Why a Vegan Great Dane?

In 1987, I brought home a beautiful female Harlequin Great Dane whom I named Dagmar. (In Danish, it means "joy of the Danes".) My Dalmation, Sasha, immediately took over the job of potty training and other canine maternal tasks. When I took Dagmar to the vet, who also happened to be a homeopathic vet, I asked the vet if it was possible for a dog to be vegetarian. I was a bit timid about even asking the question, not wanting to impose a nutritional regimen that might not be suited to a canine digestive system, or worse, might be detrimental to the health of the dog. I was surprised when she answered, "Not only will that make your dog healthier, it will extend her life expectancy." I found two "higher quality" brands of dog food at the pet store and, with some of my own dinner menu mixed in, raised my Great Dane as a vegetarian, and switched my Dalmation over to a vegetarian diet. My Dalmation lived to 16 years, and my Great Dane, who was supposed to live 7 to 9 years, lived beyond her 11th birthday. When Dagmar died, I expected to get another Great Dane, followed by a second one, when I was ready, but life got busy and complicated and I lived 14 dogless years before I got another one. On September 23rd, 2012, after I had searched the internet for over a year for exactly the right puppy, my husband and I went to the breeder to pick up a beautiful female Harlequin Great Dane. She was a couple days shy of being seven weeks old. I named her Valentina, which means "brave protector". (It was the name I had come up with 14 years previously, in anticipation of getting another Dane puppy after Dagmar died.) I'm sure every parent thinks they have the most beautiful baby in the Universe, just as every puppy owner thinks they have the most beautiful puppy, but I must insist, this dog is beautiful and very smart. She learned her name by the second day with us, and within the week, she had learned "come", "no", how to ring the peepee bell on the door, "kisses," "sit" and "no bite", (even though teething and tempted to bite everything in sight!). After two weeks with us, Valentina understood questions like,"Do you want to go outside/inside?" (She goes to the door.) "Do you want to go upstairs?" (She runs to the foot of the stairs.) and "Go eat your food." (She would go over to her food dish, look in it, and then look up at me as a signal that I needed to put more food in the bowl.) as well as the command "shake hands." After having read so much about the atrocities contained in commercial dog food, I vowed to make her food from fresh, organic, vegan ingredients, so she could have a good shot at exceeding the current life expectancy for Great Danes. I went to my nearby PetsMart, to get a bag of "transitional vegan kibbles," and found that they no longer carried any. We were happy to find that a local specialty pet store had vegan kibbles and I began transitioning Valentina toward the vegan kibbles, and transitioning myself towards making all her food. So much has changed with the internet. I have found a wealth of knowledge, and connected with people that I never would have found in a library. I have ordered books, researched blogs and websites, and amassed a compendium of vegan canine recipes, all via the internet. And, yet, I feel I have just scratched the surface of what I need to know.

So, Vegan Great Dane will be a record of what my husband and I experience and learn about providing a nourishing diet for Valentina with more-than-minimal nutrients plus everything else involved in raising a healthy Great Dane. (And, of course, I won't be able to resist including some pictures of her.) Much has changed about the approach to puppy training -- I have been surprised to learn that I did a lot of things right in training my other dogs in the past.

One more detail: Valentina will be a bi-national dog. We split our time between Austin, Texas and Lake Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico. Like Kafka, the Dalmation that I had before Sasha, Valentina will be trained in two languages, so she will understand commands both in English and Spanish. There are requirements for taking a dog into Mexico and for taking a dog into the US, so, I'll also be sharing those experiences with you. I welcome your comments, support and any information you might offer. If you are offended by veganism/ vegetarianism, please take your criticism elsewhere. I raised two dogs as vegans, and they were extremely healthy their entire lives. I'd love to hear from you, your experiences, information, your stories, and your support. Thank you.

Companies That Sell Vegan Dog and Cat Food

Evolution Dog Food -A 100% Complete For All Life Stages Dry Dog Kibble. Human Grade Pure Vegan Ingredients. (Also sold on amazon.com)
F & O Alternative Pet Products Vegan dog and cat kibble and canned food1-877-376-9056
Harbingers ofa New Age Vegecat™, Vegekit™, Vegedog™, and digestive enzymes406-295-4944
Natural Balance Canned and Kibble Vegan dog food 1-800-829-4493
Natural Life Pet Products Canned and kibble dog food 1-800 367-2391
Nature's Recipe Canned and kibble dog food 1-800-237-3856
Newman's Own Organic vegan dog treats
Pet Guard Canned dog food and biscuits
V-Dog Vegandog foodv888-280-8364
Wow-Bow DistributorsCanned and kibble dog food and biscuits1-800-326-0230
Wysong CorporationDog and cat kibble 989-631-0009




Thursday, March 28, 2013

Almost Eight Months Old!

Valentina will turn 8 months old in about a week.  We are so grateful that she is such a smart, sweet puppy dog. I make all her food (vegan), both kibble and soft food, and both veterinarians who have examined her have pronounced her VERY healthy. It's interesting that we have been told that a dog MUST have meat, and yet Valentina remains extremely healthy, full of energy, and exhibiting all the the signs of an extremely healthy dog. She loves every kind of vegetable, raw and cooked, and her favorite chews are the "Broccoli bone" and the Sweet Potato "Leather" The Broccoli Bone (a long stem from broccoli)  is raw, but after experimenting with baked and dehydrated sweet potato slices, I came to the conclusion that baking the the sweet potato slices (about 3/8 in. thick) at around 250 or 300 F, for about 3 hours, (or 325 or 350 degrees F for less time) then dehydrating them for several hours (6, maybe 8 or 10 hours at 105 degrees in the dehydrator, depending on the dryness and chewiness desired) gives the best result.  (I have an Excelsior dehydrator.) When I just baked them, they were too soft and  not "leathery" enough, and when I only dehydrated them, they lacked the caramelizing of the natural sugars. (If you don't have a dehydrator, you can put your oven on the lowest temperature setting, and if you want to lower the temperature a bit more, you can leave the oven door slightly ajar to let a little heat escape and lower the temperature a bit. It's best to purchase a little in-oven thermometer to know exactly what the resulting temperature is.)  Valentina will eat sweet potatoes any way I make them, but it seems that the "bake and dehydrate method" makes the slices she likes the best. I "paint" a coating of warmed coconut oil on all surfaces of the slices, so they don't dry out too much or stick to the cookie sheet. I bought a bag of commercial sweet potato slices for $8.98 at a local pet shop the other day.  The bag did not even have 9 slices.  That means they cost more than a dollar a slice! Valentina actually prefers mine anyway. The first time I gave her a sweet potato slice, she did an intricate dance around and near the slice before she ate it.  Now, even when she is given a broccoli bone or other treat, she will do what we now call "The Sweet Potato Dance.". Stay tuned for  more pictures.
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