Dog nutrition is ultimately the most important role a dog owner will face in the longevity, health, and mental stability of a dog, what I am stating about mental ability is the stresses, and there are different types of stresses, a dog encounters is directly linked to the nutrition a dog is being fed, feeding your dog super quality food is not going to make him or her a genius.  It is the foundation for what your dog will eventually be in life healthy or unhealthy. This is a very important topic in ensuring your BallyRock Bullmastiff or German Shepherd dog maintains their health both mentally and physically. Proper dog nutrition depends on a number of factors including the breed of dog, the dog's size, its activity level, its age, and its living conditions, not just dry kibble, canned food, B.A.R.F. diet or any other raw food diet.

You will hear from others their dog is doing just fine on the store brand, or on the B.A.R.F. diets.  While dogs have tolerances to specific toxins, diseases, and other ailments in the long run if you want your dog to live a longer life, you need to feed your BallyRock ... or any dog ... properly and nutritiously.  Every breed of dog, AND EVERY DOG WITHIN THAT BREED is DIFFERENT and have DIFFERENT requirements, just as humans have differing diets depending on where we live, who we are, what we do, and how old we are.  It's the choices that we make that determine the nutritional value of what we become.  The theory of dogs are direct descendants of wolves is somewhat true and we will never disagree on that fact, but that theory lacks support for the B.A.R.F. diet since it's basis of nutritional is because dogs are direct descendants of wolves you should feed your dog this diet.  BOLOGNA!!! Now, this diet is starting to display characteristics of improper nutrition and has been proven to link itself to increased incidents of cancer and other digestive diseases, digestive medical complications, and other health problems. Also to note ... this diet was just recently developed in 1999 and it's only 2008, given most dogs live to 15 years on average, many of these dogs are now displaying characteristics of what is happening with this diet, especially in large dog breeds.  I would like to note this ... we humans are descendants of chimpanzees, because of this according to the B.A.R.F. dieticians, we are supposed to eat big green leaves (for our vegetables), find a twig with some tree sap on it, insert it into a tree trunk and grab the ants out on it (for our protein requirements), find a banana tree (for our fruit and vitamin requirements). Well that's what B.A.R.F. ideology is structured on in a nut shell.

Now, using COMMON SENSE we will get to the science as well soon, let's look at the dog from the BREED PERSPECTIVE ... the original breeders of the dogs had diets within their lives where they lived and either prepared foods from the dinner table, or environments where they hunted, i.e., deer, duck, lamb, chicken, seal, antelope, bison, oats, bread yeast, ripe fruits, etc.  More times than not all these foods were prepared ... YES COOKED, SMOKED, SALT TREATED, GROUND or CHOPPED UP ... (we are talking times before the refrigerator was invented), and given to the dogs.  Dogs then and even today (especially in Europe) live longer than they do today in most North American cultures.  WHY?  There are breeds that have genetic predisposed allergies to beef. Some dog breeds have inherent allergies to fish or chicken. We know that the amino acid content of various meat sources are different and must be in the correct balance for the animal being fed so that the protein is bio-nutritive for that animal and not cause an allergenic reaction. Raw or cooked, you should not use a meat source that will cause the breed of dog you are feeding nutritional distress. It has been PROVEN that the differences in per kilogram nutritional requirements of the different breeds makes it impossible for any one diet, including a raw meat diet, to be nutritionally correct for all dogs.  So the answer to the why ... Europeans have long adapted to the need to supply their companion animals diets that are part of their typical family lives, it's their culture.  North Americans are a GRAB and GO culture, we want something that is practical, fast, and convenient. Believe me I have seen people drive through McDonald's and feed a dog a hamburger, fries and a coke!

Because there were no dry kibble manufacturers in the years of the development of the Bullmastiff and the German Shepherd dog, they were fed a variety of diets depending on where they lived.  We have read from the experts that state they (all dog breeds) should be on diets where they came from ... the Bullmastiff ... England ... the German Shepherd Bavaria, Germany.  While this is an impractible ideology, because we would all have to move to these locations to ensure that our dogs were getting the best possible nutritional values from the locations where the breeds were created, there are alternatives that are highly suitable for each breed.  That's our focus for this section, what alternatives can we use that are convenient for our lives, as nutritious as possible, and are SAFE, EFFECTIVE solutions. Notice that I stated solutions NOT SOLUTION.  We want to burn this into your heads, hearts, and emotions, there is NO ONE CURE.  It is a combination of many contributing factors not just one source to ensure you BallyRock Bullmastiff, German Shepherd Dog, or ANY OTHER DOG gets their nutritional needs met.  To understand this we need to LEARN about ALL ASPECTS of DOG NUTRITION ... NOT RAW, NOT DRY KIBBLE, NOT CANNED FOOD ... there is more to nutrition. There is WATER ... yes WATER believe it or not, supplementation, modifying daily diets, understanding what nutrients are needed and WHEN they are needed.  But FIRST AND FOREMOST LETS LOOK AT SOME OF THE MYTHS ABOUT DOG NUTRITION!

MYTHS ABOUT DOG NUTRITION ...