A little while ago I wrote about how you need to socialize your dog properly, pert of this being you need to make your dog tolerate children. Not be their best friend, not all dogs are, but for a working society where we can all live you need to make sure your dog can behave around children, no matter if they are ever going to come to the skin or not. It needs to be able to tolerate their presence without aggression or fear. Now, while we dog owners have responsibilities, parents also have them. Here are some things to remember when you teach your child to behave with a dog – and believe me, it needs to be taught. It does not come naturally. |
If my hand looks like this after this small indicent he meant no harm with, he was just being inconsiderate, imagine how a small child's face would look. Trust the owner. If she or he says you can't let the child play with the dog ”because he gets so hyper” or ”she is a bit rough”, don't go ”oh, but it doesn't mind, my child's used to it!”. The owner knows the dog he/she shares the house with, and he/she knows whether or not the dog can play with a child safely. |
Correcting is not a bite
I mentioned earlier that the dogs correct each other. They do that with poking with their snout and snapping with their teeth. Mothers do this to pups. Friends do that with each other. Dogs of the same house do that. It's not a sign of being aggressive, it's simply interacting and telling something is not OK. Same goes with growling.
We have unfortunately grown to believe a growl or a snap is a sign of an aggressive dog. We teach out dogs to never growl and we see dogs correcting each other as ”mean”. We expect all dogs are the most docile labs or the most gentle beagles, but that is not true. We have a HUGE variety of breeds and breed mixes and a HUGE variety of temperaments. Some temperaments are more desired with house pets than others, but those temperaments wouldn't probably work with for example a hunting dog or a guard dog or a service dog. Even within just house pets we have many, many, many different dogs that prefer different things.
Some dogs, no matter what their purpose, breed, gender or age, are more prone to correct with a snout poke or a snap. From my own experience, older bitches are more likely to do this than males, but once again, this is just my own experience. Don't use it as a guide and think you can take your child to hug a strange older male because nokkaelaimet.weebly.com said it's OK.
When a snap or a poke happens, even if the skin is not broken (and usually it is not because the dog knows perfectly well how to use it's teeth) it is often labeled a bite and the dog is getting a stigma of being aggressive. REMEMBER; A BITE NEVER LEAVES THE SKIN UNBROKEN. When a bite happens, the dog is wishing to harm. It feels threatened enough to injure to get out of the situation. This is a VERY serious thing, the child often needs medical help after the incident, and we should NEVER let this happen. This is exactly why we should always supervise animals and children together.
If the child cries, but the skin is not broken (or the wound is hardly there) and the dog doesn't seem to be too ”stressed” what has happened is most likely a poke with a snout (and the kid got scared of the hasty movement) or a snap. If we happen to witness the situation, the dog has most likely presented a very wide variety of different calming and warning signals before that; stiff posture, licking of teeth, growling, looking other way eyes enlargened, panting... may they have been clear or not, may there have been many or not, those signals of the dog have been ignored and it moved on to the next phase of trying to solve the situation; physical correction. This is how dogs communicate with other dogs, and because of OUR OWN MISTAKE things have lead to the situation where the dog felt threatened or irritated or both enough to use physical force.
While there is a connection between the tendency to correct and the tendency to bite, most dogs that physically correct never meant to harm the child. They hold no grudge. They simply corrected it in a way their species work. To label this dog aggressive, to put it down or find a new home for it immediately shows our own misunderstanding of the situation and how badly we handled it before the incident. Instead of this labeling we should understand we let this happen, and we should not let it happen again. While in some cases, if the dog is super stressed around the kid in general, it would be best to not let the kid and the dog be together, usually these kind of things don't happen again if we make sure the child and the dog are interacting in a correct, safe way.
A snap or a snout poke is not a bite. Don't call it a bite, and don't see it as an aggressive move from the dog's side only. Something has happened that led to the situation, and most likely it was our mistake that allowed this unfortunate incident. If the situation doesn't result anything more serious than a crying kid with no visible physical harm or a slightly tense dog, move on. Make sure next time you handle things better. Specially if the dog is not your own dog, there are NUMEROUS things you can do to make sure in future your kid stays untouched and the dog doesn't feel threatened by it. You can start by figuring out if you let some of the forbidden things described in this post happen.
Dogs and kids can be terribly good friends and they can do lots of fun things (and get into lot of mischief) together, but this means both of them know how to behave around each other.
Socialize your dogs properly and teach your kids to respectfully treat a dog. This way a dog can really be your kid's best friend.
I sometimes get asked how hard and time consuming raw feeding is, if it is expensive and if it is dangerous to feed 50 / 50. I have answered to most questions in this blog already; it takes some time to get things right, but it isn't rocket sciense, it doesn't take more than feeding good quality kibble and 50 / 50 is an excellent way of feeding your dog. To give some practical example of how our raw feeding is, I decided to make a small post about how it can look. I left out calculated vitamins and minerals, but I will note some things you need to remember if you decide to try them out. Balance is everything and while you can leave something out one day and boost the other, you need to balance it the next day or in near future.
Egg, chopped beef, turkey, grounded salmon and veggie mash (cucumber, broccoli, lettuce) infused with zinc, calcium powder and coldpressed sunflower oil
This is something I do to boost the overall vitamins and minerals in the diet.
Eggs supplement all but C-vitamin and dogs can use everything in the egg easily. It is kind of a superfood for them.
Grounded salmon keeps the amount of vitamin D high enough, so I can be sure today the need is not only met but exceeded.
Beef is rich in zinc, and giving it as chopped meat pieces I can be sure all the vitamins are there. Minced meats often use less rich parts of the carcass too and while those are beneficial in their own way, feeding real full meat is good at least every now and then. It also gives the dogs something to chew on, considering they don't just gulp all and swallow it.
Turkey is a nice light meat that is higher in fat than chicken, but also very well digested by most dogs.
Supplements add to the overall minerals and vitamin E.
Note that this food has no liver and even though an egg gives some vitamin A, you need to add more if you have a large dog or make sure you meet the needs in following days.
Chopped chicken gizzards and hearts, minced turkey, grounded whitefish, liver casserole (raisin free), coldpressed sunflower oil, zinc
Ms. Dominance turned two years old, so I wanted to celebrate giving dogs their ultimate favorite food; liver casserole without raisins. Being ”human food” and all, it is pretty high is fats and salt, so I tried to balance this obvious trash food with some low fat meats.
Chicken gizzards and hearts are not organs for dogs. For them they are actually closer to muscle meat than anything else, since dogs don't need taurin (therefore chicken hearts are seen as organs when you feed ferrets, because they have taurin in them). They are also very low on fat, so they are a good way to raise up protein level without raising the fat level. They are also nice and chew-able food for the dogs to eat.
White fish has over double the amount of vitamin D as salmon. It is, in return, also much lower in fat. Therefore I like feeding it as salmon's replacement every now and then. The only problem is it is also double in prize, so it is a rare delicasy rather than something the dogs eat every day.
Turkey is added for the same reason as before; it is good easily digested meat fit for many dogs.
Chopped beef, grounded salmon, minced turkey and vegetables with coldpressed sunflower oil, zinc and calcium powder
A little less fatty choice for your ”everyday trusty dinner”. Beef has less fat than feeding minced pork/beef and is richer in overall zinc, salmon adds some D and E, turkey is good basic meat with OK vitamin and mineral amounts, and all the add ons balance the diet to meet the basics, if you feed them with ¼, ¼, 2/4 manner (beef, salmon, turkey).
Note that this dinner has no liver, so you need to add some or make sure you meet the needs in following days.
Minced pork, beef, liver and turkey, grounded salmon, vegetables, calcium powder, lactic acid bacteria powder and dried seaweed
At the moment our favorite go-to, because it meets all the needs, has liver for vitamin A, seaweed for iodin and balances the digestive system. Note: I don't add the lactic acid bacteria every day, only a couple of times a week, but I see it as an important part of the weekly diet so I wanted to note it's existence.
If you have an older dog and/or an overweight dog, note that this food is pretty high on fat. To reduce the fat you can replace beef/pork with just minced beef, and/or replace the salmon with white fish every now and then.
Basic mix 2 plus an egg, for the added vitamin boost
Monday
Morning: Basic Mix 2
Evening: Basic Mix 3
Tuesday
Morning: Basic Mix 1
Evening: Basic Mix 1
Wednesday
Morning: Basic Mix 1
Evening: Vitamin Boost
Thursday
Morning: Basic Mix 2
Evening: Birthday Dinner
Friday
Morning: Basic Mix 2
Evening: Basic Mix 2
Saturday
Morning: Basic Mix 1
Evening: Basic Mix 1
Sunday
Morning: Basic Mix 3
Evening: Birthday Dinner (without casserole, replaced with grounded beef and a bit of liver)
So, having a few recipes at hand you are able to form a very balanced weekly diet for your dog that doesn't take that much time. Excluding the birthday dinner, which took some extra time, mixing the meats and dividing them takes so little time I am able to do it before work in the morning without problems. I CAN take my time in the evening, but in the morning we go with the fastest possible solution. Therefore I add supplements in the evening food, excluding oil which is usually divided in two and given both during the morning and the evening.
I hope this was somewhat helpful and also answered to some questions considering how it is to feed your dog with raw. It may seem like a hassle, but when you get down to it, it's pretty simple, fast and doesn't cost any more than any good quality kibble.
Temperament inherits. Modern trainers often hear that everything depends on the environment the dog is raised in. Whether you use good, humane methods, or if you ”claim leadership”, both schools tell you you will end up with a dog that will accept all other dogs, never be afraid, always behaves and doesn't develop issues like hyperactivity or separation anxiety. No matter it sounds very soothing, unfortunately you can't train away bad temperament or certain born traits. You can train your dog to co-ope and survive, but you can't train away characteristics.
When I got Mr. Arthritis years ago, he was afraid of coffeemaker. He ran under a sofa the first morning when I made some coffee for my mother and father with whom I was staying before continuing the trip to my own home. He actually got stuck there, too, and it took us some time and effort to get him out.
He was from a very nice breeder who had all the pups out during the days in a big big pen where they could hear and sniff everything. Unfortunately, the bitch, mother of the litter, was very anxious and even tried to snap at my father when we went to see the puppies. The breeder said she had always been wary of men.
I, as someone who already had experience about dogs and who had been told it's all about the upbringing, took the pup in anyways and raised it with the best tips I could find. And, mind I say, now that Mr- Arthritis is 11, he is very trustable dog, I can take care of his coat and nails and such, but deep down he is, was and will always be a nervous dog.
We have gone through a LONG road with him. I have made huge mistakes, I used wrong methods, but eventually with time and effort and more knowledge I found better and better ways to cope with his anxiety, fear aggression and stress. I learned to control it, I taught him ways to manage his anxiety levels, but no matter how hard I train, that part of him will never cease to be. He is always a nervous dog, and I need to remember that in any situation so I don't let him hype himself up to a point where he reacts badly to something.
Mr. Arthritis is what eventually made me ”a problem consult”. Maybe, hadn't I went through this road with him, I would be one of those who say it is all about the upbringing. It is not. Temperament is inheritable, and that is exactly why right kind of temperament is essential for a breeding dog. That is also exactly why you should choose the right breed/breed mix for yourself. Of course environment plays a part, too, and in this post we will have take a peek in what all makes the dog's character.
Genes
Genetics play part in what kind of a temperament a future pup will have. While some things in breeding are always gambling, there are certain traits that have been said to pass on easily.
Anxiety is said to move from parent to pup very easily. Some studies with people have shown a possible increased risk to fall sick with depression or develop anxiety if those diagnoses are frequently met in your family tree. It has also been reported with dogs; anxious, stressfull parents are more likely to have anxious pups. While some of the behavior is very likely the result of witnessing an anxious parent and learning wrong kind of behavior patterns, or maybe from the stress hormone drank with milk as some experts also suggest, some of it is simply inherited with genes. Our genes make us who we are, and if both parents are known to be anxious, or even one of them, there is a possibility that nerve structure will pass on to pups.
Fear is a result rather than a trait. It's a symptom of something, in this case a symptom of bad nerve structure, also called anxiety. Fear can lead to aggression, and dogs that show aggression when fearful are more likely to snap at you or bite. They may lack social understanding or simply be too nervous to really handle the situation and walk away. When cornered, they become very dangerous. Fear aggressive dogs can't be dominated to submission and trying to scold them or ”show them who is the boss” will shut them down and make them ticking time bombs. Or then they just simply attack and one ends up with a bite wound.
Dominance is something I address more in my post about pack hierarchy, but to make it simple, it's ”the born greedyness of the dog”. Greedy dogs want more resources and they have more will to fight for those resources. Dominance inherits, and there are certain breeds that are often said to be dominant. These breeds are more likely to compete about resources rather than submit to a following role and be happy with whatever they get. Dominance itself is not a bad trait, but combined with bad nerve structure it may cause trouble.
Aggression is a very easy trait to breed forward to, thus we have many breeds who have a sad past as fighting dogs. Aggression, may it be dog aggression (can also develop as a result of certain environment) or aggression towards everything, is, in the eyes of modern scientists, inheritable. Breeding aggressive dogs will create aggressive pups, and if we are not careful with temperaments when breeding, we may cause a real problem to the breed.
Back in 70s and 80s in Finland afghan hounds were said to be more fierce and hard to handle. Breeders say it was hard to find imports with good temperament. I remember seeing some pretty harsh in rings during 90s, too. Breeders in Finland tried their very best to change the temperament to a more calmer but more importantly less aggressive, and they eventually succeeded, too. There has been similar cases in many breeds, specially in breeds that for some reason become ”famous in one night”, usually because of a successful movie or something similar, and are bred in large numbers to answer to the popularity.
Nerve structure, dominance levels and tendency to behave aggressive are all traits that will inherit. Because our breeds are in general isolated groups of dogs, it is safe to say that the breed matters when it comes to these traits. Can you have a pure bred pit bull that is not dog aggressive? Most certainly there are some individuals like that, but most within the breed tend to be aggressive towards other dogs and that is something to remember. Can you have a Central Asian Shepherd in a small apartment and live happily? Yes, if you happen to get that one in a million animal that is nothing like members of it's breed are usually.
My point is, as these traits matter, so does the breed you choose. Depending on what you want from your dog, make sure the breeds characteristics match with your needs. And more so, when breeding, always mix dogs that have right kind of temperament. No matter some dogs are supposed to be bad ass and keep strangers out and their own family safe, you want those dogs to have strong nerves so they wont turn against those that thet are supposed to protect.
Toughness
No matter toughness has something to do with nerves, it's also not quite the same. It's more so about remembering nasty things and how much does it effect the dog's behavior.
In many temperament tests for dogs we talk about toughness. It the dog how tough or soft. To make it very simple to understand, toughness is the ability to forget unpleasant events. For example, if your dog during a walk gets scared completely by a child, next time it walks past the same place or sees another child it's mind will remember the unpleasant encounter that scared it. Tough dogs will not be afraid and they will not show aggression or anxiety. Maybe they glance around, maybe they hesitate during a step, but their behavior is not changed dramatically just because once here in this place a child scared them. Soft dogs will be nervous. They may be fearful, they may refuse to walk past the spot, they may show their teeth to the child. They are clearly still affected by what happened and they are preparing themselves to the nasty things possibly happening again.
The ability of the dog to forget unpleasant things and recover from them is called toughness, and the faster the recovery time and the smaller the reaction in future, the tougher the dog is.
Toughness of the dog affects it's abilities to work in certain roles. In most cases, a dog that's toughness is somewhete between somewhat tough and somewhat soft is the best kind of a pet. Very tough dogs can be stupidly courageous to the point of it being dangerous to them, and very soft dogs are afraid of their food bowl because it fell yesterday and made a sound (dramatic, but you get the point).
Environment
While genes play big part in what kind of a temperament the dog will have, so does the environment it grows up in. Specially the first 12 weeks are highly important considering socialization and balanced nerves. Even the best pup from best possible parents can develop issues if it's kept badly, if it has to withstand violence or if it's badly socialized. Fixing these man made issues can be hard, and it gets harder the older the dog is. This is something to remember when you want to take in a rescue, for example. If you don't know the past, remember that you need to prepare for anything. There might be some things you will find hard to fix, in some cases even impossible. The same goes with any dog that spends majority of it's life in inappropriate surroundings.
As much as you can boost the positive traits in your dog with training, you can also help to ease the effect of the less positive ones with training. If you have an anxious, aggressive and/or fearfull dog, using positive, humane methods that will not feed the dogs aggression or fear and proper socialization will give the dog tools to cope with it's challenging traits. The world is a scary, chaotic place for a nervous animal, and with training and proper upbringing we can give the dog tools and tips on how to live it's life as stress free as possible. And when I say we give tips of how to behave to the dog, I really mean it. We can teach the dog certain manners for certain stressful situations that will help the dog to get through them more easily. For example in my old apartment I taught Mr. Arthritis that whenever he gets anxious, he can go to the bathroom to lay on a black fluffy carpet and other dogs are not allowed to follow him. No matter it was me who had to take him there for the first times, eventually he learned to go there himself when he had bad moments. He learned it was a safe place and he learned that laying there he can be sure nothing bad happens to him and whatever causes him stress can't reach him. It did make our life easier, and depending on the day he spent more or less time laying on his carpet, calming himself down.
I taught him other methods, too, and as years passed, he has made good use of them. Of course sometimes I need to step in and stop certain behaviors or point him to a right direction, but having those small mechanisms to cope with his bad nerves eased his overall stress to the point his general behavior turned more and more happy every passing year. As a retired gentleman now, he is amazingly happy-go-lucky compared to what he was seven years ago.
Trauma can also alter the behavior. Leash reactivity is the most common issue created by trauma; a dog gets scared or injured by an unlucky encounter with free or leashed dog and the softer the dog is, the more this encounter will haunt it's mind when it next sees another dog when walking. Sometimes even one of these bad meetings can cause a major issue.
Overall
While temperament is a result of certain gene mix and certain environment the dog is raised in, with training we can alter it's behavior in many ways. We have to remember, however, that training only teaches the dog certain patterns and tricks, it doesn't change how the dog is. Deep inside, the dog has a certain kind of character and everything we do must be thought through remembering how the dog is by nature. What kind of a temperament it has. Will it pull through what I have in store for it?
With children we have long known we can maybe encourage them to do something, like for example ballet, but we can't ultimately decide that they will be professional ballet dancers. They will do that themselves. With dogs, however, we still live thinking with training we can make the dog whatever we want and make it work in whatever hobby we got it for.
It doesn't go that way. Dogs are individuals and no matter how much we might have wanted a certain kind of a dog, sometimes the dog will simply turn out different. In those cases, instead of making the life hard for both the dog and the owner, we should instead accept this is how our precious family member is. We can train it and we can do things with it, but we need to respect it's boundaries.
Love your dog as what it is. It didn't decide it's temperament any more you decided yours.
Mr. Arthritis didn't become my super agility and conformation show champion, but he did make a very talented trickster, NoseWork dog and a friend, the last one being the most important of all.
It has been a while since I wrote. This will hopefully be a one timer; I have been very sick lately and very exhausted, and I had a very important test to focus into. Now however I am back in business, sort of, and I have some time at my hands to write about a matter I've been wondering lately and done some research on.
Being an enthusiastic raw feeder, I've been looking at the vitamins more closely, and specially the vitamin E, that is often said to be the second most plentiful vitamin to be getting from the food. However, giving it some thought I've found myself wondering why would a carnivore with just omivore potential, specialized in the usage of fat and protein as energy source, need such high doses in vitamin mainly met in certain vegetables and plant sources?
Internet is filled with different ideas of raw feeding. If you browse through sources you can't miss certain repeating numbers, such as the generally high needs for vitamins A and E. If you look at those sources deeper, however, there are hardly, if any, proof or reasoning based on studied facts. There are some, naturally, and from those some one is able to gather a basic guideline explaining certain dietary needs.
- Wolves, the ancestors of our tame dogs, ate mainly meat. Wild meat includes very high levels of zinc, and if the wolf happens to get a hold of the liver, the liver contain incredibly high levels of vitamin A. Therefore, both the need for zinc and the need for vitamin A as well as the ability to filter some of the vitamin A out are explained with natural diet of the animal.
- Vitamin D is essential for the development of dogs and wolves alike, and both need to get it from their food. Wolves get it much less on a daily basis, but we need to remember that dogs are not wolves and they have evolved towards omnivore metabolism. This may explain why dogs benefit from larger doses. However, there is vitamin D in the liver and wolves do, if given the change, eat liver in high amounts.
By far, the high need for Vitamin A is explained with evolution and metabolism of the dog. The need for vitamin D is also kind of explained, and the requirements in general are actually not that high. One is very able to achieve said amounts with just adding some fish to the food. However, by far there has been no explanation on why dogs would need such high doses of vitamin E. We will dive deeper into the world of dog nutrition in a second, but before that I want everyone to remember three things:
- Nature is never optimal, so no matter many natural animals can go on with less, it doesn't mean they get the absolute optimal amount of vitamins from their natural diet every day. Many times, raw feeders aim for the said optimal, therefore feeding more than the animal would get when living wild.
- Nature doesn't create an animal that can't survive with it's natural diet, or that will fall in sick when fed like it would eat in the wild.
- Dogs are not wolves. Dogs use plant material and grains better (usually) than wolves, however being able to adapt to different food sources than meat doesn't mean dogs benefit from grain based or vegetable based diet. Many studies and real life examples show that dogs do best with mainly meat diets.
Lastly, no matter I have studied several sources, everything written here applies only as something I have read and personally found out and it is not to be taken as any ultimate truth. In general, I don't teach feeding. It is however my great passion, so what better than share the research with you.
Needs
People, as an omnivore species, have adapted to use grains and vegetables and therefore can extract vitamins and minerals from plant sources far better than dogs, no matter some dogs more than others are able to somewhat use plant sources as well. At the moment the recommended daily doses of vitamin E (in alpha tocopherol) for people are
- adult men 11mg / day
- adult women 8 mg / day
- pregnant / breast feeding women 11 mg / day
Vitamin E is mostly met in plants, though one can also get some from eggs. Meat also has vitamin E, but excluding fish the amounts are pretty low. Considering the metabolism and evolution of the human species the said amounts are easily explainable with our natural food sources. We CAN get decent amounts of vitamin E from our ”natural” diet, and therefore our need for that is considered believable.
Now with the dogs, things make a turn to odd.
Dogs are mainly carnivore. They can use plant sources and grains to some sort, but most of their diet in wild in the past has been wild meat of large prey animals. If we, for example, take reindeer as our example animal, the reindeer meat would have 0,8 mgs of vitamin E in 100 grams of meat. Therefore, a wolf eating for example 600 grams of meat would get 4,8 mgs of vitamin E. If we play some more and think maybe the wolf will eat some eggs when it finds a nest (about 2 mgs of vitamin E just to make it simple), we could somehow think it is probably realistic to think the wold would get >10 mgs of vitamin E daily.
The current recommendations for dogs are 400 IU - 800 IU, some sources say 100 IU is enough per day. That means even at it's lowest the need of vitamin E would be approx 100 mgs a day.
That is about TEN TIMES the amount of adult human male meant to consume foods that are rich in vitamin E.
There are many articles about the benefits of vitamin E for dogs, mainly cellular health, immune system boost, faster recovery from stressful / physically exhausting activities and helping to maintain good skin and coat. The positive effects of vitamin E supplementing to sick animals and people alike have been tremendous. The amounts supplemented are high, sometimes multiple times the recommendations, and their effects have been positive when fed regularly during a short period of time. However, there have been no clear explanations on why the constant intake of vitamin E should reach the current recommendations, considering we people as omnivore would naturally consume much more vitamin E rich food sources and only need that 11 mgs a day, even during pregnancy. Nowhere it is stated why a dog as a specialized user of protein and fat would need such high doses of vitamin E on a regular basis, as it is clear it's a benefit during sickness. Evolutionally speaking, it makes no sense.
For and against
People who supplement high amounts of vitamin E on regular basis, as well as many supplement producing companies, explain that the use of vitamin E based products is safe because the extra, unnecessary vitamin E does not store in fat. Vitamin E is a fat soluble vitamin, but some studies suggest our system wouldn't be able to store too much vitamin E and that the extra would be naturally disposed. The benefits of vitamin E, specially to sport dogs, combined with this talk in advance of supplementing E continuously.
The question is, do the dog need such high doses? While it is undeniable that vitamin E does benefit dogs, how much do the dogs need it?
As vitamin E is naturally met in vegetable oils, mostly, the amounts are not that high. Nature rarely has hundreds of milligrams of vitamin in anything. Giving the dog too much vegetable oils to fill the mentioned recommendations (it's impossible even, I tell you, if you don't plan changing your dogs water to sunflower oil) will work against the dog. The more there is fat in the food, the more the dog would need vitamin E to avoid the fats becoming rancid. The only possible way to face the recommended limits is using supplements, but then we meet the problem of unnaturally high amounts of vitamin without any explanation on why a carnivore would need such doses. In nature it would never meet even a fracture of those said amounts.
Where lies the truth? What is ENOUGH, not too much but not too little?
These days I am making sure my dogs get some mgs of vitamin E daily, gotten mostly from cold pressed sunflower oil, and I don't exceed the oil limit of 15 ml with the bigger dogs (this means about 10-13 mgs of vitamin E / day from the oil). If we calculate the need with 0,5 mg / kg, they get the minimum they need during most days, however I don't really think that is the actual minimum. Based of what I have read and studied, my personal opinion is that as long as dogs get some mgs daily, and as long as they live the usual life of a usual pet dog, they probably get enough vitamin E. Vitamin E defficiency is usually not met with healthy dogs, and this speaks in the favor of dogs being able to work fine without ridiculous amounts of vitamin E as long as they are healthy. Does the added vitamin E do good things? Probably it does. It is necessary for the dogs health to supplement it with such high amounts continuously? Probably not.
Most sources seem to agree that higher doses should be fed in regimens, and this speaks in favor of the continuous supplementing of vitamin E on lower doses. If the high doses are fed only during some weeks, and the dog goes without most of the time, probably, if fed some vitamin daily, it will do fine with lower, more sensible amounts of vitamin E. Like said many times before, vitamin E is fat soluble, so feeding high doses of it during a short period of time is thought to ”fill up the stock”. If you feed the vitamin regularly, it doesn't necessarily need stocking since the absorbing is continuous.
This might also mean that the dogs with less body fat, such as sighthounds, may benefit from lower amounts of vitamin E daily instead of higher doses here and then, as they don't have anything to store the vitamin in. Just a thought.
I am no vet, I am no trained food expert, so don't take my words as truth. Like I have said, my opinions are based on both read facts, dog evolution, dog metabolism and some natural feeding sources.
Dogs have been reported to have a very positive impact on the general health of us humans. They make us get up and go out, exercise and work, and they offer us love and affection. Many professionals also agree that they have a good impact on those who have difficulties expressing themselves in social situations, trust issues or mental health patients.
While it is still unclear how much would be the ideal amount of interaction with a dog, many specialists admit that a therapy dog leaves a good mood behind. Sometimes the visit just lifts the general mood, but dogs also have a calming effect on people with stress, aggression issues and for example ADHD. The latter has been proved in many schools that have a dog visiting a class every now and then.
Therapy animals and care dogs
A person in my family has certified therapy animals and she regularly visits people with her dogs and ferrets. I asked her a couple of questions about her job and their visits, and also how the dog seems to take the visits. She answered the following:
Most commonly we visit mental health patients, elders and physically disabled. There have not been so many children as patients, but they are often present when we visit our customers. Mostly the welcoming is happy and warm. People who ask us to visit are mostly people who can't have their own pets so our visit stands as a highlight from their normal routine day.
She mentions most people say the dogs make them feel special and loved and their calm behavior calms the customers down, too. The dogs seem to enjoy their task and they are let to move quite freely among the customers, meeting people at their own phase. When they come home from a visit the dogs are tired but content, and they don't show any signs of stress or anxiety. For them, therapy meetings mean getting lots of hugs and pets and treats.
It takes a certain kind of dog to work in these changing circumstances, meeting many kinds of people who can't always control their tone of voice, behavior or strength. The dog needs to be calm, collected, trained and well-behaved. Certified therapy dogs have a test they go through, where their behavior and their level of training are measured. It's not an easy task to go through. We also have a group called Kaverikoirat, working under our kennel club, that trains dogs for less severe cases, such as visiting schools, happenings and elder homes. Any dog that behaves nicely among people and other dogs and is social enough to enjoy the company of people can attend. These dogs don't have any special privileges considering places that don't allow dogs, but they are evaluated to make sure the visits always leave a smile on everyone's face.
The issue of "uncertified service animals"
Here, and in many countries around the world, the only kinds of service dogs are those that have a certificate. Certified service dogs are supposed to wear a vest and behave at any circumstance, always under control. If the dog is not certified, it isn't allowed in places where dogs are forbidden. Unlike in many countries where the service dog title is far easier to acquire (and unfortunately means many dogs called like that are actually not that well trained or fit for the task), here you can actually trust that authorities and professionals have both trained and evaluated every dog wearing a vest, and in no situation may these dogs behave aggressive or out of control.
It does, I admit, bug me when people talk about their dogs as ”uncertified service dogs” and explain their bad behavior with lines such as ”this is just a dog, it's not a robot” or ”service dogs are dogs, too, they have instincts”. Both statements are correct, but a dog used in any kind of service task, allowed to go in places ”normal” dogs can't go to, should be in control at all times, showing good behavior both at work and outside work. Saying ”this is a trained service dog” doesn't make any dog a trained service dog. I can call my ferret a trained service ferret, no matter the hybrid one would probably bite any strangers touching it. Those are just words, and without any certificate to proof the quality so to speak, the only real measurement is behaving well both inside and outside of duty.
Service animals should also be able to act without any ”help” from ”tools” such as E-collars, chokers and prong collars. To me, having a dog that can't behave when it doesn't wear a tool like one of these is not having a service dog. Teaching your dog to listen to you and not pull is the first of things to train to a dog, and any animal lacking the basic knowledge like this is a very questionable service animal.
Of course, there are different kinds of service animals, and emotional support dogs, as far as I have heard, are not required to show as advanced training as for example deaf dogs. It is, in any case, questionable to demand a passage for an animal that does not know how to behave, and as long as there is no test to proof the qualities of the dog, how can we make sure it is safe to be allowed in places normal dogs can't?
Another question is, does the dog NEED to be a certified service animal to make you feel better? No, it does not. A dog in general, whether or not it is perfectly trained, is proven to work towards your mental and physical health. They lower the stress levels, calm you down and make you feel unconditional, indivisible love.
Like said before, kindness is powerfull. Sometimes all you need is a loyal dog.
Socializing your puppy is probably the most important thing you can do. Many of new puppy owners will focus on simple tricks such as sit, stay, down when they get their puppy, and it is very true that it's easy to train a small puppy. The most important thing to focus in, however, is making the dog familiar with this surrounding world we live in and all the weird stuff it is supposed to tolerate without stress when it gets younger.
The thing to remember by the new owner is that no matter how much the breeder does work with the pups, the main work is left to the new home. The timing is also crucial, since from 3 weeks old to 12 weeks old is the phase the pup is most open to new things. It is called the socialization stage, and meeting as many people as possible and going to as many safe places as possible is the most effective at this stage. After this the pup will become a little less open to new things and warming up slows down. It may also start to have surrealistic fears, which is perfectly normal but may make meeting new people and getting accustomed to new places less effective and more stressful. The fear stage will pass eventually, but if one skips the early socialization and waits until the fear stage is over one misses the most sensitive weeks of learning in the beginning. That may have later negative effects on how the dog sees the world.
How to develop social skills of your puppy
Pups don't get their perfect vaccinations until 12 weeks or after. This means the pup is not welcome to most dog happenings and you should also be wary with meeting strange dogs in general. However, meeting familiar, friendly dogs you know are vaccinated and taken care of is not only possible but also adviced. This way the pup learns how to behave with other dogs. It has learned basics of this in a litter box with it's mother and siblings and possible other dogs of the breeder's family, but developing these skills with new safe friends is always beneficial.
Be sure that the dogs the pup meets are friendly. The time of getting to tolerate unfriendly dogs is not at this point. The pup needs to meet balanced dogs, so they can show balanced way of behaving.
Meeting new people is crucial too. Some breeds are more aloof than others, some pups are friendly from the start. Mixing shyness with aloofness is very common. A shy dog shows excessive amount of calming signals and stress when it meets new people. Aloof pup just simply ignores the new people or monitors them from afar at first. Wary dogs don't want to come near new persons in the beginning and may show signs of, well, being wary when they approach them, but this passes eventually as the pup learns these people are of no threat.
No matter there is a clear difference between being aloof and wary and being shy and having bad nerves, it is a fact that wary, aloof breeds are more prone to become nervous, shy and unsocial if they lack sozialication. This is why one needs to put some extra work in sozialication if one takes in some of these breeds or dogs.
Taking the pup to experience different types of surfaces or at least making sure it gets to know them at home will pay back later when the pup needs to walk calmly in concrete, grass, steel, asfalt, stone, sand. One can also train the pups ability to ignore moving surfaces by building small unstable platforms that are safe for the pup to investigate. Some pups go on these platforms themselves, some might need encouraging, but a small pup is easy to train if it's nerves are good. If they are not, it takes more time and effort to train the dog and one needs to be careful not to pressure the pup too much. This can also happen with strong, brave pups, but they can take more than their nervous counterparts.
The last thing to think is if there is a mall or some sort of a market place filled with people you can take your pup to. Make sure you have good leash and harness/collar, and make sure not to leave your pup too alone. Don't protect it too much, either. Carrying it around in your lap the whole time doesn't really teach it to face this environment by itself. Getting to see these loud, crowded places is essential for example hobby, working and show dogs who are supposed to be able to relax in these environments when they are older. It is beneficial for the others, too.
Tolerating variety
Dogs are slaves of the routine, and if adult certain color people of certain sex are the most they meet, they can act stressed and wary, even scared among other kinds of people. Dogs don't understand our social norms and what is considered polite and what is not. They will bark at disabled people, people that talk differently, people that are of different color they are used to, kids, elders, if they are not taken to meet them and be properly socialized.
One common mistake to do when raising a pup is bad socialization. Many people don't understand just how much it may take to make your dog experience new places and people and other dogs without fear and stress. This doesn't mean going to the market once or playing with neighbor's kids. This means meeting as many different people in as many different places as one just possibly can without putting too much stress on the puppy. After all, we live in a very odd world in the eyes of the dog. Many of the things we expect from our dogs is against their nature, and therefore we must train and help them to understand what we expect of them.
For some reason it is a trend within young people these days to ”hate kids”. These young people take in dogs and may be heard stating their dog ”doesn't like kids because I don't xD She isn't used to kids.” That is a poor excuse. As poor as that of parents, who are fearful of dogs, raising their kids to fear dogs, too. As an owner you have certain responsibilities and one is making your dog understand these small, weird human looking creatures that may walk in all fours or make odd noises are not to be seen as a threat. It is not optional, it is a must in today's society, whether or not one likes or dislikes children. If you don't have kids in your family or your friends don't have kids, make sure to take your pup near playgrounds, schools and other places where you are allowed to go with dogs and you are most likely to meet children. Tell those children how to meet your puppy, and let your puppy experience them. |
Mr. Hyperactivity and Ms. Dominance love children and they are very eager to play with them, poke them, sniff them and lick them. Mrs. Aloofness could care less, Mr. Arthritis doesn't really prefer kids either. Both of the latter know how to take their own space when they get tired. Mr. Arthritis may sometimes forget that, since his is a nervous, stressed character, and in that case I as his owner have to tell him to leave, go somewhere to lay and calm down. Stress is a poor excuse that he would go around snapping at children. That is not to be tolerated and I need to make sure he is of no threat.
In return, if you are a parent, teach your children to leave strange dogs alone and respect dog's own space.
The most unnatural situation for dogs and kids alike is when the dog is tied for example in front of a shop, it is alone, and unfamiliar kids go to pet it. In this situation the dog, even the one that knows how to give space, doesn't have any means to escape. Things can escalate, and therefore teach your children to stay away from strange dogs and always ask permission to near them.
Also don't tie your dogs in front of shops alone.
Positive training methods have been widely adopted by many trainers around the world in the past years. This is partly because pets have gained a more important role in families and the demand of humane training methods is growing, but also because newest studies show positive methods have a striking effect on how fast and how eager the dog, or the human for that matter, is to learn.
That's how it is for your dog. It is living in a world made for that big odd creature and the creature is expecting behavior that isn't always natural for the dog. Therefore the creature must teach the dog to behave like it wants it to behave.
I have talked about the process of learning earlier, and about how fear blocks learning. Therefore we don't go more into that, but talk about why positive methods are simply better and why certain tools and methods widely used in training based on negative reinforcement are not beneficial nor do they teach anything.
Learning doesn't happen on it's own
Just a quick example once more to show you the problem with training by negative reinforcement only.
The most common negative reinforcement we all have probably come across and even used is teaching the dog not to pull on the leash by pulling the leash.
Even writing that is contradictory.
How do you make the dog walk nicely by pulling and tugging on the leash? Why does the method ”work”? Well, the basic idea is pulling on the leash leads to nasty tugging and it learns to avoid pulling because it feels bad. It doesn't learn to walk nicely on the leash. Instead of learning to walk good because it knows it is expected to walk calmly on the leash, it only learns to avoid certain behavior, in this case pulling. This means for example that teaching it to work with you in canicross later can be terribly hard, because pulling has been a negative thing in the past. And if you teach the dog it is OK to pull in canicross, it may start to pull during normal walks, too, because it learns pulling, that has once led to nasty things, doesn't lead to them anymore.
Only that it does.
”Wait a minute. Why can I pull sometimes, and sometimes I can't?”
The idea of modern positive training is to train the dog to do the right thing, and this means the dog has to understand what is expected. It can't learn a behavior if it is not taught the behavior. Because of this methods like above are not encouraged, because they don't teach the dog any new way of behaving, they only simply try to make it avoid certain action. Obviously this method leads to a similar behavior with positive methods; the dog doesn't pull. It just doesn't really learn anything new either, and the negative stigma of pulling can interfere with possible future hobbies.
I admit I have taught my older dogs to walk on the leash by tugging the leash. This is exactly why I know it is a bad method. Teaching them to work with me in canicross was hard, because pulling had a terribly negative image in their head. I had to teach them to walk nicely with me again, with positive methods, only so that I could encourage them to pull while we do canicross. I had skipped training them to walk nicely on leash, I had only taught them that pulling leads to nasty tugging.
With my girls I used stopping when they pulled. I called them beside me or gently tugged the leash to get their attention, and we continued while they had returned to my side. This way they learned that fun stops when they pull, but also that fun continues when they walk nicely. They got treats for getting back to me, and they were far more eager to return to my side when I stopped than my boys had been in the past.
I admit I still did tug on the leash several times because the wrong way is imprinted in my brain. I did it no matter I knew it was wrong. Teaching myself to be more positive has been as hard as correcting the twisted behavior I caused with negative training in the past, because unfortunately many of the negative methods lead to results. They just do it in a way that is not beneficial for any later learning process nor to our relationship with the dog.
It takes time
It took you months to potty train and it takes us the total of several YEARS to learn the basics of what a human being must learn to function in this society. Just remember that when you start teaching the dog something and expect it to master it in a week.
Many times people justify their usage or harmful tools by saying they lead to fast results. That is right, but only partially; dogs learn to avoid things pretty quickly. It is a trait any animal, even us, have. We try to save ourselves from nasty and painful things, and electric shocks or pinches on our throat or squishing our trachea are all to be considered not so pleasant things to feel. However, they also learn to connect the nasty thing with the tool and many dogs that have been forced to use E-collar or choke chains or prong collars need to wear the tool every time when they are to be under 100% control. Otherwise they would not act trustworthy. This alone proves that they have not exactly learned to behave in certain way, they have only learned that while wearing the tool they need to avoid certain behavior, because then the tool does not hurt them.
They have learned no new behavior. They have not been trained. And if they are trained, then the usage of those tools is completely in vain. They are not needed. What is needed is time, because learning takes time. We can't justify unpleasant feelings or pain or danger with our own will to have the dog behave correctly fast.
Learning to learn
Teaching the dog to continuoisly avoid things to save it from unpleasant things leads to apathy.
Learning is based on offering new behavior and being praised about the right one. This is exactly the same with people and with dogs. In school we praise the children from doing the right thing, managing to find the result to a problem, not scold them from making a mistake that leads to a wrong answer.
Think about it; would you rather try to learn what the building-tall creature wants you to do when it gave you rewards, or when it punishes you if you accidentally offer the wrong behavior? Wouldn't the latter lead to sitting completely still, because while not getting rewarded, at least you don't get punished from doing wrong either? That is what happens with dogs. Dogs that are trained with punishment are not good at learning, because learning is a skill that gets the better the more you work on it. Dogs, as well as people, can learn to learn. While many people use both punsihment from the wrong and praise from the right action, the fear of punishment can interfere with the learning even if the right kind of behavior means rewards.
When the fear is let out, we as trainers are still in need of motivation for our student. Something to kickstart the will to learn now that it is made safe and offering new behavior only leads to positive outcome.
Some dogs are harder to motivate than others. The key is to find what motivates the individual the best. While fear blocks learning, reward encourages it. For us people the salary we get from our work motivates us to work. If we do things for free, the reward is not material but emotional. Either way, we work and in general we do things to benefit from it. Once more, dogs are exactly the same. While we are motivated by the change of buying a new car or a nice new pair of Phantom Of The Opera shoes (I'd do wonders to get one of those), dogs are usually easier and most are happy with a treat or a toy.
Some individuals, like many afghans, might need you to work harder to find their non-existent motivation. It is pretty safe to say, however, that every dog is motivated by something.
A success story
In the end I'd like to share with you a success story that hopefully helps to understand the power of positive training as well as shows that all negative things mentioned above caused by punishment really are true.
I have talked with this one young trainer I met in a web community we both belong to. She has been struggling in the past to find a proper trainer to help training her young, strong, energetic dog, and during her journey she came across many different styles of training.
”We told her our situation that [the dog] barks, lunges at every single moving thing, and that we cant take her to walks anymore, so she said I have to 'dominate' [the dog] and to show her her place.. we were never allowed toy rewards, just treats. The trainer suggested many people to use choke chains. She even said that they're better than prongs. So, whenever [the dog] tugged on leash, she said to pull her hard back with the chain and use strict tone.”
The person told me that they were told to use excessive force, and the trainer they went to even made the dog yelp by tugging her leash so hard. She said it felt bad to see, but since this person was said to be a professional trainer, they continued training their dog with the given instructions.
”This method damaged [the dog] heel so bad she saw ''heel'' command as a very negative thing, meaning whenever she doesn't do what humans want, she gets a hard pull on her neck.”
This is sadly a very common outcome with punishment. Dogs that have been trained with violence and force tend to act very tense and submissive when they perform, due to the negative impact the punishing has on the command. They don't work out from eager to be rewarded, but out from fear, and this often leads to stiff and untrustworthy performance.
”Since then we found the new trainer. The first times we only had individual sessions, as [the dog] couldn't focus at all around people and dogs. She (the trainer) immediatly saw our situation and what made [the dog] nerveous. She needed time to get used to the new training place, and even when we first met, [the dog] barked and snapped at the trainer, seeing her as a threat. So, she gave us many useful tips. Our previous trainer didn't even teach how to hold a treat in hand properly.
The trainer knew we had to fix our damaged heel command. We had to completely train [the dog] from the start, the new command being ''fus''. I was so happy now, because soon we stopped using the choke collar and only had positive training with treats and lots of play.” - ”We went to her many times and she gave us constant homework we had to do at home. Now that we used treats and toys and no choke collar, [the dog] didn't ignore me as she did before. We had more walks and she was looking at me more than before, because correct behavior meant big reward coming. She was happy to work with me since I didn't cause her any pain.
We have worked with positive training to the point I don't have to hold the leash anymore when we're walking. She has great recall, we can even pass people and bikes calmly without her snapping or barking because there was no tension on the leash. She is now free of the pulling and pain, which before seemed almost impossible, really. I didnt know that only such simple things can make her this happy to work with me and respond quickly.
Now, after a year since we went to the positive trainer, we can work in group sessions with many other people and dogs.
And really, all we needed was patience, time and effort.”
Inspirational, don't you think?
Do you have any positive success stories? Share yours in comments and pass the kindness on!
There are several reasons on why hitting your dog is not only unnecessary but also just plain dumb. Even so, many people admit doing so. In most cases it is used as a punishment for some action already passed, like launching on the leash or disobeying a command. Sometimes people explain hitting is necessary if the dog acts uncontrolled, to show ”who's the boss”.
Excessive submission is not ”being sorry and asking forgiveness so mommy/daddy is not mad”, it is fear. Unfortunately very many people, even after being explained that, still insist their dog is ”knowing it did wrong”, not being fearful.
Submission after being punished with physical force is not shame. It is fear, and everyone who has studied dogs and their behavior agrees. Whenever dogs correct each other with teeth, they do it WHEN the other dog is acting up, not AFTERWARDS. If dogs correct, if one can say so, afterwards, they are usually tense dogs and nervous dogs that get worked up and remain in aggressive, nervous state. Later, that nervousness erupts as aggressive behavior. We as human beings that have given ourself the right to own a dog should be above primitive stress reactions such as blindly punishing an animal from an action that has already passed. It trains the dog nothing but to fear us. They may work out of fear, true, but stop calling it training. It is violence.
Submissive behavior after being hit often includes extensive tail wagging, lowered posture and ears against the head, possible licking of face or dog's own lips and ”being friendly”. Dogs use these gestures to lower the aggression of the other part and to show they are not a threat. It has nothing to do with being sorry about misbehaving, and therefore hitting is not training. If the dog behaves afterwards, it is not because of training but because of remembering it got attacked by it's owner earlier. In many cases the dog is also getting a completely wrong message; it gets punished when it does the right thing and gets back to it's owner's reach. There is hardly any sense in that.
Not so fun fact is, only dogs that are prone to search human advice and have a will to please submit after being hit. Hard headed dogs that have no will to please often attack back or start to act aggressive and tense themselves. Many people using physical force claim their dogs ”need” that or that their dogs ”can take it”. They take it because they want to work with their owner and they are submissive enough not to fight back. Try that attitude with a strong breed, like a livestock guardian, and you'll lose an arm.
Train your dogs. Violence is a bad option when trying to build a relationship.
Rawfeeding has always been like a gold mine to supplement producers. Many rawfeeders believe in the power of vitamin jars and there are claims made to convince people that you can never achieve the required amounts with feeding. Since I disagree to a certain level, I will explain in depth what I feed, how that meets the requirements, and what I need to add from a jar.
I noticed certain changes in dogs that were positive, but there were some issues still I thought I wanted to fix. I started learning the matter more, asked some opinions from people who teach raw feeding, read posts made by self-proclaimed gurus, and finally came up with our current style.
I'm a strong believer in natural ingredients and that no animal is constructed so that it can't get what it needs from it's natural diet. Dogs are carnivore with some omnivore potential, and their genetics are not that different from that of wolves. This is also proven by the fact dogs and wolves can produce offspring that can further breed successfully. Dogs are NOT wolves, neither were they developed from the wolf species living in forests today, but even so many of their dietary requirements are similar.
Needs
As I listed before in a longer post, there are certain needs one needs to keep in mind when constructing a proper raw diet.
The most important vitamins A, D and E, all fat soluble, are ones the dog can't produce itself and it needs from it's diet. From minerals, calcium, if you can't feed bone, is a must, and so are zing and iodine. However iodin is needed in such ridiculously small amounts that feeding seaweed every now and then during a week meets the needs just fine. Therefore we don't list it here, though one has to keep in mind it is a needed supplement, no matter you go far with just 1 gram.
Vitamin A : dog needs 25 mcg / kg
Vitamin E: dog needs 0,5 mg / kg
Vitamin D: dog needs 0,3 mcg / kg
Calcium : dog needs 60 mcg / kg
Zinc : dog needs 1 mg / kg (optimum is often said to be 2 mg / kg)
We will use Ms. Dominance as an example here, because she eats about 500 to 600 grams a day depending on how much we are exercising. During winters 500 g seems to be enough, during our most active summer months I give her more if she seems like she's needing it. Let's now go with 500 grams, just for the simplicity. Also to be noted here, we have "different diet" days about twice or thrice a week, where I may boost some ingredients and tone down the others. These boost days are to balance out the overall diet, mainly the vitamin A and vitamin D.
We now know Ms. Dominance, using our numbers above and calculated by her weight, needs:
Vitamin A: 600 mcg
Vitamin E: 12 mg
Vitamin D: 7,2 mcg
Zinc: 24 mg
Calcium: about 1,4 grams
In 250 grams of pork/beef minced meat there is
Vitamin A: 42,25 mcg
Vitamin E: 1mg
Vitamin D: 0,75 mg
Zinc: 9 mg
In 125 grams of minced turkey there is
Vitamin A: 16,25 mcg
Vitamin E: 0,875 mg
Vitamin D: 0,875 mcg
Zinc: 3,25 mcg
In 125 grams of grounded whole salmon there is
Vitamin A: 3,875 mcg
Vitamin E: 1,75 mg
Vitamin D: 6,5 mcg (minimum)
Zinc: 0,375 mcg
In 12,5 grams of pork liver there is
Vitamin A: 1900 mcg
Vitamin E: 0,06 mg
Vitamin D: 0,11 mcg
Zinc; 0,9 mcg
From oils she gets
Vitamin E: 9,33 mg + 2,8 mg
Let's do some maths and add the numbers from all our ingredients together and compare them to the minimum needs of the day.
Total of 1962 mcg of vitamin A. Requirements are more than met.
Total of 15,8 mg of vitamin E. Requirements are met.
Total of 8,2 mcg of vitamin D. Requirements are met.
Total of 13,525 mg of zinc. Requiremens are NOT met.
So, by far we have succesfully debunked the myth of natural ingredients being unable to meet the needed vitamin requirements. Now, of course one needs to remember minimum is not the same thing as optimal, but maximum is not the same as optimal either. More is not more, necessarily, when it comes to vitamins. Fat soluble vitamins also gather in the body, so it's not necessary to meet the needs daily, as long as the longer over all picture is balanced. I tend to fill the minimum needs every day, but during some days we might skip some ingredient just for the change. When the over all diet is in balance, changes like this don't affect the dog in any negative way.
Vitamin E is a vitamin that is needed in greater amounts the more fat there is in the food and the more the dog exercises, so it's the only vitamin that could be given as a supplement. However, some studies show that vitamin E supplements have been linked to cancer. Adding vitamin E from natural sources is safer than adding it from the bottle. In supplements, should one need to add them to the diet, natural sources are a must. Artificial vitamin E does not work or absorb as well. I have not added any extra vitamin E till this day, but if it seems that some of the dogs would need it, I shall try a supplement with natural vitamin E.
Hobby dogs, as well as very active people, need more than us ”regular folks”.
With vitamins A and D requirements are easily met in a balanced diet. Herrin fillets work as a boost for vitamin D twice a week, vitamin A is high enough not to need any boosting at all. Dogs are able to discharge up to 60% of vitamin A they eat, and therefore from any commercial kibble, for example, you get far more than the required amount of vitamin A. It is often used as a preservative, mostly because it's relatively harmless even in big amounts (to dogs at least). Even so, I tend to keep one or two days completely free from liver a week, just to even things out. As said earlier, with fat soluble vitamins this is possible.
Zinc, by far, is the only mineral needing a boost. Calcium amounts are more than met if you use products with bone, but as I do not and the salmon grounded with bones is just and just there, I usually add a touch of calcium powder just to be extra sure.
Since the amount of zinc is lower than the minimum is, I use two tablets of good quality zinc product for pets, adding the total of 30 mgs of zinc. This means the total amount of zinc will raise from about 13,5 mg to 43,5 mg. That is pretty much exact the optimal. The reason why most sources recommend zinc to be added in relatively high amounts when raw feeding is because zinc doesn't absorb so well and it absorbs even less the more fiber there is in the diet.
So, with all above it is pretty safe in my mind to say that you CAN meet the dietary requirements with a proper diet. The fact we often can't fill the need of zinc is that we give meat and maybe bone, but not the whole animal. In whole prey there would be a lot more zinc, too. However, adding zinc is usually very beneficial for any dog, and as long as one doesn't go over the recommendations mentioned in the jar, it is also safe. The same can't be said with fat soluble vitamins. You can't really cause an overdose with feeding, unless you feed terrible amounts of liver a day, but you can pretty easily cause problems with careless use of supplements.
More is not more. More is dangerous if you don't know what you are doing.
Why to construct a proper, diverse diet rather than lean on supplements only?
As said above, it is safer. You can't poison your animal with proper diverse diet unless you feed your dog terrible amounts of liver daily. It is very easy, however, to cause poisoning with supplements.
As said before, some studies have linked vitamin E supplements to cancer. Whether or not one thinks the dog needs some vitamin E boost, always consult your vet if you are unsure. Same goes with vitamin D. Vitamin D is, indeed, very important for any dog, but something to remember is the symptoms of vitamin D poisoning are very severe and highly similar with those of a dog poisoned with ratsbane. There is a reason for that; the poison causes critical vitamin D overdose. So, it's not really a supplement to play with. If you are not 100% sure your dog needs a supplement like that, I'd suggest constructing a diverse diet or feeding 50 / 50 rather than just buying a jar of supplement and throwing some pills in the food.
No matter most people choosing to prepare their dog's meals themselves try their best to build a good diet, some rawfeeders have adopted a very simply way of doing things. I have heard and ever read that many people choose minced pork/beef and just add supplements to that, and to me it breaks the basic idea of constructing a natural diet. There is hardly any natural to add pills from many different jars or feeding the one and the same meat with the excuse of ”I add all the dog needs from bottles”. This might be true, but the diet itself is not that much more natural and organic than feeding kibble. It's just changing the dry ingredients to a meat bough from a trusted source. The added artificial stuff is still there.
This is obviously my own opinion and in no way I am educated enough to tell anyone they are feeding their dogs WRONG. I am simply challenging the idea of being lazy and choosing to use chemicals rather than paying some attention in the ingredients because I think going as natural as possible with as many good quality products as possible is the basic idea of constructing your dog's diet yourself. Whether or not you cook the meat or give it raw, feeding balanced, diverse diet prepared from quality natural ingredients is healthy and tasty, and you can't accidentally cause any lethal overdose.
I used to go about saying even the simplest raw diet is better than commercial kibble. I don't think like that anymore, but I highly recommend thinking about preparing your dog's food yourself. If you can't go all the way full custom mode, prepare one meal a day. If you choose to go all for it, remember to consult some professionals and be critical. The information is out there, and most raw feeders are eager to tell how they do their thing.
OK. So what are those quality ingredients, then?
Excellent question.
In Finland our meat producers are very controlled, meats are often free from salmonella or other sorts of malicious bacteria and it's relatively easy to find good sources for preparing a proper diet. However, I am aware in many countries this is far more difficult. I'd suggest always asking the source of the meat or buying straight from the butchers you know to handle their animals and products properly. You can also buy products meant for people, if their quality is better regulated.
When searching for the right meat, stay away from leftovers. Specially with salmon it is fairly common to ground only the heads, fins and bones, the leftover parts in other words, after the precious meat has been removed. Unfortunately the meat is exactly the thing that has all the good stuff! Grounded bones and heads have little to no vitamin D and they are good mainly for adding calcium and adding some oil, as products like this can sometimes be rather oily. I suggest going for grounded whole salmon, meaning the whole fish was used, meat and bone alike. This way all the good stuff is there.
Minced meats should always have meat in them. If the product consists mainly of lungs and trachea, it doesn't really include anything. Make sure the meat you use has meat, not only leftover parts. The more, the merrier.
The last thing I want to mention are oils. If possible, use cold pressed oils. They are darker in color and also have more vitamin E left. You need less to achieve the same results. Using oils rich in vitamin E, like sunflower oil and the way more expensive but excellent wheat germ oil, is more beneficial than using large amounts of lighter oils since this also means you need more E as there is more fat.
Leadership problem is a term widely used withing trainers, owners and enthusiasts. While there is certain method to madness so to speak, assuming dogs see their human as a leader is false and proven wrong in multiple studies. But what is human to the dogs, then?
What exactly is hierarchy, then? How does it work?
Hierarchy within dogs
Hierachy within dogs in general is way more complicated that was assumed earlier. Early assumtpions considering hierarchy are based on the behavior of caged wolves, and in closed spaces aggression is prone to increase as the tension grows. Because the resources are limited and tension levels are high, strong dominant animals behave aggressive while less dominant, submissive animals show increased and exaggerated amount of submissive signals, trying to survive in the situation.
When wild wolves were studied, it was revealed that the leading pair of wolves behaved far less aggressive towards their subordinates, and that the leaders changed their hierarchy based on the task at hand. It was also noticed that low rank wolves did, as a matter of fact, stand up for those higher in rank when they had food and their pack members tried to snatch it. This mechanism is essential for any animal that wants to stay alive.
Dogs, according to some new studies, have more stiff hierarchy than wolves, meaning dominant animals tend to be dominant in most situations, while submissive animals are submissive and follow their lead. However, dominance and high rank don't mean aggression and aggressive leaders are seen less trustworthy. Dogs that would be submissive in any other situation might be aggressive and challenge their leader, if their leader has not earned their respect.
In my own pack this is clearly seen with my oldest dog Mr. Arthritis and my second oldest dog Mr. Hyperactivity. Mr. Arthritis is skittish and nervous, and no matter Mr. Hyperactivity is naturally very submissive and kind, boys fought a lot and would still do if kept in the same room. This is because no matter Mr. Arthritis is oldest, dominant and prone to try to lead other dogs, he is not kind. He is aggressive and he can't be trusted. Therefore even the most submissive of dogs stands up against him. He does not deserve his status, so he is challenged. This is something to remember specially when one has dogs that fight. It isn't always the younger one trying to climb up the ladder and dominate more resources. It can also be that the previous leader is seen unstable and therefore the pack tries to dismiss of him/her.
To understand hierarchy is to understand where it is based on. The problem with old leadership theory is that it assumes dogs are born with a mysterious ”will to lead”. This is not true. Dogs are born with the same basic instinct to survive as any animal in the world, including us humans. To understand why some animals act ”like leaders” and try to control others is to understand what benefits this behavior has. Why ”leading” is beneficial for the individual, and why some individuals try to ”lead” more than others?
The benefits of leading are often having more resources and spreading genes in the form of getting to mate. In social species, however, specially in species that usually live with their close relatives, the survival of their pack means survival of their own genes, whether or not they are the ones reproducing. This is why wolves, and dogs, have false pregnancies, for example. Their ability to produce milk and their will to care for puppies that are not their own benefits their family unit. Their own genes.
While getting to mate is considered to be a resource, food is far more important for an individual (tell this to intact male dogs living in same household with bitches in their heat). Dogs also find toys as a resource, though this behavior is far less prominent in old breeds that are still closer to their wild cousins.
What is the connection with leadership and resources, then? Well, leaders get more things. Being dominant, meaning being more active in claiming resources and less active in giving a damn about what others say about it, is being greedy. Dominant dogs want more than their submissive counterparts. It is not clear what exactly causes the individual to be dominant and what makes it submissive, but the difference is there. The varying amount of dominance is what causes the hierarchy. Leader dogs are always more dominant dogs. They want more, and they demand others to respect that. To understand this is the key when trying to understand how leadership works; leaders have resources. Dogs don't want to dominate just because of utter will to become supreme world leaders. They are simply greedy with resources. Submissive dogs are not as greedy. They submit, being comfortable with less. They lack the will to get more than what they need, and considering they have all they need, they simply choose to give up to their more dominant companions. This lessens the tension in the pack.
There is no will to dominate persons or individuals. Leading dogs don't go around kicking their subordinates just because they are leaders. They claim resources. A pack consists of different levels of dominance. No matter dogs as social creatures also have emotional lives and they form friendships and likes and dislikes, the basics of pack hierarchy is based on different levels of dominance over resources.
This is only to make it simple to understand. I am not talking about emotions here nor the relationships dogs form with each other or with their people. As social animals they are able to feel affection, they form friendships and they can even risk their own life, and their resources, to save what is dear to them. We only talked about hierarchy, now, and how and why it is formed.
Where do we people stand, then? If hierarchy is based on dominance over resources, what does it mean to ”be a leader to your dog”?
Dogs with people
Dog as a species has developed ways to communicatre specifically with people, and they are born with natural talent of reading our gestures. This was proven in a test with wolf puppy and pet dog puppy. While puppies of wolves, no matter if they were raised with people from the very beginning, were eager to solve problems themselves and search food based on the scent, dog puppies were prone to follow where the human pointed, and they relied on their sense of smell after that in case the direction pointed to them was wrong. Dogs are also reported by scientists to react to expressions of people, and they were able to connect smile with positive things no matter showing teeth is often a sign of distress and/or aggression within dogs.
All described above is based on the fact dogs have been living with us for quite some time. It is beneficial to them. Dogs have evolved to work with us because this means they benefit from it as a species and as individuals. We are not ”part of their pack” as dogs. We are part of their pack as people. Dogs understand we are not dogs, and they don't treat us like they treat other dogs. This also busts the myth of you as a human being having to act like a dominant dog, growling over your piece of meat. There is no real need to ”bump up your dominant status” by performing acts that boost your ego. Walking from the door first, eating first, forbidding dogs from coming to your bed. Dogs don't see this as ”leadership”. You can of course teach your dog all that if it makes your life easier, but in no way does that make you more leader. You are not part of their pack as a dog, so you are not in their pack hierarchy as one either.
In a way, this makes things hard. If you are not seen as a dog, how can you ever be an authority to your dogs? Well, in a way you can't. Since you are not a dog and therefore you are not part of their hierarchy, you are never seen as ”the alpha dog”. You can, however, cheat a little bit. You can claim your place as the most respected one by controlling what those greedy, opportunistic dogs want the most; precious resources.
By controlling the resources you control a dog, whether or not it is dominant or submissive. When a dog learns doing a favor to you means getting some resource it wants, it will eventually start to live up to your will. The same happens with submissive dogs; they get extra resources by doing what you say. Your leadership over your dogs is based on benefit. Make yourself beneficial for your dogs.
Obviously, dogs as social creatures also understand the basics of respect. Demand respect. Your resources are yours, and you give them when you feel like it. Dog can't just come and take it. There are also some things your dog can't do, and you must be persistent when you teach it to avoid this behavior. Our relationship with our dogs is more than just ”I scratch your back if you scratch mine”, but it is important to understand why dogs try their luck as teens or why they are disobedient sometimes. They are not trying to climb over you and be leacers because they just want to. They simply want more resources, and when you control those resources and make yourself beneficial for your dogs, they are far more likely to willingly follow your instructions.
There is no leadership problem, because you are not a dog and your dogs don't see you as one. If your dogs don't respect you, in most cases you are not beneficial to them, meaning doing what you say gives nothing to them, they are afraid of you (they may do what you say but they do it without joy, just to avoid punishment) or they simply don't know what you ask of them. Make sure your dog knows what you expect from it, make sure it is praised when it does the right thing, and make sure it knows you are the main source of all good and fun, and it will do what you want it to do.
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Koko elämänsä koiria harrastaneen raakaruokintafriikin ajatuksia, pohdintoja ja elämää koiralauman kanssa.
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