HOW DID YOU GAIN YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF DIET?

Dear Jubilee:

How did Joyce and Gene become moderators of the ADTnutrition list and where did they get their knowledge for moderating a list about an Airedale Diet.  Thanks.  I am interested in finding out everything I can because I am totally hooked on this breed.   

Hooked on Airedales

Dear Hooked on Airedales,

Gene and Joyce became moderators because they started the list in August, 2000. At that time, they had been feeding their dogs a raw diet for almost two years. Someone had posted to another Airedale list about feeding raw, and she had been flamed, so, knowing that people need support for whatever they feed, they started the ADTnutrition list, and invited the 17 people that they knew were feeding raw to join. They all did.

The list, however, is not just for feeding raw. They also started the list because they know that people feed a variety of diets and their dogs are healthy. They know that some people have problems with what they are feeding. And they know that everyone is interested in the subject of what their dog should eat. So they purposely called the list ADTnutrition instead of ADTrawfeeding. They wanted to be sure that everyone felt welcome. They also wrote the statement about no flaming and treating everyone with respect.

This has worked. Today, there are nearly 300 members on the list. They feed everything: some feed kibble, some feed raw, some feed a cooked homemade diet, and some feed a mix of diets. Issues on the list range from diet to all kinds of health issues, and the information from the experience of others is incredible. 

Please take a few minutes and look at the posts in the Messages section of the website at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ADTnutrition/ . There are other resources on the website: a list of documents in the Files section that covers a lot of different diets for different issues, the pros and cons of vaccines, and more; databases that give you books and articles on canine nutrition, information on holistic care, information on homeopathy and homeopathic remedies, and more; links to a host of websites with health and nutritional information; and 31 photo albums of member dogs. Everyone on the list is welcome to add files, databases, links, and photos to these pages.

Where did they learn and how did they come to feed what they are feeding? They had three dogs back in 1997: Holly and Hannah Airedales and eight year old Chelsea Shi'tzu. They were all fussy eaters. Joyce and Gene bought a book that gave the values for just about every commercial diet, Gene went through it and picked what they both thought were the best foods providing the best nutrition, and they experimented with each. The dogs would eat them eagerly at first, and then stop eating. It was as though they had a pact, and they all stopped eating a particular food on the same day! Finally, they found Wysong, and the dogs seemed to really like the Wysong foods. These lasted longer than any of the commercial foods. Then, one by one, the dogs turned up their noses. Around that time, Joyce had heard about the BARF diet. It sounded very healthy but she was petrified of feeding bones, especially chicken bones, to their dogs. Gene thought it sounded very natural. So Joyce joined some lists and listened and asked a lot of questions. And she read a lot of books, including an excellent little book by Kymythy Schultze, a canine nutritionist with a degree from Cornell, titled Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats.

Their dog, Holly, was bred in the middle of this process, and when she stopped eating the Wysong, they were really worried: she was pregnant, and she needed good nourishment. So, they experimented with some chicken necks.

Chelsea Shi'tzu was nine at the time. She had had a lot of health issues, and they had almost put her down when she was six because she was in so much pain from a structural problem that took six months of experimenting to get under control. She had always been a fussy eater. She gobbled up the chicken necks, glaring at them as if to say "Here I am at the end of my life, and now you bring out the real food." The Airedales were not so eager to eat the chicken necks: Holly ate them but not enthusiastically, and Hannah outright refused until Joyce slashed the sides so she could smell and taste the meat. Within a week, the Airedales were eating as enthusiastically as the Shi'tzu.

Since then, they have weaned five litters to the raw diet, and they have fed a succession of wonderful Airedales nothing but raw food. Their diet is on the Jubilee website at www.jubileeaires.com, click on Diet. The Shi'tzu is now 15 years old and quite healthy. They have given the Kymythy Schultze book to all of their puppy people and to everyone who has adopted an adult Airedale. All of the adopted adults are still on the diet, and about 75 percent of the puppies were kept on the diet and are still eating it. The health of all of these dogs is excellent, and every one of them has clean teeth and sweet breath.

But Joyce and Gene are not fanatic about the diet. It works for them and for their dogs. They know that people feed a variety of diets, and they do not try to influence people to switch. If people are interested in nutrition, they answer their questions and they encourage participation on the ADTnutrition list where every approach is respected.

I hope this answers your questions. I hope that you will enjoy the people and that you will find help and support for any issues that come up with your dog and her diet and health. You will find that this is one of the friendliest and most helpful lists on the Internet and that the people are respectful of all views and all approaches. No one will try to influence you to do anything other than you are doing or anything other than you feel comfortable doing.

Jubilee