“Happy Turkey Day” Says the Dog: Safe and Healthy Raw Dog Thanksgiving Dinner Recipe!

We love our dogs, right? I mean, we really love them. They are just as much a member of the family as our kids, spouses, aunts, uncles, grandparents or anyone else that may come to your Thanksgiving feast. In fact, most people consider themselves to feel closer, emotionally, to their pet dog than blood relatives! It’s really not that hard to accept, considering dogs never judge and always give unconditional love. We want them to enjoy a hearty Thanksgiving feast like the rest of us, but cooked turkey, bones, and all that sugary, carb-loaded food sitting on the nicely laid out Thanksgiving dinner table just is not safe for our canine companions.

Instead of putting your dog at risk giving him left overs from Thanksgiving, give him his very own healthy, delicious and safe feast all on his own! Here is a FREE recipe that you will not find in my book, The Natural Dog Diet, available on Naturally Dogs, the Blog ONLY!

Raw Thanksgiving Feast

1 lb ground turkey

1/2 cup chopped turkey innards (liver, kidney, lung, and gizzards)

1 can salmon

2 eggs

1 teaspoon coconut oil

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 tablespoons chia seeds or flax seed meal

1 tablespoon turmeric

Directions: Mix the thawed raw ground turkey with the salmon (leave the oil in it!) Mix in the chopped turkey innards.  Add eggs, oil, flour, seeds or meal and turmeric. Mix well! Use your hands to form into balls, like meat balls! You can freeze them and feed them frozen, feed it fresh and mushy, or just spoon it into your dog’s food bowl!

Note: 1 “meatball” sized portion per 10lbs of body weight. Refrigerate or freeze the rest – everyone loves Thanksgiving left overs!!

You can provide a little more food than you normally do for this special holiday meal. Show your dog how much you are thankful for their love and devotion by making their tummies happy with healthy, tasty Raw Thanksgiving Feast!

 

Muzzle for Muzzle’s Sake; Why Every Dog Should Be Muzzle Trained & NEWS!

The holidays are fast approaching and plans are being made to travel. I’m sure you can’t wait for your family to meet your furry best canine friend, but it is a federal law in the United States that requires your dog to be fully vaccinated against the rabies virus and have a health certificate stating that your dog has had a wellness exam within the past 10 days before you cross state lines.  This is for air travel, car travel, train travel or even if your goin’ horseback across the country. Your dog must see the vet first!

Dogs don’t like vets though, right? Well, most don’t anyways and vets keep muzzles on hand for the dog who likes to snarl, bark or is otherwise simply scared of their poking and prodding. How can you blame your pooch, though, when a stranger comes at them with a needle?  Even the friendliest, most outgoing dogs can snap in fear at a veterinarian even if you can’t see his fear in body language.  You can make your dog so much more comfortable if you have trained him to comfortably and happily wear his own muzzle before heading to the vet’s office.

Training your dog to accept and even enjoy his muzzle is actually incredibly simple and easy. There are many types of muzzles, with the basket muzzle being a top choice for pet owners because it still allows the dog to open his mouth to pant while protecting people and other animals from a bite. Any type of muzzle that you and your dog feel the most comfortable with will do. After all, he most likely will only have it on for mere moments at the vet’s office, and will wear it more often at home during training sessions!

Lure your dog into the muzzle first. With the muzzle open and sitting in your hand below your dog’s eye level, put a treat in the opening of the muzzle. This must be a high value treat that your dog just cannot live without, such as real meat or cheese.  As he grabs the treat, click your clicker to mark the behavior of placing his nose almost into the muzzle. If you don’t use a clicker, just say “Yes!” to mark it. His reward is the treat he just grabbed.  Continue doing this for a few minutes, and if your dog is comfortable, you can place the treat further in. You are literally luring him into the muzzle.

After a few sessions, you should be able to hold the muzzle up, say “Muzzle!” and your dog can put his face into the muzzle on his own. Give him time to accept that this is the behavior that you want, and do not close the muzzle around him yet!  Ask him to place his face in it by holding it the exact same way you did when there was a treat in. It may take him a few moments to figure it out, since there is no treat in it any longer.  When his face sets in, even if it’s not all the way, mark that behavior with a great big “Yes!” or click and praise and then give him the treat. Practice this, then move on to closing the muzzle for only 2 seconds, release then treat. If you are using a basket muzzle or any type that he can still accept the treat, it is best to give him the reward while he is wearing it!

Using the food reward while he is inside the muzzle, as well as placing the treat directly into it to lure him in, is the exact same kind of conditioning methods used in crate training.  A good thing is inside the space that the dog wants, he gets it, and that item (the muzzle) becomes a positive object in your dog’s life. He sees the muzzle, he knows good, yummy things are about to happen!

If your dog is comfortable with the muzzle, he will be far less stressed out at the vet’s office during his exam and vaccinations.  No matter what your dog’s temperament is, muzzle training should be considered a basic command for all dogs. You never know when it will come in handy!

NEWS: I am back on Fiverr offering dog training and freelance writing for YOUR dog blog! If you like what you see here, need help with your pooch and/or content for your doggy site, blog, news, or any other canine media, I am here for you!

Furthermore, you can now follow me on FACEBOOK!

The Vet’s Idea of Nutrition

If you have done your research on your dog’s natural diet, you know that kibble is one of the worst things you can put into your dog’s body.  Those who are considering switching to a raw, nutrient dense food full of raw meats, organs, bones and supplements may decide to consult their veterinarian before making their first shopping trip to the butcher or meat section of their grocer to stock up.  This is a good idea for the most part, but unfortunately the vat majority of practicing veterinarians are dead wrong with what diet is best for your dog’s health.

The Idea of Kibble

The idea of kibble definitely seems better than the results from actually using it with your dog.  Kibble is meant to be a nutrient rich dehydrated piece of edible materials that provides your dog with the essentials that he needs to survive.  All of those vitamins, minerals, proteins, and fats are combined through the use of both naturally and artificially derived materials, processed and preserved into convenient little bits of crunchy and flavorful pieces that almost never go bad no matter how long they sit in the bag on a shelf in your pantry. The preservatives, and overly processed foods, the dehydration and over cooking of real food materials beat the life out of the idea that kibble can be healthy for your dog.

The fact is that veterinarians are wonderful when it comes to health conditions for your dog.  If your dog gets sick, or if you want an annual wellness check, maybe a titer test they are your go to people. They are trained and educated on a level of healing that we average pet owners are not. They are not pet nutritionists.

Vet Schools and Biased Information

It has been found out by other sources who are passionate about our canine companion’s diet and health that veterinary colleges and clinics are given grants and even incentives with their products. The main culprits are Hills (you have seen their products labeled as Hills Science Diet pet foods, including prescription diets,) and Purina.  From text books to promised coffee makers after reaching a desired number of product sales, they have their hands deep in the pies of most veterinarians. Don’t believe me? There’s plenty more evidence on the web. To top it off, there are even discussions  about the ethical delimma that vets make in recommending such foods to their clients.

Because of this, vet students are taught to feed brands such as these to pets and suggest them to their clients.  It only takes a little bit of label reading to learn what is really in those foods.

So, What Should I Feed My Dog?

Good question! Feeding your dog is just as much of a personal choice as what you yourself decide to eat on a daily basis.  No one should tell you not to feed a certain food, however you can do a great deal of damage to your pet and cut his life dramatically short with a harmful diet, no different than if you ate fast food three times a day. It is your decision, and yours alone to feed your pet the highest quality food you can find.

Research! Read books! Read blogs! Read articles! Watch videos! The time you take to learn what you can about your dog, his body, how it works and what you can do to preserve his life with you can be worth more than any one person, or veterinarian’s opinion.

You can find some raw recipes to fit any dog’s life style in The Natural Dog Diet eBook only on Amazon!