If you are researching personal protection dogs for sale, it is also important to research the most beneficial diet for them. It is quite possible that the best choice is a raw diet. Just as humans benefit from a nutrient-dense diet that focuses on fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, dogs also experience noticeable benefits from the appropriate diet. Feeding your dog a raw diet – based on fresh meat from animals such as birds, rabbits, rodents, and deer – can lead to significant health benefits. Basing your dog’s diet on raw prey mimics the type of diet they were designed to consume in the wild.
The Importance of a Raw Diet
You have probably heard of the similarities between car engines and the human body.
This comparison emphasizes the importance of utilizing the proper fuel. Just as a car will experience unnecessary wear and tear if it is improperly maintained and fueled with cheap, low-quality fuel, the human body (and dogs for that matter) will also experience performance issues. A raw diet can maximize the health, quality of life, and overall lifespan of personal protection dogs due to its high amounts of nutrients.
Downfalls of Commercial Dog Food
Typically, commercial dog foods are packed with potentially harmful additives, preservatives, and cheap grain products and fillers. Dogs do not possess the necessary enzymes for digesting grains properly. One of the biggest causes of allergies in protection dogs is the consumption of grains. It is common for a dog’s allergies to completely disappear upon switching to a grain-free, raw diet.
Benefits of a Raw Diet for Dogs
While personal protection dogs will experience a host of benefits from consuming a raw diet. Potential benefits include:
1. Increased Oral Health
In both dogs and humans, gum disease is linked to heart problems. It has been found that almost 75% of dogs experience gum disease by the time they reach middle age. After switching to a raw diet, dogs will enjoy healthier teeth, almost no tartar, better breath, and improved gum health.
Raw food diets include whole bones that allow dogs to utilize their teeth to tear apart meat and organs. It is highly unnatural for a dog to eat heavily processed, gummy food that sticks to its sharp teeth. With time, this build-up of food leads to plaque and tartar build-up that promotes the development of gum disease. Whereas commercial food degrades teeth, raw food helps promote strong jaw, neck, and shoulder muscles in addition to supporting oral health.
2. More Efficient Digestion
Aside from healthier teeth and gums, another benefit of a raw food diet for personal protection dogs is improved digestion. For a dog to consume whole, raw food such as fleshy bones, it must work at it using its jaws and teeth. In the time required for a dog to gnaw away pieces to swallow. The gut is able to stimulate gastric juices that help digest the food properly and efficiently once it makes it to the stomach.
As opposed to raw food, commercial dog food promotes rapid eating that prohibits the stomach from producing the digestive acids necessary to properly digest the food. Without the proper digestive preparation, the chance of your protection dog vomiting up the food or experiencing indigestion is greatly increased.
3. Boosted Stimulation
The act of chewing on large, raw, fleshy bones is crucial for boosting a protection dog’s vitality and satisfying its primal instincts. Feeding your dog raw, large pieces of meat promotes mental stimulation and also requires physical effort. For a dog, figuring out how to chew pieces of meat off of a bone is a satisfying experience. That leads to positive psychological and physical benefits.
3. Healthier Skin and a Shinier Coat
Usually, an improvement in the health of the skin and your protection dog’s coat is one of the first noticeable changes from a raw diet. Dogs fed a raw diet often have a shiny, thick, vibrantly colored, healthy coat.
4. Strengthened Immune System
A diet based on raw food strengthens the immune system and also helps to reduce inflammation and reduce the risk of infections. The balance of fatty acids and nutrients contained in raw meat and bones help support healthy immune system function.
5. Increase in Lean Body Mass
Consuming a raw diet of meat and bones will assist your protection dog in losing excess fat and increasing its level of lean muscle mass. This not only contributes to your dog’s appearance but also boosts its metabolic rate, promotes higher activity levels, and increases its life expectancy.
6. Healthier Stools
Since a raw diet boosts the immune system, your protection dog will experience an improvement in the quality of its stools. Traditional dog food contains high levels of carbohydrates that are not ideal for a protection dog’s digestive system. The result is stools that are smelly and resistant to decomposition. A protection dog on a raw diet will experience smaller stools that are prone to faster composition and less stinky.
7.Decreased Risk of Degenerative Diseases
By switching an older protection dog to a raw diet, many owners find their dog experiences relief from degenerative diseases.
8. Reduced Symptoms of Arthritis
Upon following a raw for a few months, your protection dog will experience increased mobility. Focusing on a raw diet helps reduce symptoms of arthritis in older dogs and helps promote increased activity.
9. Reduced Vet Bills
A raw diet will increase your protection dog’s overall health and therefore decrease the frequency of vet visits and save money. The increased bioavailability of nutrients and enzymes found in raw meat, bones, and organs helps promote livelihood and prevent a variety of diseases.
Final Words
If you have been looking into personal protection dogs for sale, keep in mind. That they will most likely experience a longer, healthier life if they consume a raw diet. So consider the advantages of a raw diet when deciding what to feed your protection dog.