to sit patiently on the other side of me (Cooper always gets his pills on the right side, she waits on the left), while I play pharmacist. When I’m done giving out the meds, she gets a treat for sitting nicely and not being a noodge.”
You’re Not Going
My Kelpie, Kaizen, provided the motivation for yet another unconventional cue in the Miller household. My husband and I recently started taking Kaizen to agility classes at Kamp Kitty in nearby Falling Waters, West Virginia, and he adores his class – so much so that he started getting totally amped up every time we made preparations to go anywhere. We began telling him “You’re not going!” anytime he wasn’t accompanying us, and he quickly learned it meant he was staying home, so there was no point in getting all excited.
Now when we give him the “You’re not going!” cue he calms right down – and looks a little sad.
Win a Prize!
Now it’s your turn. I’m willing to bet there are a ton of Whole Dog Journal readers who have unconventional and unintentional cues that they use with their own dogs. Send a description of yours to WDJEditor@gmail.com by June 15, and we’ll include some in a blog post on wholedogjournal.com and pick one winner to receive a Pat Miller book or DVD.
Author Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, is WDJ’s Training Editor, and lives in Fairplay, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center.
Without a doubt, gaze and eye contact are highly important to dogs. They use eye contact in various forms to communicate with us and with other animals. We know that many dogs naturally follow our gaze to distant objects (i.e., as a form of pointing) and that dogs will seek our eye contact when looking for a bit of help. And now we know that dogs, like humans and several other social species, can be aware of what a person may or may not be able to see and, on some level, are capable of taking that person's perspective into consideration.
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I hardly ever talk about Tito, the 10-pound Chihuahua-mix who came to stay with us “for a few weeks” a few years ago. I think of him as being very little trouble, but it’s just that his troubles – which are actually sort of numerous – are small-scaled. He is an obnoxious barker when people arrive – even when we arrive home from an errand. He cannot bear to be touched or moved once he’s settled on the sofa in the evening, and if you should happen to readjust your own position at the other end of the couch when he’s on it, he gives an immediate and loud roar/bark/snarl and leaps off the couch, supremely discomfited. I think he has as-yet-undiagnosed back or shoulder or inner ear pain that contributes to his touchiness, and it causes him to occasionally shriek in pain when he’s greeting people; the person will always look surprised and say, “I wasn’t even touching him!” but it’s not the touch that hurts. I think it’s the groveling, wagging, low-headed posture that he assumes when he’s greeting people that causes something to pinch in his back. (He’s been examined by several veterinarians and one veterinary chiropractor, but nothing significant has been found and no treatment has helped.) And then there is his touchy tummy.
Left to his own devices, Tito eats fast – way too fast. Sometimes, he vomits an hour or two after eating, and if he eats dry food, and you happen to be present before he eats whatever he threw up again (aren’t dogs lovely?), you will see that his food is nearly intact, looking like a wetted version of what was poured into his bowl. He doesn’t chew! He gulps down kibble (and everything else) whole, and then, an hour later or so, you might see him either vomit, or walk around lifting one hind leg and then the other, clearly experiencing tummy pain. This is why he doesn’t get dry kibble anymore.
I soak his kibble in a bit of warm water until it’s mushy, and then feed him. He still snarfs it up too fast, but it doesn’t seem to cause any problems after that.
Sometimes, people will warn you about soaking a dog’s food, because the increased moisture at room temperature can promote the growth of whatever bacteria may be in the food – Salmonella, for instance. That’s why you don’t leave wet food out overnight, or even for more than an hour. If a dog doesn’t eat it pretty much right away, wet food should be picked up and refrigerated. But not eating the food is not a problem in our house.
Here’s the thing: Every time I need more dog food, I buy a different dry dog food. Yes, I switch with every bag. I switch brands and I switch varieties within brands.
(I know, I know, your vet told you to switch foods slowly. That advice is only relevant to people who have fed one kind of food for months or YEARS, and then wanted to switch. In that case, the dog’s digestive biome has been accustomed to dealing with a very simple menu; the population of microorganisms in the gut reflects what’s needed to digest that diet. If you suddenly switch what has been an unvaried diet, the dog’s system needs a bit of time to switch up the materials needed to break down the new substances. It has to adjust and produce a more appropriate digestive enzyme mix and the gut microflora might need to repopulate different species that can handle the new ingredients. But if you switch all the time, your dog’s system gets accustomed to handling everything and anything edible.)
Yes, I switch foods all the time (and not just kibble: raw, dehydrated, canned). And one thing I’ve noticed from soaking different types and brands of kibble is this: Some soak up warm water more like a sponge – and some require an hour or more to soften all the way through. It has to do with kibble size, ingredients, how they were extruded… the point is, until I started soaking the food for Tito, I never really thought about the imperviousness of some kibbles compared to others.
When you consider that dogs were never meant to grind grains or grasses for a living – their molars lack the relatively flat surfaces of animals who do grind their food as the first step in digestion – and that many dogs give only a cursory crunch to some percentage of their kibble, the relative slowness of some kibble to absorb moisture may bother many more dogs than just Tito.
Try it yourself! Pour a little handful of kibble in a bowl and cover it with some warm water, and watch how quickly (or slowly) it hydrates. It’s something to consider if you feed a dog who bolts his food, and if that seems to cause tummy troubles like Tito’s.
This is the most trying time of the year for walking my dogs off-leash. On March 15 each year, the rules change for my favorite place to walk dogs, and only leashed dogs are allowed, until the end of June, for the bird nesting season. Rather than walk three dogs on leash – something I “can”do but don’t enjoy – I switch to another nearby area where dogs are allowed off-leash year round. But in this particular area, oh my goodness, the ticks abound.
I could forgo our off-leash walks for the months when the tick-free area where I walk the dogs the rest of the year is restricted to leashed dogs. But because we are able to walk off-leash so much of the time, my dogs (especially Otto) seem to really miss the joys of leash-free walks: being able to run ahead and run back, stop and really smell something very deeply, running to catch up if sniffing took a long time, stopping in mid-stride from time to time to stare at something or (again) smell the air for faint scents of wild animals or other walkers. After a leash-free walk, they sleep harder and longer, and their behavior is better for more days afterward.
The relatively large American Dog Tick is one problem; the tiny deer tick is another thing altogether, especially when they are crawling through my dog Otto’s abundant, long hair. Even though I use monthly applications of Frontline at this time of year, after a walk on the trail in this area, I have to spend at least an hour going through Otto’s coat with a Furminator (his undercoat is shedding, so this helps that task, too) and then a flea comb, catching ticks in the tight tines of the combs, and dropping them into a glass of soapy water.
I start at Otto’s head and work down each leg. I look between his toes for grass awns – and find a tiny tick crawling between the toes of one front foot. I work backward, finding fewer ticks on his rear end; they seem to always migrate in the direction of his head, and tend to bite him (if I fail to locate them) on his neck and behind his ears. If, after going over him from nose to tail, I can comb for five or ten minutes without finding another tick, I call it quits. Tonight, after a two-hour, leisurely hike with the dogs and my husband, it took me an hour to accomplish tick-free combing.
It’s five times as bad if I haven’t put Frontline on him for over a month.
Some of you are horrified at the prospect of using a spot-on pesticide on your dog. You must not live in or walk in a tick-infested area. Or know anyone with a dog who suffered from any of the tick-borne diseases: Lyme, anaplasmosis, erlichiosis, babesiosis, or Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
None of my dogs have ever had a bad reaction to Frontline, though my son’s dog, Cole, had a very bad reaction (with vomiting, diarrhea, and a loss of appetite for a couple of days) to Advantix.
I’ve tried a variety of home-prepared remedies that are supposed to repel ticks, such as sprays that contain essential oils; the most commonly mentioned is rose geranium oil. I’ve not seen any reduction in the number of ticks on my dog when using only essential oil-based preparations. I’m sticking with Frontline for now.
WDJ began publication in 1998, and we began reviewing dog food that year. There were very few products that met our early selection criteria – perhaps half a dozen – but we listed all that we could find.
I was in favor of the “teaching people to fish” approach to the reviews. I thought it was more important to teach dog owners how to read a dog food label so they could tell the difference between the really good ones and the ones with really attractive labels. My boss disagreed; he was in the “give people a fish” camp. He said, “Nancy, I know you are a writer, but trust me when I say that when it comes to this sort of thing, many people will never read your article; they just want the list of foods we approve of.”
I learned within just a few years that he was absolutely right: Lots of people don’t read the dog food review, where I try to give them the reasons why we like the foods we do, and why we don’t like other foods. Many, many people just look at the list of foods, and then ask, “Why isn’t Brand X on your list?”
In the years since those early reviews, we’ve added things to our list of selection criteria, and the reviews have gotten more involved. But the number of good – and even REALLY good foods – has gotten longer and longer. In the past 18 years, the industry has been moving in the right direction (in our view). That said, the number of really BAD foods is still much longer than the list of good foods; there are just as many truly atrocious foods out there. So, in my view, it’s still very important to continue to describe the hallmarks of good foods, and to identify the traits of low-quality foods, in addition to listing examples of the ones we like best.
When we analyze the products offered by a particular company, we look at a number of factors. We started adding some of these factors to a spreadsheet, so we could keep track of whose products display which characteristics. Over the years, these factors turned into columns and fields in a chart where we listed some of this information for the list of foods that met our selection criteria, until the 2015 version contained more information than ever before. But guess what? We don’t recall receiving even a single comment in support of the chart or the information it contained!
So, we tried a new style for this year’s dry dog food list in order to accommodate the growing number of quality dry foods on the market today. With so many pet food manufacturers listening to owners’ concerns and improving their foods, our list has grown quite long in recent years. So, we began the 2016 review with an eye toward offering more information in the ARTICLE than ever before, and merely listing the companies that make foods that meet all of our selection criteria.
Since then, however, we’ve heard from a number of you that the chart was more valuable to you than we realized! Some of you were quite upset that the list didn’t have the detailed information about each company’s offerings anymore. So, the spreadsheet will be back for 2017 – and, if you wouldn’t mind, we’d love your feedback about which information that was contained in the chart was most helpful to you.
The following are fields that appeared in the 2015 version of the list of approved dry foods. Would you mind letting us know which information was most valuable to you? We will build this information into our list of approved canned foods later this year, and of course, into the 2017 dry food review in the February issue.
Indicate which information is most important to you:
Whether the food is made by the company itself, or co-packed
Where the food is sold (in terms of independent stores or in chains)
How many varieties the company offers
Whether the foods are made with meat, meat meal, or both
The range of minimum amounts of protein and fat in the foods offered by the company
Whether or not the company has ever had recalls
The approximate price range of the foods
Notes on the company and its products
Anything else you’d like to know about each company’s products?
Feel free to comment below, or send feedback to WDJEditor@gmail.com. Thanks so much!
There is no such thing as a good time for your dog to get violently ill, but Christienne O’Rourke of Long Island, New York, knows that there most definitely is a bad time. A couple of months ago, O’Rourke found herself shuttling back and forth to the hospital, where her grade-school son had been hospitalized for almost a week. And then the family’s 3-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback, Kaos, became suddenly ill as well.
One evening, returning from the hospital, O’Rourke returned to find Kaos squeezed into a corner of his spacious crate, desperate not to step in the pool of diarrhea that was seemingly everywhere. As soon as O’Rourke opened the crate door, Kaos ran to the backyard, only to come back in leaving a trail of bloody diarrhea. Panicked, O’Rourke took Kaos to a 24-hour emergency practice, where the attending veterinarians placed him under observation, gave him fluids and started a diagnostic work-up.
“Nobody could watch him for me, so I kept him in the emergency room,” says O’Rourke, whose son and dog both pulled through their medical emergencies and are now home and back to their regular lives. But the $4,000 price tag for that prolonged veterinary care “brought me to my knees,” she says wearily.
Four days after Kaos was admitted, the test results came back, showing Salmonella in his stool. A third-generation raw-fed Ridgeback, Kaos had been on a home-prepared raw-food diet since he was three weeks old. But, spooked by the diarrhea and the vet bill, O’Rourke switched him to a high-quality brand of kibble.
“A raw-food diet was great for him,” says O’Rourke, adding that she could see a difference in Kaos’s overall condition compared to kibble-fed dogs she had owned previously. “Until we got to the Salmonella.”
Depending on your point of view, Kaos’ story is either a cautionary tale about the dangers in raw-food diets – or an equally telling example of how raw-food diets are reflexively blamed for episodes of intestinal distress. After all, it wouldn’t be unusual for a raw-fed dog like Kaos to have Salmonella in his stool. And the emotional issues at play – the intense stress that a sudden hospitalization put on the family, the abrupt change in routine, and long periods of being crated home alone – could very well have triggered the explosive diarrhea that Kaos experienced.
Just how dangerous is Salmonella, not just to the dog that is infected with it, but the other animals and humans around him?
How Common is Salmonella?
To say Salmonella is ubiquitous is an understatement: According to the Centers for Disease Control, this rod-shaped bacterium – named for the 19th-century scientist who discovered it, Dr. Daniel Salmon – is responsible for 1.2 million food-borne illnesses in humans, with 19,000 hospitalizations and some 400 deaths every year.
Thanks to dogs’ industrial-strength digestive systems, their strong stomach acids usually disarm the Salmonella bacteria before they can cause illness. And even if enough of the bacteria survive and manage to take up residence in the dog’s digestive tract, he may well be completely asymptomatic; not all canine carriers of Salmonella become ill. This makes it difficult to know how widespread Salmonella infections are in the canine population.
The Merck Veterinary Manual says that “many” dogs are Salmonella carriers, adding that, unlike in humans, “clinical disease is uncommon.” Other estimates of Salmonella infection say that as many as a third of dogs carry the bacteria.
Whatever the real number, what is undisputed is that Salmonella infection in dogs isn’t just a cause of concern for that species: Salmonella is zoonotic – that is, transmissible from animals to people, which in the case of dogs is usually through the oral-fecal route. (In other words, a person comes into contact with feces that is contaminated with Salmonella – say, while picking up poop, he unknowingly gets some on his hand, and then eats an apple and inadvertently ingests some of the bacteria.)
Though it’s relatively uncommon for dogs to actually become ill from ingesting Salmonella – the illness is called “salmonellosis” – the canine symptoms are similar to those seen in humans, including diarrhea, sometimes with blood and/or mucous; vomiting and refusal to eat; fever; lethargy; and abdominal pain and cramping.
Treatment usually involves the administration of fluids and electrolytes to avoid dehydration, and sometimes anti-diarrheal drugs. There is disagreement over the use of antibiotics in mild cases of salmonellosis, because of concerns that it may contribute to the microbe’s resistance to the drugs. Mild cases can often be dealt with at home, provided the dog can be properly hydrated. In rare cases, a Salmonella infection may progress to sepsis – a systemic infection carried through the bloodstream.
It’s also important to note that dogs who have been infected with Salmonella can shed the bacteria in their feces for four to six weeks.
Salmonella is Everywhere, But Not Always Dangerous
While salmonellosis can be contracted through the consumption of raw meat, the reality is that the microbe can be found in many places in the environment – including, from time to time, in commercially produced kibble! Though extrusion (the high-temperature, high-pressure process that cooks kibble) kills the bacteria, the product can be recontaminated later, in the process of drying, cooling, application of an oil coating, or packaging.
Concerns about Salmonella in pet food peaked in the last decade, due in large part to the heightened attention that the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) has paid toward food contaminants in the wake of the 2007 recalls of foods containing the toxic substance melamine. In 2012, multiple brands produced by Diamond Pet Foods in the company’s Gaston, South Carolina, facility were recalled after being linked to cases of salmonellosis in humans.
According to veterinarian and natural pet-care advocate Dr. Karen Becker of Bourbonnais, Illinois, “There are endless sources of Salmonella present in the environment, but most do not cause pathogenic contamination,” meaning the source can test positive but never cause illness. Pools of standing water, unwashed vegetables, buildings that contain rodent populations, open fields where birds fly overhead, the areas around bird feeders and bird houses, and, yes, bags of commercially produced dry kibble – all are potential sources of contamination.
In humans, potential contaminants are just as diffuse: Salmonella can lurk in the feed given to livestock animals, and waste from dairy-cow and pig factories can leach into water supplies used to irrigate crops. A 1998 study from the University of Arizona found that bacteria-covered chicken carcasses so contaminated kitchens that appreciably more pathogens were found on sponges and dishtowels than on toilet seats in the same households.
Still, in dogs, raw-food diets remain the poster child for Salmonella transmission. In November 2013, the FDA issued a warning about feeding raw-food diets to companion animals, cautioning that owners had a higher risk of getting infected with Salmonella and another common foodborne bacteria, Listeria monocytogenes. The warning was issued after a two-year study by the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine, which screened 196 samples of pet food and found that 15 were positive for Salmonella and 32 were positive for Listeria.
The news made some pet professionals far more paranoid than others. We heard of a case in Sudbury, Ontario, where veterinarians decided to quarantine any raw-fed patients, even if they were coming in for something as innocuous as a wellness check. Depending on the practice and the staff member, protective gloves and even surgical masks were used during examinations.
In a podcast last year on the subject of Salmonella contamination and raw feeding, holistic veterinarian and author Marty Goldstein noted that his Smith Ridge Veterinary Center in South Salem, New York, sells 2,500 to 4,000 pounds of raw food each month, with no ill effects. “Salmonella poses virtually no threat to most dogs,” he said, noting that according to the Morris Institute, 36 percent of healthy dogs carry Salmonella in their digestive tracts.
For her part, Dr. Becker points that many diagnoses of salmonellosis are based more on conjecture than science. “Most commonly, vets don’t even do a diarrhea panel, and simply say, ‘If your dog has acute illness and you feed raw food, the cause is the raw food, probably E. Coli or Salmonella,'” she says. “They make huge, sweeping generalizations not based on testing, but based on their personal and incorrect assumptions. Most cases of diarrhea pertaining to raw food are a dietary transition problem, not a pathogenic infection.”
Even if a veterinarian does do a fecal screening, Dr. Becker notes that test has its own limitations: “It will simply say it’s positive for Salmonella, but not what subspecies,” she explains. “Most are not pathogenic.”
One Dog Food Manufacturer’s View on Salmonella
Dean Ricard of Mountain Dog Food in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is a member of the Canadian Association of Raw Pet Food Manufacturers, or CARPFM, which has set up guidelines, third-party inspections, and best practices to prevent bacterial pathogens from infecting pets and people.
Ricard says it’s simply wrong to assume that the existence of Salmonella in raw meat is a foregone conclusion. “In fact, a properly processed product, coming from an inspected facility, basically does not contain Salmonella – it’s very low risk,” he says. “Salmonella is probably not as prevalent in raw foods as people would like to think.”
Ricard notes that there is no “acceptable” level of contamination for Salmonella. Either a sample has it, or it does not, and if it’s the former, the product fails inspection, even if the bacterial load is miniscule. “Many people believe that any Salmonella in the product will cause problems, when in fact there have to be minimum levels of contamination before there is a problem,” he explains.
Ricard says the best way to ensure that raw-food products are free of Salmonella is to have a clearly defined “chain of custody” of the product, from the supplier who rears the chickens to the pet food manufacturer who packages the finished product. And he reminds that precisely because Salmonella is so commonplace, opportunities for contamination await at seemingly every corner.
“Many people believe it’s the process of raising the chickens that contributing to the Salmonella outbreaks,” including keeping them in highly confined quarters, Ricard says. “But the reason they wind up in barns is to prevent Salmonella from getting into the food stream.” Ironically, while more and more consumers want free-range poultry, the natural way those animals are reared leaves them vulnerable to Salmonella contamination, such as from the droppings of a passing critter or a bird flying overhead.
Salmonella-free birds raised in pristine, controlled conditions can be contaminated if they are shipped to a processing plant in trucks that have not been cleaned and disinfected appropriately, Ricard continues. After slaughter, the meat can be contaminated in the bagging area, for example. This is just as common a scenario in the manufacturing of kibble as it is commercial raw diets, Ricard says. “Unless you’ve got a good quality handling process, the potential for recontamination is there.”
All that said, Ricard notes that the frenzy to make our lives – and our food supplies – free of microbes might do more harm than good in the long run. Akin to the old-fashioned philosophy that says letting little kids hunker down in the dirt to make mud pies builds up much-needed immunity, there is a growing awareness that hygiene-obsessed first-world cultures are weakening their immune systems in their quest for a pristine world.
“There are a lot of countries in the world that do not have anywhere near the sanitary resources that we do in the United States and Canada, and they are populating their part of the world quite well,” he says. “This move toward an ultra-sanitized world has created this atrophy in the immune system.”
Ricard adds that the paranoia over pathogens in the food supply is also somewhat myopic. “People focus on the meat, but we probably have a bigger problem from vegetable products” that are added to some raw diets, he says. “In actual fact, the majority of incursions from a bacterial point of view are coming from vegetables more than the meat. Vegetables are not anywhere near as regulated or as monitored as the meat.”
Prevent Bacterial Buildups and Still Feed Your Dog Raw
While most dogs can encounter Salmonella without becoming symptomatic, that’s not always the case with weak, ill, old, or immune-comprised dogs. What’s a concerned owner to do, if even commercial kibble diets carry with them the risk of contamination?
For dogs with such compromised immune systems – including those undergoing chemotherapy – Dr. Becker recommends a raw food that has been processed with high pressure pasteurization, or HPP. “It’s sterile,” she says, “and the safest food in the pet food industry.”
Instead of using heat to kill pathogens, HPP applies high hydrostatic pressure, which is exerted by a liquid in a water bath. (See “High Pressure Processing and Your Dog’s Raw Food,” WDJ April 2015, for in-depth information about HPP and how it works.)
As for humans living with raw-fed dogs, the same concerns apply: Preschool children, the elderly, pregnant women, and the chronically ill or immune-compromised are at greater risk for Salmonella infection.
Even for healthy owners with vibrant immune systems, following common sense and proper hygiene can go a long way toward preventing infection. The top recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention include the following:
– Thoroughly wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds after handling raw pet food, and after touching surfaces or objects that have come in contact with the raw food. Countertops, the inside of refrigerators and microwaves, kitchen utensils, feeding bowls and cutting boards are all potential sources of bacteria.
– Thoroughly clean and disinfect all surfaces and objects that come in contact with raw pet food. (The FDA stresses the difference between those two verbs: Cleaning means only removing germs from surfaces and objects; disinfecting means actually killing them.) The FDA recommends first washing with hot, soapy water, then following with a disinfectant, such as one tablespoon of bleach dissolved in one quart of water. Running utensils and cutting boards through the dishwasher after use can also disinfect them.
– Freeze raw meat until you’re ready to use it, and thaw it in the refrigerator or microwave, not on the countertop or sink.
– Carefully handle and segregate raw food, and don’t rinse it, or you can splash the raw juices onto other food and surfaces.
– Immediately cover and refrigerate leftover food.
– Avoid kissing your dog around his mouth, and don’t permit him to lick your face, especially after he has just consumed a raw-food meal.
– Thoroughly wash your hands after touching your dog, or after the dog has licked or “kissed” you. (Wait a second – not kiss your dog? Isn’t that one of the more compelling reasons for having one?)
In the end, like most things in life, managing your dog’s exposure to Salmonella – dietary or otherwise – isn’t black and white. If you want the benefits of a raw-food diet, then you need to accept a degree of risk, to both your dog and yourself, in terms of exposure to pathogens like Salmonella.
That said, other commercially prepared foods are not without risk, either – and Salmonella is only one of them. You will have to weigh the pros and cons and make the decision that’s right for you and your dog.
The founder of Modern Molosser magazine and a regular contributor to WDJ, Denise Flaim raises 12-year-old triplets, as well as raw-fed Rhodesian Ridgebacks, in Long Island, New York.
I’ve had a number of older owners book lessons with me lately—more than half a dozen individuals and couples in their 70s and even 80s, all wanting some training help with their new dogs or puppies.
