Dog Health

The key to dog health is nutrition, avoidance of drugs, medicine and vaccinations mistakenly thought good for our dogs. Canine health problems, illness and disease can be cured with natural remedies.

Welcome. I'm Andrea, dog health coach, dog owner, and webmaster of Three Little Pitties. Bonz, my 12-year-old pictured with me here would like to welcome you too, but after a mile walk at the park in the hot sun, he's ready for water and a nap so we'll continue without him for the time being. Below is a little (okay, maybe a lot) about the philosophy of Three Little Pitties Dog Health and what you'll find here. First, I have some questions for you.

What if by feeding healthy foods and occasional supplements your dog lived another five or even ten years? Would it be worth it to learn about dog nutrition?

If you knew how to avoid or cure hot spots, skin problems, allergies, arthritis, pancreatitis, irritable bowel disease, kidney disease, or canine liver disease, would it improve dog health in your household?

Would it be worthwhile to learn about the negative side effects of certain medicines and vaccinations?

Learning should be lifelong and I'm here to keep you up to date. Did you know the more vaccines are studied, the less desirable they have become?

Unfortunately the wheels of change are slow.

Even though the dog vaccination schedule has change three times in the past ten years, each time requiring less immunizations, countless vets still go by the old protocol.

We now know that over vaccinating leads to many dog health issues (including seizures) and diseases (like cancer) so many of us avoid vaccines altogether. (One of them is in the picture above and there's a very personal story at vaccine side effects.)

Dog Nutrition

The most important thing I've learned about dog health is, you are what you eat. Now I don't know why I didn't think about this for my dogs when I learned it about humans.

A Human Example

The beginning of my road to natural dog health began over 20 years ago. My two-year-old son was diagnosed with severe asthma. Seeing that little guy hooked up to a nebulizer every day just broke my heart. And what it did to his personality and his body was not good.

One day when picking him up from his playgroup, another mom approached me and suggested I take him off dairy products. I thought the woman was insane. I'd been taught from an early age that milk and cheese were good for us.

Still, I loved my son so much. What would it hurt to stop dairy for awhile and see what happened? After three weeks his asthma was gone and he hasn't needed any drugs for 22 years!

When his pediatrician didn't believe me, I sought out a naturopath and learned more about foods and natural cures. Amazingly, after that it was rare that any of us got sick and when we did, we healed much faster.

Lack of Nutrition
Creates Dog Health Problems

Now, let's look at an experience I had with my dogs.

I was so angry and guilt ridden. I'd nearly killed my own dog out of ignorance! (The others were sick as well.) I became passionate about dog health and healing in a more natural way and I wanted to save other dog owners from going through what I had.

While I read and reread natural healing books, I searched for a way to build a website which could be done without knowing the language of computer writing. (I swear I flunked HTML for Dummies.) I found it and want to thank the Site Build It folks (I promise they deserve this plug) for helping me turn my passion into the perfect stay at home job.

Recipe for Canine Health

The most important ingredients for natural health come from these things.

• Quality foods and snacks
• Pure clean water
• Exercise
• Supplements or remedies that help the body heal itself

Hold on to something in case this is news to you. The healthiest dog foods do not come in a bag or a can. Water from your tap may be hurting your dog and exercise actually stimulates the immune system!

Now the rest of the recipe for dog health is not what to add, but what to take away.

• Minimal vaccines. Keep up to date on this one.
• Cut back or stop medicines that relieve symptoms only. Things like cortisone and prednisone for example have some long term side effects that scare the pants off of me and they should you too. (Be CAREFUL though - some drugs must be weaned slowly or they may kill your dog.)
  

And now I'm going to add one more component I think is important to dog health.

Discipline

I bet you're surprised I have discipline listed aren't you? It's not something I thought too much about until I had five dogs under one roof with me.

Our dogs teach us. Mine taught me I was a lazy owner. I let too many little things slide. The result was an unruly pack. Without a strong leader, they will take over, bicker amongst themselves, get in the trash, and more. Dog behavior issues can turn your life into a living hell.

Here's Helen. We used to call her Hellion when she was the queen of dog behavior problems. Now she's practically an angel.

What does this have to do with health and not just your sanity? I believe dogs without boundaries and limitations just don't thrive like those who know and do what is expected of them.

Isn't stress bad for us? It is for them too. I suspect it is the pressure of being the leader and a dog not understanding the exasperation of its caretaker causes a lot of stress in your dog. You have to learn to speak dog for everyone's mental health. After all, does your dog speak to you in Greek? Then let's stop talking to them in just English!

I'd love for you to read about the proper way to greet your dog. It's listed under dog behavior modification and its step one in getting respect from our canines, because it uses their own rules.

Another question I have for you is, do you just put the food bowl down and let him dig in, or does he have to wait? Making a dog wait is not mean. It's good for the dog and likely the only mental exercise canines get nowadays.

My goal is to help you with health care through nutrition and observation. This will keep your vet appointments to a minimum. And I want to help you with a little dog behavior modification if you need it.

And because I'm a writer, as well as natural health care coach, I'll share stories about my dogs as well.

I hope you enjoy this website and find it useful; even enlightening at times.

I am here to support you and your dogs. I'd love for you to subscribe to my blog or my monthly newsletter so I'm nearby if you need me.

Also, since there are hundreds of pages here, be sure to use the Search Dog Health page to find subjects of interest to you.

In honor of your dogs and mine, this site is dedicated to dog health.

Sincerely,

Andrea Partee