Is pet food actually POISONING our dogs?

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Dog food discovery: Rebecca Hosking, with a picture of her collie Dave, says she stumbled on a battlefield when she tried to find out what was best to feed her dog

Rebecca Hosking, with a picture of her collie Dave

In a nice change of pace, a major daily newspaper has actually published an article that is pro raw feeding.

Excerpt:

Vets tell you: ‘Live with canine epilepsy, not for it.’ Good advice, but much easier said than done. We went entirely the other way and buried ourselves in research, starting on a journey that would take us far beyond canine epilepsy.

A concerted internet trawl through scientific journals, veterinary publications and pet-owner forums revealed a huge and growing incidence of dogs with diseases of the joints, internal organs, immune system, eyes, ears, skin, teeth and nervous system; not to mention cancers, behavioural disorders and, yes, epilepsy. And, this being the internet, the suggested treatments encompassed everything from fancy pharmaceuticals to collective prayer.

There was one piece of advice, however, that cropped up far too often to ignore – ‘get your dog off commercial pet food’.

At the time we were feeding Dave what we thought was a high-quality dried food or ‘kibble’. According to the description on the side of the packaging, it was ‘rich in meat’ with ‘wholesome ingredients’ and ‘100 per cent complete and balanced’.

But the ‘ingredients’ section on most petfood packaging is notoriously vague and misleading. Manufacturers don’t really want you to know what’s in there. After some serious delving, I could understand why.

In all probability we had been feeding Dave the waste by-products of industrial grain processing, vegetable pulp (and possibly woodchip), a grounddown mix of non-nutritious animal parts, along with used fats and oils, possibly from restaurant fryers and industrial food-processing units. This mixture is preserved with powerful antioxidants banned in the UK for human consumption and linked to liver and kidney damage, stomach tumours and cancer.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1315145/Is-pet-food-poisoning-dogs.html

Friday Zen – Learning to Crawl…

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Babies and Frenchies – does it get any cuter than this, no matter what they’re doing together?

Share because you care – Vote Ten!

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Vote for Ten in Purina's Rally for Rescue

Vote for Ten in Purina's Rally for Rescue


From French Bulldog Village —

Come on guys, go to Purina’s Rally to Rescue contest and vote for TEN! When you see his story, you’ll see why he is leading the pack, with only two weeks left!  Ten’s survival was nothing short of miraculous.

Okay, so he’s not a French Bulldog.  Vote for him anyway!  This little Pug is one of the severely damaged little Pugs rescued every year by our good friend Pam Mayes, founder and president of Alabama Pug Rescue.

Last year, Alabama Pug Rescue won the Rally to Rescue Contest with a BOXER, Faith, who had been run over, and then  forced by her owner to nurse four puppies, while going through unspeakable suffering from a crushed pelvis.  When she weaned those puppies, her owner dumped her, still untreated, at a local shelter.   The shelter called Pam.  She  did not hesitate to take her in.

Pam is a huge supporter of French Bulldog rescue.  She has three French Bulldogs of her own, is an FBVillage volunteer, and is currently fostering our little severely handicapped puppy, Emee.  Emee says, she loves Ten too!

Pam does so much for our breed.  Please vote for Ten, so at least she won’t have to worry about filling the food bowls this coming year..

The contest ends October 1, 2010. Please pass the word on to EVERYONE you know!

A note from me: In addition to voting, I want you to do one other thing. At the bottom of this post, and the post on French Bulldog Village, you’ll see the “Sharing is Caring” social media buttons. Please, please – click the Facebook and Twitter buttons, and share Ten’s story with the world. I can’t think of another rescue more deserving of winning this contest, so let’s share their story with the world! And if my pleading can’t convince you, just watch Ten’s video. It really does speak ten (thousand) words.

Caleb is homeless…for now

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Caleb recovering at Kristina's house

Caleb has his new home!

Update: Caleb has a new home in Connecticut! Yay!

It’s strange how things sometimes work out.

Caleb, who I have written about here before, went to his new home on the east coast of the USA last week. We had thought this would be a perfect placement – Caleb would have another dog to play with, and with owners who already have a dog from us (Tula’s brother).

Unfortunately, it was not to be. Their male dog HATED Caleb, and took every opportunity to kick his little tiny puppy butt into next week. Sadly, his owners made the decision to return him, and Kristrina, who owns Caleb’s cousin Leah, made an emergency rescue mission from CT to NJ to pick him up.

Caleb is now in Connecticut, where he’s staying with Kristina and her family. He’s doing fine, but he’s once again looking for a new home. We’ve decided that it will be easier if we can find him a home on the east coast, within driving distance of Connecticut, rather than getting him back here to Toronto.

Caleb playing with Leah

Caleb playing with Leah

Potential homes for Caleb must have NO OTHER male dogs, unless you can prove to us that any male dogs in the house are very mellow and good with other dogs. Caleb is a very smart, sweet natured, affectionate little boy, and he LOVES other dogs (along with cats!), but he can be playful and rambunctious with dogs, so any other dogs in the home must be good with smaller dogs.

You must be within easy driving distance of Connecticut, and willing to pick up in person.

Caleb is lead trained, heels, sits and knows his ‘down’ command, and is litter box trained. He needs some additional crate training to be 100% house broken. He is stunningly well bred, sired by BIS BISS WKC Breed Winning AKC/JKC Int Ch Bullmarket Versace out of BPIS CKC CH Bullmarket Absolut Harvest Moon. He is being placed as a companion dog only, or an obedience/rally/agility prospect.

Caleb exploring

Caleb exploring

Photos of Caleb can be seen via my blog, or on Kristina’s flickr account.

If you are interested in Caleb, please phone his co breeder, Paula Roberts, at 519-848-5973

I am very emotionally invested in Caleb, and especially after this failed home, I’m going to be watching like a hawk to make sure any home he ends up in is a home that *deserves* such a special little guy!! I’m having to stop myself emotionally from just insisting that he comes back here, to us. If Sean had his way, he’d already be in the car driving to Connecticut.

Have I mentioned lately that being a breeder sucks?

It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day!

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Dread Pirate Lola

Dread Pirate Lola, French Bulldog scourge of the high seas.

It’s September 19th, and everyone knows what that means – it’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

At FrogDog Blog, our official Mascot for ITLAPD is Dread Pirate Lola. In honor of her, and of Talk Like a Pirate Day, we’ve translated the entire front page of our website into Pirate Speak.

Enjoy! Oh, and in honor of ITLAPD, we ask that before leaving any comments, you translate them into Pirate Speak. Here’s a handy on line translator. Grateful thanks to ye, ye blasted scurvy dogs!