Medical research tells us that heath challenges result from any or a combination of the following:

1. Nutritional deficiencies
2. Exposure to environmental toxins
3. Pathogen overgrowth

While genetic makeup can play a role, research is telling us that it takes its cues from what is going on in the above three areas before expressing itself.

Pathogen overgrowth also is normally not a problem. But when health is compromised due to nutritional deficiencies or exposure to toxins, then pathogens are able to get stronger footholds and become a problem.

So, the best way to maximize your dog's health (or yours for that matter) is to minimize the potential for nutritional deficiencies and keep exposure to environmental toxins at a minimum.

For the remainder of this article, we will focus on minimizing nutritional deficiencies  because if you do that, then the body is much more able to clean out exposures to toxins and keep them in check.

Here's how to get your dog the nutrition they need from their food:

1. We hear all the time that humans should eat  less processed and packaged foods in favor of fresh, whole, unprocessed foods.  The same is true for our dogs.  They were not made to eat processed kibble day in and day out.  All research is absolutely clear on this.  Dogs need fresh, RAW dog food.
2. Dogs also are designed to get the majority of their nutritional needs from meat-based protein. Yet so much of our dog food is made up of inferior sources of plant-based proteins and carbohydrates, because plant-based proteins and carbohydrates are cheaper than meat-based protein.  The optimal diet for a dog is one that approximates the dog ancestral diet with at least 70% comprised of meat-based protein.

Feeding your dog a predominantly meat-based, RAW dog food diet is a lot easier than you think and is something you can easily incorporate into your normal food shopping and preparation that you already do for your family.

We feed RAW to our dogs and when we first started out, we had no one to guide us, so it took us some time.  We were disappointed in the information we were getting out of books written for loving and passionate dog owners like us who wanted to switch their dogs to a raw food diet. They were very general and missed so many details that it was impossible to use them reliably to provide our dogs with a nutritious and well-balanced diet. And this was book after book after article after scholarly source…we think we read them all.

But we figured it out and put together our RAW dog food video-based training so that others do not have to do the research and trial and error we did. Read more information here about our RAW Dog Food Preparation Video & Guide.

Or, there are more and more options available online and in local pet food stores to purchase pre-made RAW dog food. While commercial RAW foods are still not as healthy as your own RAW dog food, they are still a major step up from kibble. And if you do go this route, be careful to avoid RAW dog foods that use high-pressure processing (HPP) and irradiation, as they are no better than dry dog foods.

So, for the health of your dog and to maximize their well-being and how they feel, please stop listening to what anyone says about the dangers of RAW dog foods.  Make the switch to RAW now.  It is really a lot easier that you might think.

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