It goes without saying that a healthy dog is a content dog. Wellness radiates from within and more often than not encompasses every aspect of a dog’s body, disposition, and poise. He commands attention; a glorious coat, rippling muscles, eyes sharp and bright with dynamism, clean polished teeth paired with sweetness of breath, all the while displaying a keenness and enthusiasm for life- vivacious in soul and spirit. Health is in the cells. Just as we have a need to nurture and care for our bodies, minds, and emotions, so too do our dogs have the very same requirements. Our canine companions are depending upon us, their human guardians, to meet their needs. Domestic dogs do not have the freedoms that wolves and other wild dogs have. While they may not have to contend with the same dangers of feral living, their domestic lives are just as precarious and the cause for the high mortality rate among the modern canine. When their needs are not properly met and nurtured, they are struck with discomfort, disease, distress, and a life less lived.

All living beings have specific needs. Your dog needs a healthful environment in which to be nurtured and developed in order to cultivate peak cellular health for optimal function and vitality. Our dogs are not blessed with the length of life that many of us humans are blessed to experience. For this reason, we cannot leave one need unchecked or our beloved companions will be with us for far too brief a time. Our dogs require fresh, whole, nourishing food; pure water free from fluoride, chlorine, heavy metals, and contaminants; daily regular exercise in a yard or area free from chemical fertilizers, deadly glyphosate, and farming pesticides; fresh clean air away from car exhaust, air-borne chemicals, and smoke-filled homes and vehicles; and most importantly, consistent loving attention and human bonding. The relationship between dog and guardian can become so powerful that these two hearts from two differing species become bonded as one. That age old saying, “man’s best friend,” is clearly an understatement. Nurturing and caring for your dog the holistic way has benefits without number, but arguably the greatest of these is the sharing of two lives well into the golden years of a dog’s life free from chronic conditions and diseases. 

It is our objective and purpose at The Holistic Canine to cultivate radiant health and vitality within the modern canine through nutrition and holistic health education, support, and personal services tailored to you and your dog.

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©2019 Kimberly Lloyd, PhD, BCHHP, Board Certified Practitioner

NOSE-TO-TAIL SPECIES-APPROPRIATE PREY-BASED NUTRITION

Canines are facultative carnivores meaning they require a prey-based diet rich in nutrients from raw meat, organs, bones, hide, and connective tissues along with a smaller percentage of nutrient-rich extras such as eggs, fish and other seafood, seaweed, algae, herbs, and even spices. Felines are obligate carnivores thus a prey diet should not be an option, but a necessity.

Providing a species-appropriate nutrition plan is a vitally important step to ensuring your pet cultivates health and remains healthy, is fully equipped to prevent chronic disease, and has the potential for experiencing a long pain-free and disease-free life. While there are many differing approaches to offering species-appropriate diets to pets, what they all have in common is providing pets with fresh raw food ingredients. Simply put, there exists no absolute “right way” or “one way” approach to creating meals. Taking a simple blanket approach will not work in the best interest of the majority of pets. The fact is, science will never know exactly what each and every individual pet needs, and especially not on any given day of the week. It is simply impossible to discover this as each day and season of a pet’s life will bring about differing nutritional needs based on their daily metabolic requirements determined by activity, exposures, environment, yearly seasons, hormones, special circumstances, stress, unforeseen situations, and on and on. The best approach is to provide a widely varied nutrition plan that offers a plethora of species-appropriate ingredient options and combinations that supplies a dog’s and cat’s body with the building blocks that they require to maintain internal homeostasis.

Sadly, many purebred dogs (and hybrids included) have a laundry list of genetic disease-predispositions that require a carefully planned and crafted nutrition and health care strategy that will prevent the onset of disease. A blanket approach or “this way only” nutrition ideology will simply not suffice. In fact, the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies’ recommended nutrient requirements for dogs and cats is a blanket one-size-fits-all nutrition approach. This is because the NRC requirements are meant to be a standard for the commercial pet food industry. In real life, there are (more often than not) situations and needs that will not be met by simply meeting or fulfilling standard NRC nutrient recommendations. Nutrition must be purposefully considered and nutrients made consistently available via easily digestible species-appropriate foods to meet the specific genetic and health care requirements of each individual pet.

One of the best approaches to a carefully crafted species-appropriate nutrition plan is to follow a nose-to-tail prey approach. What this means is that the focus should be on feeding dogs and cats everything found on and in a prey animal; in others words, leave nothing out of the diet! The Holistic Canine believes in and follows the ancient practice of feeding “like part” to nurture and initiate the healing of the gut, a specific organ, organ system, glands, bones and joints, heck….any and every body part. When the whole prey animal is fed, nutrition is ideal and complete. This can be done in two ways, 1) through feeding fresh raw food ingredients AND 2) through a whole-food organ and glandular supplementation program. Thus, every pet can have the best in species-appropriate prey-based nutrition!

Nutrition is our specialty and our passion. We serve each pet as an individual and tailor our services specifically to their needs only. We never follow a blanket approach nor do we have only “one way” of creating nutrition plans. We offer truly custom services for puppies and kittens up through seniors as well as pregnant and lactating dams. We specialize in therapeutic dietary plans for health crises and disease conditions. If you want an optimum nutrition plan for your pet, The Holistic Canine is here to serve you and your pet’s specific and individual nutrition needs!