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Dogs are born into this world with nature's expectation that they will travel 30 - 40 miles each day in packs to run down their prey. In fact, there are many laws against such behavior for dogs living in civilization. It is important, therefore, to maintain a regimen of regular exercise for your dog.
Dogs are long
distance runners. Wolves and coyotes travel in an area of about 50 square Km
each day. They are long distance runners by definition. They are
deep chested and narrow wasted as is any long distance runner. The
stomach and liver need to pushed up against the diaphragm by the abdominal wall to enable maximum
expiration, which allows maximum inspiration. The dog is born with and
needs to maintain a strong sinus arrhythmia of the heart rhythm. This is
"wired in" because of the great amount of blood that is being
"sucked" into the thorax on inspiration and this speeding up
allows the blood to exit the thorax and allow more oxygen to be exchanged during
these long periods of running activity. Thus, the speeding up of the heart
on inspiration and the slowing of the heart on expiration (sinus arrhythmia) as
well as a narrow abdominal waist compared to the chest should be maintained for a long life to ensue.
Castration and spaying are necessary for dogs to live successful orderly lives in our society. These two procedures cause extra accumulation of fat. The best way to eliminate this accumulation is to limit food intake. In fact, it has been shown that restriction of dietary intake can increase longevity by as much as an additional
100%.
Dogs have been studied for centuries by archaeologists. It has been determined that historically dogs have eaten grain for much of their diet. Recently it has been found that the longest lived dogs are those maintained on very low protein diets. Groups of similar dogs maintained on higher protein diets have lived significantly less long. Therefore, we recommend a regular protein dry dog food from a reputable manufacturer meeting the National Research Council requirements for dogs.
One such diet is Blue Seal Krunchies. This diet may not be exciting but is all that the dog needs and will keep the dog in good shape. Feed three meals each day until the dog is 14 weeks old and then feed 2 meals a day. At the end of each meal the pup should still be a bit hungry. Because they have a difficult time with training it is best with puppies to feed them shortly before a time when you can take them for a good long walk. Try to keep your eye on a pup and allow it to go out when it needs to. These times to go out are significant, but the pup's signal is often very subtle. Female pups are usually trustworthy at about 4 - 4.5 months and males at about 5 - 5.5 months. Before these ages limit water availability to times that allow you to take the pup out if it asks you to do so. After these ages the water can be left out 24 hours per day.
Even though dogs eat grain and
sticks and leaves and berries in the wild, there is no dog who yearns to go into
a wheat field (with the wheat ripe on the stalk for 1-2 weeks) except to hunt
the mice. Mice and vegitation are 70% water. Grain is 10%
water. Therefore, the most important ingredient in the diet is
water. The food fed to your dog must be 70% water. This is prepared
by mixing 2.5X the amount of water with the dry food. For example, if you
feed your dog 1 cup of dry food 2x/day (enough for an 80 - 90lb. dog), you
need to mix 2.5 cups of water with the food before it is fed. You
need to put the water in the food before it is ingested. We have found from clinical trials with dogs that the same dogs fed dry food and then allowed
to ingest water needed only 1/3 the amount of dry food from the bag if water was
added to the ingested diet when it was fed. This was indicated by
maintaining same body weight with 1/3 the amount of dry food if ingested with
2.5X the volume of water. The dog's stomach has no portion designed
for mixing of water and other ingesta as do other animals such as horses and especially cows. The
food enters the small intestine without enough water to allow nutrient
absorption and, therefore, 2/3 of the diet is wasted. In addition,
the slowing of flow of the ingesta through the bowel causes more
gastrointestinal work, adding to the possibility of constipation and "food
allergy".
Older dogs (more than 10 years old) need less protein. It is best to feed these dogs two times each day and to feed dry food at 1/2
the daily volume consumed before 10 years of age. Add to this boiled rice, 1/4 of that usual volume, and elbow macaroni, 1/4 of that volume (these can be prepared once a week and refrigerated). The final volume will be the same as in the past but its protein and salt content will be lower.
In this case add 2.5X the volume of the dry food as water, the rice and noodles
being about 70% water.
The shelves of supermarkets are filled with all kinds of pet foods. The reason for this is to entice you to entice your dog to eat. That will get your dog fat and lazy. There are however, canned diets that are good foods. Kenl Ration
or any brand name chicken dog food (such as Stop & Shop) are such diets. As is best for the omnivorous dog, these are ration diets, not
all meat. When you carry these diets from the store you are carrying 78% water which weighs 8 pounds per gallon. These foods can be fed alone and under certain circumstances, for certain digestive tracts, are the best choice of diet. It is not necessary to mix canned food with dry food in order to provide good nourishment and it is certainly not necessary to entice your dog to eat the food!
There are many types of dog digestive tracts. Some of these do not tolerate the foods that most dogs can eat. Be careful to watch your dog's stool; if it is not of a good consistency, a new food should be tried. Dogs should not be flatulent! Do not switch dog foods once your dog has eaten a 25 or 50 pound bag of food it's digestive tract is used to that food and that food should be continued. Dogs will not get bored with their diet unless you convince them that they should be tired of it. It is always better to eat to live
than to live to eat.
Puppies intestinally absorb antibodies from their mother's milk in the first few days of life. If the mother has been vaccinated recently she will have more antibody in the milk to be delivered to the pups. These antibodies dissipate over time, with higher concentrations yielding longer lengths of immunity. A vaccination schedule is set up to protect against various diseases by vaccination at the point when there is no concentration of mother's antibody present in the puppy. Early vaccination is meant for those pups whose mothers have not delivered much antibody in the milk. Vaccination against Distemper, Parvovirus, Parainfluenza, Hepatitis, Leptospirosis
Lyme and Rabies is provided. Rabies vaccination is repeated one year after the first vaccination and then every 3 years. If rabies vaccination is administered back to back 9 - 12 months apart once in a dog's life, all
subsequent rabies vaccinations are legally 3 year vaccinations (in Massachusetts) after
that. The vaccination for the other viruses and bacteria, combined in one injection, are repeated periodically.
Recent evidence has revealed that antibody levels are significantly maintained
to allow protection against viral diseases for three years at least.
Therefore, after the 1 year inoculation, we will vaccinate for the viruses every
three years. Leptospirosis, a spirochetal bacterium which is present in raccoon
and skunk urine only in Massachusetts and Connecticut, must be vaccinated
against yearly because the duration of immunity from bacterial vaccine is only
about 1 year. If your dog doesn't get into brackish, late summer, alkaline
pond water it is not necessary to vaccinate a dog for this organism.
Another spirochete, Lyme, is absolutely necessary to vaccinate against annually
because of the presence of small ticks, laden with the Lyme bacterium all over
this area. Lyme, discussed elsewhere on the site, is a disease of
inflammation. Experimentally most dogs exposed to the organism show no
reaction. However, 5% of the population showing the signs of Lyme will die
from Lyme. The vaccine keeps an animal from dying from Lyme, but does not
absolutely keep a dog from reacting to Lyme.Vaccination:
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