Naturally Rearing
What does that mean?

I first heard about the term reading the book from Juliette de Bairacli Levy, The Complete Herbal Handbook for Dogs and Cats, she reared her Afghan hounds naturally and treated disease with herbs.
Natural Rearing can better be called a “preventative” in that it is the feeding & husbandry method that most closely raises your dog’s overall general health and builds and maintains a strong immune system.
Luckily, most of this concept was not un-foreign to me as I believe common sense goes a long way.
Natural Rearing advocates view the animal as a “whole” individual being, and we like to attack the cause of a disease instead of treating the disease without finding the cause.
This practice has been around forever requiring your animals to be fed a species appropriate diet and be cared for as close to how they would live and eat in the wild. (with some modification to allow for even better nutrition in the state our food industry is at the moment).
This also means living in a pack, lots of exercise of leash, clean water (not tap water) and tons of fresh air.
For us it means we let our females raise and wean their puppies at their own schedule, we do not take mom away at 4 weeks old and along with this goes the all important lessons taught by the mom to her pups! It is part of a natural method of learning social skills and is extremely important in the formation of stable temperament!
Natural health should also mean the need for a veterinarian is minimal. (Just for the record, I believe the vet has a place in our program when needed. We do not deny our dogs necessary diagnostics and care if the need is there. It's all about prevention).
A good well balanced diet (raw) is the foundation of health and this should reflect the dog’s carnivorous design. Dogs fed a raw, meaty bone based diet enjoy overall superior health, You can see this just by looking at their clean white teeth, fresh breath, pink healthy gums, shiny eyes, glossy, odour-free coats and small odourless stools. A processed diet and the life of a couch potato is really no substitute for fresh, wholesome food, clean water, exercise, plenty of fresh air, sunshine and avoidance of chemicals and drugs to the greatest extent possible.
We try to achieve optimal health and preventing of illness by doing what is described above. We feel the extra effort is worth it, it also means standing up for what we believe in and advocating for our dogs, who have no voice. This include minimal to no preventatives and vaccines. Over-vaccinating is causing a lot of health problems in dogs.
If you think about it, it is actually very easy, but it does require letting go of what we have been spoon fed for years that a healthy dog needs all these preventatives or else. That we cannot feed our dogs because we cannot balance a diet.
Common sense is required and often a little research from your part to at least think for ourselves and stand up to the push of pharma and feed industry.
A Natural rearing breeder will educate and help you along in this "new" thinking of dog husbandry. I know we will.
Natural Rearing can better be called a “preventative” in that it is the feeding & husbandry method that most closely raises your dog’s overall general health and builds and maintains a strong immune system.
Luckily, most of this concept was not un-foreign to me as I believe common sense goes a long way.
Natural Rearing advocates view the animal as a “whole” individual being, and we like to attack the cause of a disease instead of treating the disease without finding the cause.
This practice has been around forever requiring your animals to be fed a species appropriate diet and be cared for as close to how they would live and eat in the wild. (with some modification to allow for even better nutrition in the state our food industry is at the moment).
This also means living in a pack, lots of exercise of leash, clean water (not tap water) and tons of fresh air.
For us it means we let our females raise and wean their puppies at their own schedule, we do not take mom away at 4 weeks old and along with this goes the all important lessons taught by the mom to her pups! It is part of a natural method of learning social skills and is extremely important in the formation of stable temperament!
Natural health should also mean the need for a veterinarian is minimal. (Just for the record, I believe the vet has a place in our program when needed. We do not deny our dogs necessary diagnostics and care if the need is there. It's all about prevention).
A good well balanced diet (raw) is the foundation of health and this should reflect the dog’s carnivorous design. Dogs fed a raw, meaty bone based diet enjoy overall superior health, You can see this just by looking at their clean white teeth, fresh breath, pink healthy gums, shiny eyes, glossy, odour-free coats and small odourless stools. A processed diet and the life of a couch potato is really no substitute for fresh, wholesome food, clean water, exercise, plenty of fresh air, sunshine and avoidance of chemicals and drugs to the greatest extent possible.
We try to achieve optimal health and preventing of illness by doing what is described above. We feel the extra effort is worth it, it also means standing up for what we believe in and advocating for our dogs, who have no voice. This include minimal to no preventatives and vaccines. Over-vaccinating is causing a lot of health problems in dogs.
If you think about it, it is actually very easy, but it does require letting go of what we have been spoon fed for years that a healthy dog needs all these preventatives or else. That we cannot feed our dogs because we cannot balance a diet.
Common sense is required and often a little research from your part to at least think for ourselves and stand up to the push of pharma and feed industry.
A Natural rearing breeder will educate and help you along in this "new" thinking of dog husbandry. I know we will.