The Unknown Side Effects of a Premium Holistic Dog Food
About a year ago, a friend of mine was moving to the other side of the country and asked me to take care of his best friend “Buddy”, a two-year-old boxer with a very sweet disposition. Buddy would stay with me for up to 3 months. My friend loved this dog, he almost loved him to death. Because Buddy was literally his best friend, my friend was constantly smothering this dog with affection, giving Buddy no exercise, rules, or limits. This resulted in Buddy becoming an extremely neurotic and insecure dog with acute separation anxiety and self-destructive chewing habits.
He foamed and refused to eat when left alone and seemed to live in a constant state of worry and fear. As my friend’s work schedule had become more irregular recently, Buddy’s vet had prescribed sedatives to control his anxiety and neurotic behavior. The pills worked to an extent, but they left Buddy listless and in a constant stupor without much personality. To make matters worse, my friend tended to overcompensate for Buddy’s anxiety by feeding him hearty servings of commercial canned dog food topped with some kind of “animal by-product” treat at every meal.
So between his diet, lack of exercise, medications, and anxieties, Buddy suffered from constant diarrhea and weight loss no matter how much he ate. He was not a happy dog, but my friend just tried to handle problems, not solve them. I had cared for Buddy for shorter periods before and could manage his behavior by programming my whole life around him. However, he wouldn’t be able to do that this time.
A couple of days after Buddy arrived, I decided that if I had to help the dog, it was because of some tough love. I immediately put Buddy on a regular routine of lessons in obedience (to establish discipline and structure in his life), behavior conditioning (to help him overcome some of his anxieties and neurotic behaviors), exercise, and a high-quality diet (for his general health and well-being). to help you gain weight and improve your digestion).
We have had our dogs on a holistic food for years and have always found it to be affordable, great for our dogs’ overall health, energy levels, and weight maintenance. Since we knew our preferred food was nutritionally complete and did not contain any of the dubious fillers, preservatives, and by-products found in most commercial dog foods, and since the food was guaranteed to be fresh, we’d be sure Buddy he would have at least a solid foundation for his rehabilitation. What we didn’t realize was how quickly we would see improvements in her health.
After just 3 days of putting Buddy on this new food, his digestion had completely improved, no more diarrhea. Her energy levels were elevated and she was gaining much-needed weight. After just 2 weeks, we started to take her medication off and at that point we noticed something noticeable. Although his energy level and fitness were increasing due to his diet and exercise, at the same time he was becoming calmer and less anxious. He was now fit enough to chase balls all day, but he stopped chewing on his box and was more focused during his obedience training sessions.
After a month, Buddy was no longer foaming at the mouth when left alone and his other anxieties had decreased significantly. Because he was calm and less anxious, his obedience training progressed more quickly. When Buddy came back to my friend, he was not taking any medication and almost a year later, Buddy is doing very well. He is now maintaining his proper weight, attends doggy daycare a few times a week, and most importantly, is a happy, well-adjusted, and lovable dog who no longer gets anxious when left alone.