Amy,

At 12:33 PM 5/20/99 -0700, you wrote:
>We scraped our plates into a pan that went out to the
>kennels. No thought was ever given to what we had
>been eating. Food seasoned with onions and garlic,
>chocolate cake, meat scraps, chicken bones, pork chop
>bones, veggies, rice, potatoes, pasta, cheese,
>fruit...whatever was leftover the dogs ate. I don't
>recall my family ever buying dog food.

This was an extremely popular way of feeding dogs, whether
in the country or in the city. The history of prepared
dog food is rather recent.


>I'm not saying that onions, garlic and chocolate have
>not been known to cause illness or even death in
>canines. I'm just wondering why the dogs I knew 25
>years ago never seemed to suffer ill effects.

Which lead one to saying a good balanced diet for humans
may work for dogs also. The only reason I can think of
not have problems with onions, garlic and chocolate is
many things were done in moderation. Since the amounts of
toxins that can be fatal are not fixed and in the case of
garlic, may not be known, this could easily be a case of
nothing observed, no problem.


>Is this just a country girl perspective? Seems like
>in this age of science diets and optimum nutrition
>we've destroyed our dogs' ability to eat like the
>scavengers canines once were. Also seems like a whole
>host of illnesses have come along with the advent of
>commercial dog foods. Pushing this even further,
>perhaps it is the continued inbreeding of most dog
>breeds that makes them pre-disposed to
>hyper-sensitivity to many substances.

All possibilities. Another thought is that the host of
illnesses were there but we didn't know how to detect.
This is one of the many things that drive me nuttier than
I already am. Are we just making things more complicated
for ourselves and our dogs or are we making things better.
I sort of plant a stake and say that's the best I can do
and then I listen for an large noise. The low noise I tune
out because it just creates doubt with nothing positive IMO.
Loud noise, all relative of course, I listen to see if
there are any facts to base a change on. Otherwise I think
you just continually shift from one thing to another.

Chances are of the 100+ people on this list, there are 75
different canine diets, if not more. Many may have experimented.
Most probably feel their dogs are doing great and they are.
But there is always that nagging feeling that maybe something
is better. And that is probably good because we are interested
in what is best for our dogs.

Dean Mair
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  "Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present."
      --- Albert Camus