Search Results for: dogs are not wolves

One More Time: Dogs are not Wolves!

Most everyone knows that dogs are descended from wolves. Anyone who has ever seen a dog and a wolf also knows that more than 10,000 years of active and passive selection by humans has had a dramatic transformative impact on … Continue reading

Posted in Nutrition | 49 Comments

Repeat After Me: “Dogs are not Wolves”

It should be obvious that there is a difference between acknowledging domestic dogs evolved from wolves (which is a widely accepted theory with strong supporting evidence) and saying that dogs essentially are wolves (which is nonsense). Try to picture a … Continue reading

Posted in Nutrition | 35 Comments

Dogs are Still not Wolves: Human Feeding Practices Have Shaped the Dog Genome

I have written many times about the argument, often made to support raw meat feeding or other alternative dietary practices, that dogs are basically carnivores and that because they were derived from wolf ancestors their optimal diet should be as … Continue reading

Posted in Nutrition | 9 Comments

New DogRisk Study Compares Risk of Allergies in Dogs Associated with Raw and Processed Foods

The subject of raw diets is a constant and controversial one in veterinary medicine. The controversy stems mostly from the fact that some people are passionately committed to the idea that raw diets have health benefits, but there is no … Continue reading

Posted in Nutrition | 6 Comments

Vegetarian Diets for Dogs & Cats

Pet owners frequently project their beliefs about human health onto their companion animals. Anxieties about purported harms from vaccines in children, for example, have spurred an anti-vaccination movement among vets and pet owners.1–4Beliefs in alternative medical therapies for people, such … Continue reading

Posted in Nutrition | 11 Comments

Give a Dog a Bone (Not!)–FDA warns of dangers of feeding bones to dogs

The Food and Drug Administration issue a warning about feeding bones to dogs recently. Just like feeding milk to cats (which also isn’t a very good idea), giving bones to dogs is a cultural cliché that we learn about as … Continue reading

Posted in Nutrition | 21 Comments

Raw Diets for Dogs and Cats

What’s All the Fuss About?   Pet owners are naturally concerned about providing the best care for their pets, and no form of care is more direct and meaningful that what we feed our animal companions. Rare but serious problems … Continue reading

Posted in Nutrition | 1 Comment

Food is Love- Veterinarians and Nutrition

Food is LoveAs a child, I was a big fan of the Peanuts cartoons. One of my favorite characters was Snoopy, a suave, bipedal beagle who wrote novels and engaged in breathtaking aerial combat with his nemesis, the Red Baron. … Continue reading

Posted in Nutrition | 19 Comments

Behavior, Expectation, and the Meaning of “Effective”

This is a guest post from an author who I hope will become a regular contributer. I’ll let her introduce herself: “Kyzyl is a Ph.D. candidate in biology at a public university on the west coast and a member of … Continue reading

Posted in Guest Posts | 8 Comments

Measuring Aging: Epigenetic Clocks

Aging involves physical changes over time, but time is not the primary driver of these changes. Large-breed dogs age faster than small breed dogs, and there is great individual variation in the manifestations of aging. A key lesson we have … Continue reading

Posted in Aging Science | 4 Comments