The Pup

Our dog was born about the same time as our 14-yr old son. The baby boy would curl up inside the curled up dog and they would sleep together like that. So my son doesn't know what it's like to have his dog pass on. Well, we thought that time was coming pretty near. The pup has tumors hanging from his chest and his hind ankles are weak so he had for the most part stopped walking and he was starting to look pear-shaped. Due to the difficulty of moving him around, and other things, we had gone a while without washing him. So here's this bleeding, bloated, grundgey dog who just sleeps and eats and we were preparing for a new phase. But then I decided to 100% take him off of dog food. He lost his fat middle. Then I gave him a bath. Wow. New dog. Now he is walking around more and he looks, smells and feels great to the touch. Here's what he eats now days: Twice a day, at the same times, 5 or 6 oz of raw chicken or beef, bones and all (please don't come and arrest me), an occasional raw beef soup bone for the teeth, Melaleuca dog treats, 16 oz. of fresh (what most people call raw) organic milk with about 4 tb of Gayelord Hauser brewers yeast mixed in (which he really loves), sometimes a baked sweet potato, sometimes some eggs, raw or otherwise, an occasional peanut butter or cheese treat. He is an 80-lb Black Lab / Pitt Bull mix. The Gayelord Hauser is imported by Modern Products, Inc., Mequon, WI, 53092, www.modernfearn.com. On this new fare, he acts a lot more content and satisfied after his meals, even though he still would eat more if you gave it to him. But I don't give him more. There isn't anything in this list that he doesn't really love, and there isn't anything I know of off this list he does love. Oh, and sometimes he likes to have a nice little carrot. Whoops, oh yes - he also likes fish of any sort. He gets that too. He has never had any hip problems. It may be due to most of his life we fed him solid gold dry dog food which is supposed to be good for that. His first few years, he was highly allergic to corn, rice, etc. But in recent years, having less income, we found he could eat anything and not have a skin problem so we were feeding him just any cheap dog food for a while. At first when I took him off, I was feeding him anything I could think of that was not dog food, so I was making him a shake in the blender that included grollet. But then I asked myself why am I feeding my dog un-digested grain? I'm not a dog food company! And I stopped doing it. He sort of likes grollet, but unless I blend it up, it just goes right through him. I don't give him any anymore. It amazes me that even at his age now, no matter how much tartar he gets on his teeth, or where he gets it, all I have to do is give him one bone and it's all cleaned off. So he's never had a tooth problem either. Good dog, Shea. Other than the normal amount of play, eating and sleeping, this dog has throughout his life been fixated on one or two things: bunching up into one ball with the whole family (which includes family prayer - he has become very reverent and pious), and finding new people that could potentially pet him. I find that rather interesting because I know some dogs who are equally fixated on spending their waking hours looking for another dog or a person to challenge and attack. We have a couple of those next door. It is especially interesting because our dog was a rescue, having been caged and abused his first 6 months or so. We buy a half a side of grass fed beef every other year. I forgot to order it this last time, but normally, we ask for the stuff they normally throw away, for the dog.