Reward's Boxers
Natural Rearing
| I have been studying and practicing "Natural Rearing" methods for close to 20 years. Clear back in the 80's I questioned the logic of any dog food meeting all the nutritional requirements of any dog. I tried various dog foods, some with poor results and others seem to be just fine. But along the way I just couldn't reconcile the stuff that came in bags to what a wolf or other wild canis would eat. So I started playing around with home prepared diets. I purchased Donald R. Collins, DVM, The Collins Guide to Dog Nutrition as my first reference book on designing diets for my dogs. These diets were brown rice, veggies and meat, with various supplements added. The meat I got from Trader Joe's meat market (yes, they used to have meat markets with real, live butchers). It stank but the dogs loved it. Thru the years I have read many books on the subject and tried various diets, including brown rice, oatmeal, ground meat scraps from Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market (formerly Mrs. Gooch's), vegetables, eggs, tofu, dairy products, etc. In the early days, I cooked everything. In addition, I questioned the need for multiple vaccinations and have never been enamoured of the the Parvo vaccines. When Parvo first hit, the vaccine sometimes was as bad as the disease. Vaccinated dogs went blind, sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently. Bitches that had not previously had whelping problems were producing puppies with water on the brain and other defects. And this vaccine has never been particularly effective, not even today. When I started breeding Boxers in the early 80's I made a decision. I wanted to breed "naturally" healthy dogs, dogs that were not dependent on vaccines (at that time I didn't know that vaccines could CAUSE disease) to stay healthy, dogs that had "naturally" strong immune systems that could ward off disease, infections and didn't go haywire and cause allergies, arthritis and other auto-immune diseases. Any dog that I was considering as a breeding prospect had to be healthy, naturally healthy. Dogs that had chronic ailments, whether they be considered genetic or not, dogs that were thyroid deficient (a common problem in boxers), dogs that had digestive problems, were finicky eaters (poor survival behavior) were all not considered for breeding. My search for clues and keys to raising naturally healthy dogs led me to many resources and concepts. Below I have listed some of the "Natural Rearing" resources and concepts that I have found particularly helpful. |
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Marina Zacharias of Ambricon Enterprises. Marina has a wealth of knowledge. She has provided information, guidance, support and products that have aided me in practicing "Natural Rearing" methods. One example that stands out in my mind is when my Ch. Reward's Ropin' the Wind (Windy) had her puppies. When they were 10 days old, she developed severe mastitis in one front teat. She was running a fever and was in considerable pain. It was, of course, on a Friday afternoon. The vet wanted to put her on antibiotics, but I had had bad experiences with antibiotics permanently damaging puppy immune systems. So I called Marina. She told me what to do and air shipped homeopathic remedies to cure and control the mastitis. I compressed the infected teat and milked it every hour for nearly 12 hours, until all the infection was out and the milk was running clean. I kept the puppies on her the whole time, taping off the infected teat to keep them from it. At first it was very painful for her - it was hard as a rock and I had to break down the infection and get it out. Oh, how stoic she was, with never a complaint. Over the course of the next week two other teats became infected and I had to tape them off. However, I never had to take the puppies off her, and by milking the three teats thoroughly and using Marina's homeopatic remedies, I prevented the build up of further infection. Marina publishes a bi-monthly newsletter that should be a "must" for anyone who wants to stay current on "Natural Rearing" practices. She is continually on the cutting edge of holistic health care knowledge. Marina has provided me with three of her articles for reprint on this site. They are: |
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| This site was updated on October 6, 2001. |