Nutrition

Nutrition & Wellness

We find that a healthy dog, fed a raw diet is not an attractive host to parasites and therefore, live a much healthier and longer life.  If you want to improve your dog’s health and extend their life, please review the following where we advocate a minimal vaccine protocol, the Volhard Dog Nutrition (VDN) raw diet and annual testing conducted by Hemopet.org where you can enrich your dog’s life through diagnostic testing.  Feeding the Volhard Dog Nutrition raw diet and conducting routine Hemopet.org diagnostic testing is more expensive than kibble feeding, but taking your dog to the vet only when they are symptomatic may be late in the game for many illnesses.  Annual diagnostic testing can identify potential health issues years before they would ever physically manifest with your dog displaying symptoms.  Getting out ahead of illnesses and disease is the key to a healthy and happy dog.

After his retirement as a Special Agent with the U.S. Secret Service, Rick rescued a Belgian Malinois, Bella, and that is where his dog nutritional journey began. In 2012, Bella became violently ill as a result of recalled “high-end” kibble during a cross country RV trip to train with Cesar Millan, The Dog Whisperer. Thus began Rick’s long-term relationship with Wendy Volhard and Volhard Dog Nutrition products. Later on, a Hemopet/Hemolife scan revealed that Bella’s liver enzyme levels were severely (five times the upper limit) above the reference range and her condition was quickly reversed with Dr. Dodd’s Liver Cleanse Diet and herbal supplements alone. After that, Rick was sold and it became quite clear to him that “you are what you eat” and a healthy diet for a dog was the key to increased longevity, reduced behavioral issues, and the overall wellness in both body and mind, resulting in a happy dog and a beautiful relationship.  Bella was highly trained and very obedient, but would head for the hills every month when I pulled out the Frontline or K9 Avantix topical solution.  Clearly she was trying to tell me that she didn’t like this poison! 

Sadly, in 2017, Rick’s heart dog; Bella, was diagnosed with Stage IV Lymphoma wherein she was given days to weeks to live. Thankfully after a call with Wendy Volhard, Founder, Volhard Dog Nutrition, Rick got quite an education in the use of Integrative Veterinary Care. Therapies included: acupuncture, holistic and herbal therapy, homeopathy, nutrition, ozone therapy and the use of CBD oil and tinctures. Thanks to these efforts, Bella enjoyed four months of happy living before peacefully passing at home in Rick’s lap.

I have since switched to a holistic approach for heartworm (HWF Clean Heart by Amber Technologies) and dog safe essential oils for flea and tick control along with VDN Vitamin B Complex Supplement with each meal.  Tia is aging (over 9) and I use VDN Digestive Enzymes Supplement (contain prebiotics and probiotics) with her meals to aid in processing and breaking down her food for better absorption of nutrients. Volhard digestive enzymes contain pancreatin, a powerful enzyme that helps the pancreas perform its function.

Everyone comments on the softness of Tia and Ace’s coats and their overall healthy appearance.  30% of the protein in a dog’s diet goes toward skin and coat and my dogs are on a high protein low carb (14%) raw diet. 

Although research is still in its infancy, there is promising evidence that a raw diet can drastically improve canine cognition and mental health, leading to improved behavior and an overall higher quality of life.  Additionally, studies show that dogs who are fed a raw diet live up to 3 years longer than kibble fed dogs. Skin disease in canines has been linked to metabolic health and raw diets are beneficial for the metabolic health of canines.

Feed Your Dog a Raw Diet

BEST

With the AM Porridge / PM Crumble Volhard Dog Nutrition (VDN) raw diet, you are able to use seasonal vegetables in the AM Mix along with plain yogurt and water.  In the PM Mix, you can rotate proteins based on your dogs needs (warmer or rolling proteins) along with water.  By adding your own vegetables, you can feed seasonal available veggies and proteins.  YOU are in control of your dog’s diet and you can easily ensure that your dog is getting an appropriately balanced diet that is time tested, simple and worry free.

Better

The NDF2 Product is by far the easiest raw diet where you just add water and protein (80/20 ground beef) and stir.  As a busy dog trainer, this is the diet that I choose since it’s as easy as 1-2-3.

Good

If you feed your dog a high quality kibble, you will still need Endurance, a kibble booster that adds back in the vitamins, minerals and nutrients that are baked out of kibble during processing. 

Volhard Dog Nutrition Supplements

Click the logo to order from volhard

Hemopet/Hemolife

Hemopet/Hemolife is dedicated to providing the highest quality laboratory diagnostic work and expert interpretation of data. This service is available to veterinarians worldwide and to individual animal owners through their veterinarian. Hemolife is unique in routinely offering expert clinical interpretive diagnostic comments that take into account the age, sex, and breed type, and activity of the animal; this yields an expected normal reference range for an individual pet (termed the “Case Specific” range on our reports) that differs from the generic broad reference range for the species (termed “General Range” on our reports). Hemolife has participated in the regular Endocrinology Proficiency Testing from the Veterinary Laboratory Association Quality Assurance Program (VLA-QAP) since 2008. Results of each sample are reviewed and reported by the Hemolife staff on our unique Cloud-Based computer technology Laboratory Information System (LIS). They are then personally reviewed and interpreted by Dr. Jean Dodds and two trained veterinary colleagues, Drs. Andrew Zuckerman and Gary Richter. If further consultations are required for these cases, veterinarians or pet owners can discuss the case with Dr. Dodds and Staff at no additional charge.