My Raw Feeding Journey
Raw feeding has been a game changer for my personal dogs, my foster dogs and my client’s dogs. I started raw feeding in 2007, when my two pugs, Dolce + Gabbana, were nearly a year old and started to develop some common, but expensive (for me) problems. I was still in college and didn’t have a whole lot of money to continue to throw at regular bouts of ear infections, dermatitis, and sudden weight gain that my vet wasn’t solving, just suppressing the symptoms. So I started to do some research on healing my dogs at home through natural methods and stumbled onto some forums that were discussing raw feeding. It led me to books by Dr. Tom Lonsdale and of course, the father of raw, Dr. Ian Billinghurst.
I dove into every book, blog and website I could that discussed how nutrition could improve a dog’s health naturally, and how to achieve optimal health without a constant need for pharmaceuticals. For me, I finally felt like I was on to something and could re-gain some control over my dogs’ health.
As a college student who couldn’t afford much, buying pre-made raw was out of the question. I tried doing a premium kibble with toppers, a dehydrated raw that I rehydrated at home and eventually I stumbled upon a Yahoo group moderated by two animal naturopaths advocating for a home prepared raw diet. So I dove into creating my dogs’ diet at home and by extension, holistic health and how it paired well with raw feeding and a natural approach to caring for dogs.
By 2008, I was feeding my two pugs (and newly adopted pug mix) a home prepared raw diet comprised mainly of raw poultry bones (i.e. backs, necks, drumsticks, thighs), ground beef, organ meat (i.e. beef liver + kidney, chicken livers, chicken hearts) and some veggies/herbs.
After transitioning my dogs to a fully raw diet, their dermatitis completely went away and their ear infections became much less frequent. Later on it was determined that some of my female pug’s ear infections were caused by her brother licking her ears too much. Once that behavior stopped, all ear infections stopped fully.
Both my pugs who had struggled with significant weight gain as they approached a year old, returned to their slimmer selves and never had any further trouble controlling their weight again. Their health stabilized on raw food and they lived amazingly active lives.
My pug mix, Kibbe, who came to us very young and skittish enjoyed a life free from illness and disease after switching to a raw diet. Her coat got softer and shinier and her gut health improved. Her demeanor changed as well and she seemed so much more relaxed after several months on a raw diet.
From 2007-2012, I became heavily involved with pug rescue. I fostered hundreds of pugs, often switching many of my long term fosters to a raw diet. It helped solve so many issues that rescues deal with like poor vitality, poor coat health, bad breath and poor house training.
The dogs that were able to stay with me long enough to switch over to a natural diet flourished. I saw their bodies relax, coats improve, house training improve, breath improve and even more rewarding, I saw their demeanors and behavior adjust and improve the longer they were on a fresh diet.
After my experiences in rescue, I wanted to work with dogs professionally. In 2009, I began working for myself as a petsitter, dog walker, and eventually dog trainer. I developed a pack-walking program where I took a group of dogs hiking each day to reconnect with nature and themselves and to also benefit from the natural socialization factor. I loved hiking and boarding my tight-knit group of dogs, but I did NOT love seeing what these amazing dogs were eating.
Despite me advocating for a raw diet with educational sources and scientific data, people fundamentally didn’t understand why their vet recommended a highly processed food but I was promoting a minimally processed homemade raw diet.
Around this time, I met my husband, who was also working with dogs in varying capacities. He actually took my advice and switched his dog to a raw diet early on in our relationship and we got to see his Staffordshire terrier’s chronic skin inflammation abate and eventually go away altogether. It didn’t happen overnight and we did have to use additional herbs to really get to the root of the issue, but changing his dog’s nutrition was a huge step in the right direction to solving his chronic itchy skin.
My husband and I eventually combined forces and created a small hiking club for dogs in Austin, TX called The Art of Dogs. We trained the dogs to be off leash and we took them hiking throughout the week. The dozen or so dogs that hiked with us were eligible to board with us in our home. Most of the dogs in our group started with us at 6mos - 1 year old. Unless they moved, most dogs would stay in our service until they couldn’t hike any longer. We saw first hand how food affects dogs their entire lives.
By and large the dogs eating a raw diet, getting regular exercise and minimal chemical injections/medications thrived the most. The dogs that were fed dry kibble, given conventional monthly/yearly meds and chemicals struggled the most with their endurance on our 2 hour hikes. The kibble fed dogs struggled with hydration, temperature control, energy, early aging, gut imbalance and depleted vitality from about 5 years on. After that, if they didn’t receive fresh food, we’d quickly start to see early graying, ACL tears, obesity, and other indications the body is deprived of nourishment.
Conversely, the dog parents that chose to follow my advice experienced vibrancy in their dogs that was undeniable. Dogs that were fed raw from a young age enjoyed smooth, soft and super shiny coats, easy house training, and developed into very attentive, focused and easy to train pups. All reported that overall health and longevity improved with a raw diet.
We eventually developed a raw food program within our business where most of our hiking clients also enjoyed a revolving raw diet built upon evolutionary principles where each of their dogs enjoyed customized and rotating raw meal prep every two weeks, delivered fresh to their freezers. We did this until we were bought out by an investor who now uses my formulations in their raw product line.
Throughout the years of building my previous business, I studied raw nutrition, advanced raw nutrition and evolutionary nutrition. I have 3 certifications in raw nutrition. I also completed a 2 year ambassadorship with Perfectly Rawsome where I learned a great deal about formulating to a variety of different standards (AAFCO, NRC, PMR). For the last 4 years, I’ve mentored with Nealy Piazza, a renowned animal nutritionist. I’m currently formulating a line of raw blends for a regenerative farm in central Texas.
Raw feeding has been part of my life for nearly 20 years. I’ve seen this type of diet help my dogs, my friend’s dogs, my foster dogs, my family’s dogs and my client’s dogs. I’ve seen it help when medicine couldn’t. I’ve seen it give dogs who wouldn’t eat for days a chance at survival. I’ve seen it completely change a dog’s demeanor and behavior. I’ve seen it vibrantly overhaul many dog’s lives.
Despite my love for hiking dogs, training dogs and just being with dogs, my passion has always been feeding dogs the diet they deserve. I just love giving them the best possible nutrition I can. We are what we eat and this applies to our dogs as well. My dogs are my kids and as a dog mom, I know what my dog eats will determine so much about his overall health and longevity. More so than anything else, I want to help other dog moms and dads understand how important their dog’s daily diet is and how what they put in the bowl directly correlates with their dog’s health and longevity.
I’ve taken all my education, knowledge, experience and passion and combined them to create a service that empowers dogs owners to regain control of their dogs’ health and wellness through evolutionary nutrition and a non toxic lifestyle.