The way we came to AFS is an interesting story.  We had been breeding and showing dogs for about ten years and had begun showing a very nice French Bulldog.  Frenchies are something of a rare breed and getting major wins for her to finish her AKC championship was a good deal harder to accomplish than it had been for us in our other breeds, great danes and pugs.  To win an AKC championship the dog has to accumulate 15 points, including at least two "major point wins" under different judges.  The number of points is determined by the number of other dogs defeated at a given show.  Kissy had won her minor points with ease and had actually accumulated over 15 points but those Majors were elusive.  You need to have enough dogs entered at the show or the points won't be available. 

We had traveled to Louisville, the largest shows in the country, trying to get our majors and were soundly trounced by the competition: Kissy's problem was she was a bit underweight and her coat condition was a little lacking.  The dogs who were winning were heavier and had great condition.  One afternoon after the show I approached the owner of the winner who was camped out not far from us.  His dogs were out in exercise pens on plastic mats.  After introducing myself I asked him "I'm new to this breed; what does it take to get weight on one of these dogs?"  He replied "I'll show you" and he went into his trailer and came out a short time later with a large bowl full of red stuff which he commenced to throw handfuls of onto the mats.  The dogs pounced on it and ten seconds later there wasn't a sign of it! 

"And that will put weight on them?" I asked.

"See for yourself", he said. 

I looked at his dogs, they were in great condition. 

O K, where can I get some of this, I asked. 

He replied, "It comes out of a place called Iola, Wisconsin."

At his words I nearly sat right down on the asphalt.  I live less than ten miles from Iola, and I had never heard of this product.  When I got back to Waupaca the first thing I did was contact AFS and get a case of meat eater and start feeding Kissy.  She soon put on about a pound and a half of muscle, her coat condition improved and within 5 weeks she finished her championship!   That sure made a believer of me!

Soon we were trying it on the other dogs and were experiencing similar results.  Our other skinny dogs began gaining weight and better coat condition.  The fat dogs lost weight.  Something was going on I did not quite understand but I was delighted with what I was seeing.

 In fact I started noticing other things I really liked:

Scaling teeth was a distasteful task I did on a regular routine.  The teeth would develop this plaque which would build up over time and if I did not scrape it off it would eventually get up under the dog’s gums and become inflamed.  I attributed this as a reason some of our dogs did not always eat, i.e. they had sore gums and it hurt them to eat.  When I went to scale teeth on the dogs that were in this meat diet, though, they didn’t need it.  There was no plaque!  What was going on?

The Pugs and the Frenchies had a particularly hard time with the hot weather.  We live in a part of the country where we only get 2 to 4 weeks of really hot weather in a year (cold is another issue).  Our place was initially built in 1903, pre-ruraelectrification, and we do not have central air.  When we hit that July – August part of the calendar we would move all the little dogs into one room where we have a window unit to keep them from suffering.  After we started using AFS they were able to handle 80 and even 90 plus degree days with relatively little stress.  What was going on?

 I was used to loading a wheelbarrow with poop a couple times a week.   Suddenly my wheelbarrow was only ¼ full.  I noticed that dogs that had had a BM 2 and 3 times a day were not.  I mean we were concerned enough to take one to the Vet who hadn’t done her job on three days!  Our dogs were only eliminating every other day (on average), what was going on?

 We never really had a bad problem with fleas, but we had them from time to time.  Then we imported a dog from down south that came equipped with super fleas.  We sprayed.  We powdered.  We dipped.  The fleas persisted.  (How can you show a dog that sits down in the middle of the ring and scratches?)  Shortly after that we started on the meat diet.  The fleas disappeared!    What was going on?

 We had a few dogs (thankfully not all) that had a bad habit.  They would eat their own (or even other dog’s) feces.  We scolded.  We monitored.  We put stuff on their food that was supposed to prevent it.  We gave up!  But sometime after switching to AFS we noticed they were not doing it anymore.  What was going on?

Flatulence is the nice word for it; but when a great dane lets go in close quarters, there’s nothing nice about it.  It stinks.  And it can become embarrassing in certain situations.  But after switching to AFS that was gone too.  What was going on?

Bloat (a/k/a gastric torsion) is the big killer of great danes, and other deep chested breeds as well.  In bloat the animal’s stomach tears loose from the membranes that hold it in place and twists, thereby constricting the inlet and outlet.  The gases given off by the stomach contents cannot escape and hence the bloating or blowing up of the stomach.  The circulatory system in that part of the anatomy also becomes restricted and, unless emergency treatment is rendered immediately, the patient dies.  Even those that do get treatment and/or surgery die due to damage to the cardiovascular system.

Over the years we had lost some of our best dogs to bloat; but in the ten plus years we have been on a raw meat diet, we have not had a case of it.  What is going on?

What is going on is that we are benefiting from feeding our animals a diet which is not only natural but biologically appropriate.  Our evidence is probably not scientific, we have held no double blind controlled studies, but we have lived with this for the last ten years and have observed the fantastic difference.

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