Protein: meat, dairy products, eggs, soybeans.

Fat: butter, cream, oils, fatty meat, milk, cream, cheese.

Carbohydrates: cereals, vegetables, and confectionery syrups. Honey.

Vitamin A: greens, eggs, milk

Thiamine: legumes, whole grains, eggs, muscle meats, organ meats, milk, yeast.

Riboflavin: green leaves, milk, liver, egg yolk, wheat germ, yeast, beef, chicken.

Niacin: milk, lean meats, liver, yeast

Vitamin D: fish and fish liver oils, eggs, fortified milk.

Iron, Calcium, And Phosphorus: milk and milk products, eggs, soybeans, bone marrow, blood, liver, oatmeal.

Proteins: build body tissue and contain amino acids.

Carbohydrates: give a body fuel for growth and energy

Fat: produces heat, which in turn becomes energy

Vitamins and minerals: act as regulators of the cells activities.

Domesticated animals rely on humans as they cannot live off the land in today’s society. We have also bred the domesticated animals to require humans to take care of them, as they would not be able to provide for themselves in what I call the real world. In order for your dog to get everything he needs in the way of nutrition we must combine the foods necessary for his everyday health. Kibbles are fillers to which must be added fat, milk, broths, and meat. When dog food companies bake or cook their ingredients that make up the kibble most of the nutrients are killed. If the dog food companies used the correct amounts of meats and fats and oils, the dog kibble would go rancid.

Not enough has been said about fat other than it is bad. On the contrary, it is what I consider the most important food in an animal’s diet. Fat should be introduced into the dog’s diet in its pure form. Proteins and carbohydrates are converted into fat by the body. Fat also causes the dog to retain his food longer in the stomach. It stores vitamins A, D, E and K and lessens the bulk necessary to be fed at each meal. Fat can be melted and poured over the meal.

Once I was buying my dog’s food (kibbles) and I had to explain the reason why the first ingredient had to be “meat” to the store employee. He had no idea that the first ingredient listed on the bag of any product declared to consumers that the product that they were buying had more of the first ingredients listed. So, the first ingredient may be 50% of the total food and the second ingredient may be 24% of the total food. However, the second listed ingredient cannot be more than the first listed. The third ingredient is less than the first two and so on.

So if your bag of dog food says corn, corn meal, rice, and then chicken in that order, then your dog’s main food source is coming strictly from corn. Percentage wise, the next thing you are feeding your dog is cornmeal and then rice and then chicken and so on. This bag may not tell us how much of each ingredient it has in it, so the percentage of chicken may even be at the lowest extreme level!

Corn is the worst food one can feed a dog! Even wheat is better than corn! Corn is not well digested as you may have noticed when you ate corn. Herbivores eat vegetation. Carnivores eat meat. That is their main staple.

The second ingredient I personally would like to see is a 'meat-by-product'. I realize that a meat-by-product is the feathers, legs, beaks, and so on, but don’t the wild dogs eat that also? Hasn’t hurt them.

Then the next thing you have to realize is all the chemical additives. Try and find a food that hardly has any. Don’t feed your dog’s sodium nitrite, red dye-40, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) or butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). Also stay away from monosodium glutamate (MSG).

Dog kibbles are filler for my dogs and not really a main staple.

I fill their bowls. One large bowl per adult dog at least 6 ft apart. (Hehe). As much as they will eat when pups. When they go away from the bowl, I put the leftover kibbles back in the bin. I feed puppies twice a day after each of their lessons. I never give a dish of food to any dog without having them perform something for me. After a pup gets about four or five months old, I will only feed once a morning after our walk and a training session. Training sessions last about five minutes.

My older dogs get fed every other day and there is always a fresh supply of cool clean running water. Wild canines nibble on vegetation when hungry, then about every four days they will kill larger prey animals and they will gorge themselves. I do realize that canines do eat nuts, grass, dirt, rodents and Insects. (Rodents and insects being meat also).

That is the way they are. None of my dogs are thin or overweight. All of them love their food and are willing and receptive to training. Each of my adult dogs eats sixteen cups of kibbles mixed with table scrapes every other day.

What I feed my dogs:

Raw bones.

Ground or chunked meats raw or slightly cooked.

Raw organ meats.

Raw veggies if they like them.

Fruits from our trees as they wish. (Grapes, apples, peaches, nuts, pears).

Seeds and nuts including wild birdseeds dropped from the bird feeders.

Fresh eggs with shells still on them.

Table scrapes after we eat (mixed into the kibbles).

Bacon grease.

Whole eggs.

I also add to their 50-gallon trash bin full of kibbles: seafood kelp

powder, wheat germ and bone meal (A pinch here and there).

Now I don’t go overboard. I feed a small amount of a variety of things.

I have five large water buckets in the kennels. I planted mints of different varieties next to each of them and I pick some and put it in the water buckets.

There is a small stream that goes through the kennels along with tall grasses and a small berry bush. I try to keep it as natural an environment as I can.

I believe that most dogs acquire skin problems along with many different types of ailments that come from poor nutritional habits. The rest of the problems that most dogs have come from improper breeding and coddling, helping sick dogs or problem dogs get better. In nature the sick and weak die. That is god’s breeding program not mine. Don’t breed sick or weak pups.

I suggest that the new parents (owners) feed a very young puppy three times a day and an older pup twice a day. Pick up all the food that isn't eaten within five minutes.

12-14 days evaporated milk, melted butter, an egg, a pinch of brewers yeast. (Three times a day to supplement the mother’s feedings).

3 weeks old 1 tsp. canned chicken dog food is added (three times a day).

4 weeks old evaporated milk, melted butter, an egg, brewers yeast, can of chicken rich in fat. (Four times a day). I mix this up and put it in the refrigerator. I take out what they will eat and add hot water.

5-6 weeks puppies are being weaned. Same diet as above only softened kibbles in milk are added. 1 teaspoon of cod liver oil is also added.

7 weeks pups are completely weaned

3-5 months Kibbles are not softened. (Feed three times a day).

5 months-1yr. two large meals are given daily. Table scrapes are used sparingly. Just watch the stools and don't spoil the dog. Mix the scraps well into the food.

The rest of his life he will eat once a day or a very large portion once every other day depending on his appetite. Dried milk is added occasionally as well as an egg a day from our chickens as they lay. Alfalfa leaf meal when I can get it. Yeast, sea kelp and bone meal is added to the large trashcans of mixed kibbles.

Feeding ranks next to breeding in the influence it exerts on the growing dog.

Like the Indians and trackers of our past, I know that "one is what one eats" and a lot of the way an animal feels can be seen in the appearance of the feces. If one of my dog’s stools is soft, I feed all the cheese, bones, calcium and hard kibbles that puppy wants. If the stool is too hard, I soften the food intake with cooked rice, chicken, fat, grease, or canned dog food. Please check the ingredients of all packaged dog foods. I personally like to give my dog’s real food.

If my dog’s stool is dark black it tells me that dog has gotten too many minerals in its food. If the stool is chalky then that dog doesn’t have enough minerals in its food. If a dog’s stool is green then that pup has an infection or has eaten grass. If a pup consistently eats grass, I will check his stool for worms both visually and on a slide under a microscope.

Dogs do not cook their foods, humans do. Cooking foods kills all enzymes and many of the nutrients. Kibbles are mostly grain, wheat, corn, etc. Again, Shepalutes are meat eaters. Many dogs may be allergic to grain though Shepalutes have never had any of those symptoms that I know of.

When I first started breeding German Shepherds I found a lot of shepherds to be allergic to corn and wheat besides pollen and grass. I did run into some types of food allergies, along with skin and ear problems. In all of the generations of Shepalutes I have bred, I have not seen any of these problems within this breed, but one never knows. For this reason, I ask all Shepalute owners to continually contact me with all symptoms and problems of the smallest degree, so that I may note it in my records.

In my opinion, the best guide to feeding your Shepalutes is to think about what the wild dogs eat. I have seen wild dogs eat the grapes off my grapevines and the fallen apples, rotten or ripe. I have seen nuts of the many shrubs in the Los Padres National Forest in the feces of the coyotes as well as squirrel hairs and hairs of other rodents. Wild animals drink from natural streams and chew on grass and even eat dirt. I don't stop my dogs from doing their thing. I try to understand the vitamin or mineral needs of my pups by observing my animals. When I see them eating the dirt that gophers have dug up, I add calcium and bone meal to their foods.

1. The digestive system of the modern dog is different from that of his ancestors and therefore must be fed differently.

2. Dogs shouldn't eat bones and raw foods.

3. All dog food should be cooked.

4. The best way to feed a dog is with commercial dog foods.