The Unknown Side Effects of a Premium Holistic Dog Food

About a year ago, a friend of mine was relocatinghim overcome some of his anxieties and neurotic
across country and asked me to take care of hisbehaviors), exercise and a high quality diet (for his
best friend "Buddy", a two-year-old boxer with aoverall health and to help him gain weight and
very sweet disposition. Buddy would be staying withimprove his digestion).
me for up to 3 months. My friend loved this dog,We have had our dogs on a holistic food for years
almost loved it to death. Because Buddy was literallyand had always found it to be affordable, great for
his best friend, my friend was constantly smotheringour dogs' overall health, energy levels, and weight
this dog with affection, providing Buddy with nomaintenance. Since we knew that our preferred food
exercise, rules or boundaries. This resulted in Buddywas nutritionally complete and contained none of the
becoming an extremely neurotic, insecure dog withfillers, preservatives and dubious byproducts found in
acute separation anxiety, and self-destructivemost commercial dog food, and because the food
chewing habits.was guaranteed fresh, we would be sure Buddy
He would foam and refuse to eat when left alonewould at least have a strong foundation for his
and seemed to live in a constant state of worry andrehabilitation. What we didn't realize was how fast
fear. Since my friend's work schedule had recentlywe would see improvements in his health.
become more irregular, Buddy's vet had put him onAfter just 3 days of putting Buddy on this new food
sedatives to control his anxiety and neurotic behavior.his digestion had improved completely, no more
The pills worked to a point, but left Buddy listless anddiarrhea. His energy levels were up, and he was
in a constant stupor without much of a personality.putting on badly needed weight. After just 2 weeks,
To make matters worse, my friend tended towe began weaning him off his medication and at that
overcompensate for Buddy's anxiety by feeding himpoint we noticed something remarkable. Although his
heaping portions of commercial canned dog foodenergy level and fitness were increasing because of
topped off by some "animal byproduct" type treathis diet and exercise, he was at the same time
for every meal.becoming calmer and less anxious. He was now fit
So, between his diet, lack of exercise, medication andenough to chase balls all day but he stopped chewing
anxieties, Buddy suffered from constant diarrhea andat his crate and he was more focused during his
weight loss regardless of how much he ate. He wasobedience training sessions.
not a happy dog but my friend simply tried toAfter a month, Buddy no longer foamed at the
manage around the problems not solve them. I hadmouth when left alone and his other anxieties had
taken care of Buddy for shorter periods before and Idiminished significantly. Because he was calmer and
could manage his behavior if I scheduled my entireless anxious, his obedience training progressed more
life around him. However, I would not be able to dorapidly. By the time Buddy went back to my friend
that this time.he wasn't taking any medication and almost a year
A couple of days after Buddy arrived I decided thatlater Buddy is doing great. He now maintains his
if I was to help the dog it was overdue for someproper weight, attends doggy day care a couple of
tough love. I immediately put Buddy on a regulartimes a week, and most importantly, he is a happy,
routine of obedience lessons (to establish disciplinewell adjusted and lovable dog who no longer
and structure in his life), behavior conditioning (to helpbecomes anxious when left alone.