Wow, I haven't updated this for a long, long time.

So...how to bring y'all up to speed over a year or so of no updates (since the last post was basically just a huge rant).

I'll make a list, I like lists :).

1. Raw Food!

Samson is now on a 100% prey-model raw diet. Has been since late February or early March, I believe.

 

It requires a lot of preparation but it is worth it, and very affordable.  More expensive than kibble but I think it is vastly more healthy.  At absolute most, it costs me $2.50/day for me to feed him.  *I* can't even eat that cheaply.

The benefits have been wonderful.  The yard never requires cleaning, because his poops are small and crumble/deteriorate very quickly.  I attribute this to the fact that he is not being fed a lot of digestible...and non-bio-degradable products that are often found in even the highest-quality kibbles.  I haven't cleaned up the yard in months and it is quite clean.

The "doggy smell" is 100% gone.  He has not had a bath since April and you can still bury your nose in his fur and he smells nice.

The "doggy breath" is also gone.  His breath just smells...normal, I guess.

Coat quality has vastly improved.  It was a bit dry/flakey before.  I would say he even had a bit of a dandruff problem.  That is now gone as well and his fur is of a far higher quality.

Eye boogers are not 100% gone but there are definitely not so much as there once was.

He has not gotten any UTIs since the switch (he had two before the switch).

His teeth required scaling at about 10 months (it was done later at about...14 months, maybe?) due to a buildup of calc on his teeth from an all-kibble diet.  He has had ZERO buildup since the diet switch.

His appetite has improved, and he has also filled out more.  Getting him to eat was more of a chore on kibble, he never seemed to finish out his meals.

2.  Ear infection!

Yep.  He'd been acting very cranky, shaking his head a lot, etc.  I can't believe it took me this long to notice.  It cleared up pretty quickly though once I got him some meds.

3.  Training!

Samson has some fear issues with new people/places.  I don't believe this is because his genetics - it is all related to things I can trace back to where I failed with socialization.  There may be a bit of genetics in there from the LGD outcrosses (pyrenees and anatolian), since he is from an outcross line, but I'm more inclined to think that was me.  Hard to explain why...you just have to know Samson.  It also did not help that he had a VERY severe behavioral reaction to the rabies vaccine lasting about three months (yes, this is vet-confirmed, not owner-diagnosed)...right when he was starting to develop his protection drive (18-24 months).  I am currently seeing a trainer and Samson is improving by leaps and bounds to what appears to be far more close to his "genetic base."  He is still a wonderful dog around family but with new people in the house or strangers we have to give him a bit of time and space.

To leave off...one more picture of him and his new dinner :).  Every day brings a different combo!

 

I also added a mix of ground green tripe (80%) and ground trachea and gullet (20%) to the menu.  He has yet to try it because we just finished a 5-day stakeout over pork kidney (I was the victor :P).  He picked at the kidney for his last meal (stakeout ended two meals ago) but he did eat it.  Just one more kidney to go for this week and he can have some liver (which he LOOOOOOOVES).