Re: Dog healing through correct diet

Oh I'm with you. In part I was already with you a little bit even before you got with me ;) The informtion is much appreciated.

If dog was not domesticated but instead accustomed to a normal life in the wild, he would be eating other small animals AND whatever those small animals had eaten; fur, offal, their parasites and all. The practical reality is, dog had already been domesticated and accustomed to domesticated life by the time I rescued him. At that time I did not know much compared to what I know today about the modern ills of domesticated life (human and animal), diet alternatives, herbs, and that big can of worms we all get from the the collective FDA cartel. Just reading the bag that the dog food comes in, it's pretty clear that dog food is as you say "so much engineered junk" very much similr to what we humans get through our grocery stores and their repertoire of "food" and household chemicals. I suppose that instead of paying commercial bagged dog food, I could convert to going to the pet store and paying for some caged mice, rats or other small animals, then take those home, set them loose under dog's watchful eye so that he could have at least a chance to figure out that this was now his new primary source of food. There is a down side to all of this too; I'd be potentially facilitating a growing population of neighborhood rodents especially if dog is really slow on the uptake. I can see it now. I wake up, reach into the bag of live dog food, pull out a candidate rat, walk outside, dog looks at me with his now continual confused look, meanwhile, there is a gang of stray cats skirting the edges of the property who are looking at me with the kind of anticipation that dog should instead be experiencing.

All this being said, though, I have to consider the practical reality. I live in a small town bordering a city, so off the bat I'm not in a good place to give it a go in trying to convert dog to being an outside dog. To let him outside loose will provide its own source of potential problems and liabilities. To let him outside tied to a chain, in addition to the inhumane factor, will only add to this. I've seen the real deal in play at MH's home. His dogs have several acres to rome and forage just around the house, and several more miles of surrounding rural terrirotry if and when they opt to expand their roming.

There is the dog's present level of conditioning to domesticated life that I must realistically consider. It may border on strange and unique torture to try changing him now that he's mid-life. If he was a brand new puppy dog, it would be one thing. Hes an adopted dog, so a bit of an unknown quantity to begin with, that has since enjoyed a little over 5 years of domesticated life under my care. On top of all of this, it would be somewhat optomistic thinking to consider that I could just put him outside on his own with the hope he'll be able to figure it all out beore A) getting run over by a car or truck, B) captured by either the local dogpound nitwits OR the deranged neighborhood nitwits that are pretty much standard fair and in increasing supply roaming the streets in pretty much any community in America these days , or C)tangled up with other domestic animals already running loose in the neighbhorhood and D) sort out all these newfound variables on his own while also relearning how to stock and capture his own food, so that he E) ends up safe, sound and nourished all the while being able to recognize that his master did not spring this on him for personal reasons. The most likely reality is option F - continuing on with the same basic domestic life and making the best of that while dog continues to play out the remainging part of his life. Tweet