The Dogs and Diet
Just finished Ebony's first group agility class, and it went great! I can't believe that I can let this dog off-leash around other dogs in an exciting atmosphere, have them come shooting around right next to us, and still have her pay attention to ME. I never thought I'd see the day. She's really enjoying agility, and that's what I care about!
Ben is doing well too. He's really turned a corner the last week or two and is starting to truly settle in. His self-control has grown immensely, and he's even becoming a real snuggle-bug, which of course, we love. He's now been with us for a little over two months.
Poor Indie is having a rough time with his allergies. We're going to finally make the jump to try raw diet, and I'm going to pick up our starter food/ingredients this afternoon. We've been playing with diet like crazy, have been doing homeopathic treatments, home cooked food, but it's like Katie all over again. Katie's issues were digestive, Indie's are primarily skin related, but the associated hassle to get them balanced is the same. This dog is not even two years old yet -- he is just too darn young to be so unhealthy. We'll be trying desperately to work alternative options for healing, because I'm quite convinced that Western medicine only helps for treatment and management of these problems while doing nothing to actually correct these problems. Kate was on prednisone for the last couple years, but that was an acceptable trade-off for an old dog. I'll be damned if we put a 2-year old on steroids without trying everything everything else we can think of first.
I can't help but think that all of these learnings could benefit my own health someday. Oh wait.. they already have. Whole Dog Journal has had more positive impact on my recent dietary improvements than any human-based information source I've ever seen. And the more I experience how my dogs are visibly and immediately impacted by changes to diet, supplements, stress or other health factors, the more sensitive I become to such changes in my own life.
I recently made the decision to cut out two major things from my diet: high fructose corn syrup and partially-hydrogenated oils. I was motivated to choose those particular two by a friend who'd done the same, making the observation that simply cutting those two things knocks out a substantial spectrum of mystery foods and things that are truly bad for us. I also try to skip anything that's fried or processed and steer toward whole ingredients, i.e. if you can't describe where it comes from, you probably don't want to know. It's probably been 1-2 months now and early results are that I absolutely have more energy when I'm keeping up on it, and when I do end up eating crap food (like at a two-day meeting I had this week, where I had greasy quesadillas Wednesday and pizza Thursday), I know it. My skin knows it, my insides know it, my energy level knows it. Once doesn't seem to be a big deal but two or more meals in close proximity and my body starts recognizing the difference. I'm sure it's no big surprise, but I also notice that I'm about 5 times as likely to eat more than necessary when eating crap food than when eating healthy food, even when the healthy food is extremly yummy. Or maybe it's just that overeating on crappy food sits in my stomach a lot heavier, I don't know. But I'm happy about the changes, and I just need to keep them up.
Ben is doing well too. He's really turned a corner the last week or two and is starting to truly settle in. His self-control has grown immensely, and he's even becoming a real snuggle-bug, which of course, we love. He's now been with us for a little over two months.
Poor Indie is having a rough time with his allergies. We're going to finally make the jump to try raw diet, and I'm going to pick up our starter food/ingredients this afternoon. We've been playing with diet like crazy, have been doing homeopathic treatments, home cooked food, but it's like Katie all over again. Katie's issues were digestive, Indie's are primarily skin related, but the associated hassle to get them balanced is the same. This dog is not even two years old yet -- he is just too darn young to be so unhealthy. We'll be trying desperately to work alternative options for healing, because I'm quite convinced that Western medicine only helps for treatment and management of these problems while doing nothing to actually correct these problems. Kate was on prednisone for the last couple years, but that was an acceptable trade-off for an old dog. I'll be damned if we put a 2-year old on steroids without trying everything everything else we can think of first.
I can't help but think that all of these learnings could benefit my own health someday. Oh wait.. they already have. Whole Dog Journal has had more positive impact on my recent dietary improvements than any human-based information source I've ever seen. And the more I experience how my dogs are visibly and immediately impacted by changes to diet, supplements, stress or other health factors, the more sensitive I become to such changes in my own life.
I recently made the decision to cut out two major things from my diet: high fructose corn syrup and partially-hydrogenated oils. I was motivated to choose those particular two by a friend who'd done the same, making the observation that simply cutting those two things knocks out a substantial spectrum of mystery foods and things that are truly bad for us. I also try to skip anything that's fried or processed and steer toward whole ingredients, i.e. if you can't describe where it comes from, you probably don't want to know. It's probably been 1-2 months now and early results are that I absolutely have more energy when I'm keeping up on it, and when I do end up eating crap food (like at a two-day meeting I had this week, where I had greasy quesadillas Wednesday and pizza Thursday), I know it. My skin knows it, my insides know it, my energy level knows it. Once doesn't seem to be a big deal but two or more meals in close proximity and my body starts recognizing the difference. I'm sure it's no big surprise, but I also notice that I'm about 5 times as likely to eat more than necessary when eating crap food than when eating healthy food, even when the healthy food is extremly yummy. Or maybe it's just that overeating on crappy food sits in my stomach a lot heavier, I don't know. But I'm happy about the changes, and I just need to keep them up.
posted by Erica at
7:44 AM
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