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Feed your dog raw honey rather than processed honey so that your dog receives all the nutritional benefits it has to offer. Raw honey is known to improve allergies in dogs, soothe kennel cough, help dogs' digestive systems and more! Raw honey is strained to remove debris, but that's it. It's otherwise as natural as you can get. Shop at the farmer's market or do an Internet search for local beekeepers. Processed honey, on the other hand, is manufactured with heat, which thins it and destroys many of its beneficial attributes.

Recently, I had the great fortune to meet Dr. Ian Billinghurst, who may be described as the modern father of the “bones and raw food” diet for dogs. Dr. Billinghurst was kind enough to take time away from a vacation in San Francisco to talk over lunch. I had a lot of questions for the Australian veterinarian, given that I had just finished editing the article about feeding bones that appears on the previous pages. Dr. Billinghurst was patient, helpful, and full of encouragement for me and all other dog owners who are “sitting on the fence” of the bones issue.

Making meals from scratch is the only way I know to have exactly what I want for my dogs – no ingredients from places with spotty records for quality assurance, no multi-syllabic additives making a label longer than I like. After I covered the pet-food recall in 2007, I changed the way I eat and the way I feed my pets. For my dogs, that meant commercial products from companies I trusted, along with raw-food meals from regional sources of meat, grains, and vegetables. It wasn't a huge shift from raw to cooked when my Flat-Coated Retriever, McKenzie, started chemotherapy for soft-tissue sarcoma a few days after her seventh birthday. At the suggestion of her veterinary oncologist, I dropped the carbs, rebalanced the diet with the help of some expert advice, and started feeding McKenzie Meatloaf" to all three of my dogs."

Many raw dog food diet proponents claim that the nutrients and/or chemical composition of a raw diet keeps dogs from developing gingivitis or periodontitis. We’re not aware of any studies that have proven these claims, but the persistence of the anecdotal evidence of this phenomenon (to say nothing of its evolutionary success) suggest that there are dental benefits to a diet that includes raw, meaty bones.

Bill and Marin Corby of Romeo, Michigan, feed a homemade dog food diet to their two rescued Cockapoos. Max, estimated to be anywhere from 6 to 9 years old, has been with them for three and a half years. Max weighed 32 pounds when first adopted, but his current weight is a healthy 20 pounds. Mickey was four months old and very sick when they first brought him home, as he had problems digesting his food. The Corbys switched Mickey to a raw dog food diet, and he’s now thriving at 20 months of age and 16½ pounds.

Dogs are not engineered to gain a significant portion of their nutrition from grains. This explains the large, soft stools excreted by most kibble-fed dogs. It is clearly processed poorly by the dog. Many vets agree that corn, wheat and soy may cause allergies, skin and coat problems. Overfeeding grains may be a big factor in the frequency of canine obesity today. This in turn may cause or aggravate many other health problems.

Have you ever noticed that dog owners tend to select one canine expert to follow in the area of dog nutrition and dog food and then another expert for training? And they’ll often adhere to their personal guru’s program no matter what? Is it our unconscious dog-like loyalty, or what? Many of our readers are already preparing their own dog food, and generally, they are following the guidelines of some canine nutrition expert. However, many more of our readers have not yet sorted out the differences between the raw dog food diets being promoted today.

When Deanna Cuchiaro of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, set out to adopt an Irish Setter, she had no idea the rescue would change her entire perspective on animal health care. Cuchiaro already had one Irish Setter, Brandy, who had recently turned 10, and she wanted to get another so that Brandy could help pass his positive influence around the house to the newcomer. She considered getting a puppy, but decided to adopt a rescue dog from the Irish Setter Club of Central Connecticut rescue program. She met representatives of the rescue group at a local Irish Setter show who told her there was a large two-year-old male Setter available for adoption.

Most dogs love the sweet taste of honey. Honey for dogs has many health properties as well! Raw honey fights allergies and heals wounds, soothes coughs, and eases canine stomachs.

One of the things that intimidated me about this diet initially was reading long, detailed lists of what some people supplemented wth on a daily basis. Discussions about whether powdered Icelandic kelp was better that Pacific kelp, or the proper temperature to store flax seed oil, or what vital nutrient would be missing if one fed Brand A fish oil versus Brand B didn’t help one bit! Once I realized the huge array of bio-available nutrients supplied by the raw foods alone, I relaxed and started to apply some common sense to supplementation.I use supplements in moderation to be sure I am covering all the nutritional bases. Most of my dogs take whole fish oil and E gel caps readily like treats. I use ground meat for phoebe’s supplements, making up a couple of days worth of little supplement-filled meatballs at a time. I feed all supplements with their meals.

I love you, and I wonder if you even know how rare a publication like Whole Dog Journal is. On the same day that I got my Whole Dog Journal, I also got a professional “journal” issue reviewing medical research. Without exception, every article in that magazine was research sponsored by a company that made the product being evaluated. And, surprise! All the research showed wonderful results using their products! I am awestruck every time I read a review in WDJ and it is actual, objective information, not an infomercial.

Of course not! Dogs don’t get cleaner teeth by eating kibble, any more than you will by eating cookies. Those crunchy little nuggets provide almost zero teeth cleaning benefits for big sharp teeth. Ever looked at your dog’s mouth about an hour after eating her doggie bits? All that goop is still smooshed between her teeth, fermenting away. One of the most immediate benefits most people see with a raw diet is sweet breath and whiter teeth. Often this difference will be seen within days. One of the most common reasons people bring their pets to a vets’ office is for dental concerns.