The first dog i worked who was a totally raw fed dog prior to startign work threw me for a loop. With dry food there is a certain amount of poop involved, even with the high end brands. On RAW the food is assimilated much more efficiently and there is much less waste. The daily dumps were smaller and harder to read.
The last three days worried me because I was accustomed to a fairly honking size pile which helped me indicate when he was empty. On RAW the piles are consistently smaller and my first time I was worried that I was on target weight but that weight included a dump, which in theory is off weight, plus all the issues with the kidneys of running a dog with dumps remaining.
Plus on RAW the dog is typically leaner and comes to weight quicker and I am not a fan of rapid weight reduction.
Also to the Alpo, or any other feed actually works. These dogs are amazing and a good dog is a good dog whether he is fed premium RAW or corn flakes and cabbage. Sometimes the most important part about feeding a dog is that we feel good about/get the warm fuzzies from what we are feeding the dog. Funny how that works.
A couple three years ago a well-respected guy I knew as a kid 'came out of retirement' and worked a dog the exact same way he did in the 70's. The actual dry food is more than likely a higher quality but he use dry food, brown rice, chicken necks, mustard greens, and an assortment of jack cheeses. He used a half can of jack mackeral it mixes all the food together to make a blended much. He boiled some of the chicken necks to make a broth. He used that broth after the work session to mix in supplements like Red Cell for horses or Clovite horse conditioner. He worked the dog in the mornings after work and fed him the brothy solution. He believed the rub down was as important as the work and went as far as to say without the rub down half the work was wasted. He hand walked the dog for miles on end and used an old school carpet mill. Jute backed, 70's style carpet sliding on sanded plywood and end rollers made of stationery PVC pipe. If he had an 8-track player with an assortment of 70's 8-track tapes we would have been back in time.
He worked his dogs just over weight, stopped supplementation ten days out, stopped work five days out and cut feed on days five and four to draw the dog to weight. The last three days he was on a 30 hour cycle to get the dog empty.
On show night he was as well prepared as any dog I have ever seen.
He had taught me the lesson many years before but he reminded me, "Son, it is always about the dog and always make it about the dog".
Corn flakes and bran cereal were a must once upon a time. There was never any real nutritional value but it did help make stools and many a dog has been read by the stool it leaves. With that, there is some value. Plus it corn/bran flakes are a hard digest for the dog so if it is a dog that is outside in the cold the harder digestive work will create some warmth in the body and the shivering weight loss will not be as impactful.
I am a big fan of the chicken backs and chicken necks to this day. Mr. James Edwards (of Molly Bee fame) once told us that the spinal fluids in the backs and necks had regenerative powers that were not available in other parts of the chicken. I went with, 'Molly Bee won eight times and nothing ever scratched back to her so obviously chicken necks are the way to go'. That is not exactly science but when a guy is winning with corn flakes and cabbage it will be hard to convince him otherwise and he will be able to convince others with each win he attains. It just works that way,.
CYJ, glad to see you post. I tell the board(s) all the time you are one of the last links to the real dogs of yesteryear. Your thoughts, memories and writing are golden.
I wish that day under Tom's tree had not been a 102 degrees and I could have monopolized all of your time (and maybe wished for a shot of air conditioning) but it was July in the Carolinas. That is how we have to roll.
EWO II
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Originally Posted by CYJ
