Reflections-20 Years in Pet Care Services – Green Acres Kennel Shop Blog

Reflections on 20 Years as a Pet Care Professional – Pet Food and Nutrition – part 2

Don and Muppy - July 2015 — Don and Muppy – July 2015

< A version of this article was published in the December 2015 issue of Down East Dog News>

My wife Paula and I have been part of the pet care services industry for over 20 years and in that time we have seen many changes. Last month I started writing about the changes we have seen in pet food and pet nutrition. I discussed how brands have changed, the need for consumers to be knowledgeable, the verbiage used by pet food companies, protein choices, and industry consolidation. Pet food is a big topic, and there have been many more changes that I address below.

Gus’ Story – Last month I started a story about how our Cairn Terrier Gus’ issues with UTI’s and crystals initiated our journey with learning about pet nutrition. It was not until after I sent my column off to the editor that I realized that I had not finished the story.

We eventually found a brand of food, Wysong, and some Wysong supplements

that cured Gus’ UTI and crystal issues. It was our first experience with what at the time was classified as an ultra-premium pet food. We learned a great deal from Dr. Wysong and his distributor here in Maine, the late David Hinson. Their commitment to quality nutrition should be an inspiration to all pet food companies.

Formula Proliferation – Twenty years ago the most common form of pet food was dry kibble, still the number one choice for food. Pet food companies offered kibble formulas for puppies, adult dogs, and overweight dogs. Then came senior and a few years after that we started seeing the large breed puppy formulas and in some cases, food for specific breeds of dogs. Many experts in pet nutrition, like Dr. Wysong, argue that the proliferation of formulas is more about SKUs, marketing and shelf space than nutrition. I believe their position is quite sound if we look at what and how canines eat in the wild. The nutritional rationale for all of these formulas is not necessarily based in science or good nutrition and often makes it harder for the consumer to make a good decision.

Recalls – We have seen numerous pet food recalls in the past twenty years just as we have with human food. As long as good quality food remains perishable, which I suspect will be forever, there are going to be recalls. A recall in itself as not a bad thing, but a lot depends on how the company handles the recall. The companies the handle recalls the best are the ones that offer full disclosure early in the process, and that keep their distributors and retailers informed. It is always our goal to contact our clients to let them know about a recall before they hear about it on the internet.

Misleading Advertising – Pet food advertising is made to appeal to people because let’s face it, your dog or cat is not making the decision of what food you will buy. Unfortunately, advertising can make any food look and sound wonderful. What makes it even worse is when the claims made in those ads are false; as has been the case with the ads by a pet food company that many would argue currently have some of the most appealing ads on television. Those ads claim this company never uses low-grade ingredients like poultry by-product meal and insinuates that food made by other companies do use low-quality ingredients. This company was first sued in the spring of 2014 and has now admitted in Federal court that they are indeed guilty of using the low quality ingredients they claimed not to use. What makes this even more incredulous is that the company is not accepting responsibility for their actions but instead is blaming the companies that make their food and their suppliers. Yes, you read that correctly. There are companies out there that only market pet food and subcontract the development and manufacture of their food to other companies. In my mind, that is not a real pet food company but instead is an accident waiting to happen. That is why we prefer dealing with small, family-owned companies that buy raw ingredients from suppliers that they know, manufacture their food in their own plant, and then market it to independent stores like ours.

Dietary Rotation – For years, the standard recommendation from pet food companies and many veterinarians has been to find a food that your pet does well on and then NEVER change it, as any change could upset your pets digestive system. It is easy to understand why a pet food company would like this approach; it keeps profits going into their coffers.

One of the first things we learned from Dr. Wysong was his belief in the benefits of dietary rotation. Wysong produces a puppy and senior formula, as well as a couple of adult formulas; however, rather than feeding them strictly by age Dr. Wysong recommends you rotate among the diets. We would feed our dogs growth in the summer, when they were more active, and senior in the winter when they were less active, and standard adult formulas in the spring and fall. If one studies how wild canines eat, the concept of dietary rotation also makes perfect sense as what they eat varies widely, day to day. We are glad to see that in the past few years some of the pet food companies that we deal with now offer multiple adult diets and now also recommend dietary rotation.

Raw Diets & Homemade Diets – In 1998 Paula and I attended a seminar to hear Dr. Ian Bilinghurst talk about raw diets for dogs. The Australian veterinarian and author of Give Your Dog A Bone was one of the first veterinarians to discuss the benefits of feeding what he called BARF; Biologically Appropriate Raw Food. What Dr. Bilinghurst was saying is essentially what experts on human nutrition have been emphasizing; eat fresh whole food (meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables) and avoid highly processed food. Dry pet food, no matter who makes it, is one of the most highly processed foods on the planet.

Paula and I sought more knowledge about raw pet food, and eventually started feeding our pets a raw diet in 2001. Green Acres began selling commercial, raw frozen diets at the beginning of 2002. At first, we fed one raw meal per day and a meal of kibble for the second meal of the day. When we started to see the changes in our dogs we switched to 100% raw, which is what we continue to do today. We practice dietary rotation, switching proteins every time we purchase food and readily switch between brands. I cannot prove it, but I do believe that a raw diet played a significant role in our Golden Retriever Tikken living past her 16^th birthday.

What Does the Future Hold?

The only thing I can predict with any certainty is that the pet food world will continue to change and that we as consumers will need to remain diligent. More and more people are considering feeding raw diets or at least fresh whole food. I expect that trend to continue to grow. The pet food world is threatened by the same thing as the world of human-food; industrialization and consolidation. Hopefully as we become more aware of the importance of fresh, whole, locally-sourced food for ourselves that will change for pet food as well.

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Reflections on 20 Years as a Pet Care Professional – Changes in Pet Food and Nutrition – part 1

< A version of this article was published in the November 2015 issue of Down East Dog News>

My wife Paula and I have been part of the pet care services industry for over 20 years and in that time we have seen many changes. Last month I wrote about dog training. This month I will begin to address pet food and pet nutrition.

Paula and I became interested in pet nutrition long before we purchased Green Acres. Gus, our Cairn Terrier puppy, joined our family in the spring of 1991. Within a year, he was exhibiting serious health issues that his veterinarian attributed to his diet.

Gus had recurring urinary tract infections aggravated or caused by crystals that formed in his urine. One type of crystal even formed into a bladder stone that was removed surgically. Gus’ case was further complicated by the fact that he had more than one type of crystal in his urine. One was normally found in acidic urine, the other when the urine was base. The pH of his urine would swing

wildly throughout the day, from acid to base and back, which was very abnormal.

We were constantly in search of the “perfect” food for Gus. At one point, our veterinarian had us buying multiple brands of kibble and counting the numbers of each type of kibble we fed Gus on a daily basis, all in an attempt to stabilize his urinary pH. We eventually found, purchased and read a book; Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats, that included several recipes for making homemade dog food. Shortly after that, Paula was making food for Gus every week. By the time we moved to Maine, about 14 months later, Gus still had UTI’s and crystals, and we were still searching for a brand of food that would cure him.

Changing Brands – When we became the owners of Green Acres Kennel Shop, we sold six brands of pet food. Our two biggest sellers were Hill’s Science Diet and IAMS/Eukanuba; however we also sold Nature’s Recipe, Bench and Field, and ANF. Eukanuba was considered to be one of the top brands, and the others were all better than what was available at the grocery store.

Green Acres’ no longer offers any of the brands of pet food we did twenty years ago. Pet foods and pet food companies change, like everything else, and not always for the better. We now offer seventeen brands of pets food from; Bravo, California Natural, Fromm, Eagle, Evanger’s, Evo, Holistic Select, Innova, Merrick, NutriSource, Natural Planet, Pro Pac, Pure Vita, Steve’s Real Food, Wellness, Weruva, and Wysong. Some of these brands were around twenty years ago and many were not. The brands we carry twenty years from now will depend on what happens with individual companies and brands. We are constantly evaluating the pet food marketplace and change products when we find something better.

Need for Knowledge – Based on our experiences with pet nutrition we knew that knowledge was important, so we scheduled training sessions with representatives from Hill’s and IAMS within the first few months of ownership. That is when we first learned that the training that companies provided to retailers such as ourselves was essentially the same program they offered to veterinarians. Paula had received the same training while working at the veterinary hospital. We have continued our education about pet nutrition through training providing by the food companies but also by reading books and attending seminars. One of the biggest myths about nutrition, whether human or pet, is that we know all there is to know. The fact is things are changing all the time, and it is our goal to be current so we can always provide clients with the latest information.

Premium, Super-Premium, and Ultra-Premium – Twenty years ago pet foods were pretty much divided into grocery store brands and premium brands. The big difference then and now, was that premium brands were made to a set formula whereas the ingredients in a non-premium brand changed with commodity prices. The premium brands typically used higher quality ingredients. Today we also have brands that label themselves as super-premium and ultra-premium. The problem with all of these labels is that they have no legal definition, so one has to be knowledgeable about pet food, ingredients, nutrition, and the people behind the company in order to judge whether or not the way a brand labels itself is deserved.

Protein Choices – Most pet food that was made twenty years ago used chicken as its base protein. Poorer quality foods used poultry which just means there was more in the mix than just chicken. The first novel protein source was lamb, which was introduced as an alternative food for pets that were allergic to chicken. Unfortunately, most companies promoted their lamb based formulas as the “best new thing” and pretty soon many of people were feeding lamb, and it lost its value as a novel protein source. That is why today we see things like duck, turkey, bison, venison, salmon, trout, whitefish, pork, beef, ostrich and kangaroo as protein sources for pet food.

Industry Consolidation – It is estimated that 70% of all of the pet food sold in the US comes from one of three companies; Nestle, Mars Candy or Smucker’s. Most people do not realize the huge number of pet food brands owned by these three food giants. I believe that bigger companies seldom produce better products. These conglomerates own so many brands that it is difficult for me to understand how any of those brands are differ from one another. Our preference at Green Acres is to offer foods that are made by small, family-owned companies that know their suppliers personally and that are committed to producing a quality product. Selecting pet food whether as a retailer or consumer involves trust and I find it easier to trust the smaller companies.

It has not just been the food companies that have been merging and buying each other. We have seen the same thing happen with the distributors that sell the food to retailers like Green Acres. When we first bought Green Acres three of the distributors, we purchased pet food from were Maine-based companies. Sadly today there are no pet food distributors in Maine.

Pet food and nutrition has seen many changes in the last twenty years. Next month I will discuss the proliferation in pet food formulas and SKUs, Pet Food Recalls, Misleading Advertising, Dietary Rotation, Raw Diets and more.

Reflections on 20 Years as a Pet Care Professional – Changes in Dog Training

< A version of this article was published in the October 2015 issue of Down East Dog News>

On October 11^th, it will be twenty years since my wife Paula, and I closed on Green Acres Kennel Shop, becoming its third owner. Most of the time it seems like that was only yesterday. However, when I pause and take the time to look back, I can list many changes in our profession. Our products and services have changed as have the standards that we follow. Societal attitudes towards pets have changed, and of course, we have also changed ourselves. For my next few columns, I’ll be sharing my perspective on some of these changes.

As we planned our move to Maine and Green Acres, I was looking forward to becoming more involved in dog training. We had taken our dogs to several dog training classes in Wisconsin, and it was something I enjoyed a great deal. Gus, our Cairn Terrier, had several behavioral issues and dealing with those piqued my interest in this companion called the dog.

We arrived in Maine in the middle of October 1995. At that time, Green Acres training methods involved lots of verbal encouragement and praise, little or no food rewards, and the use of choke collars and corrections. It was the era of dominance and proving ourselves to be the superior beings and with this attitude, the book we most often recommended was by the Monks of New Skete. The premise of the time was that since we were superior, dogs existed to serve us and do our bidding out of respect (read fear). Science has spoken, and we now understand how erroneous much of the information upon which we based training was; our profession has come a long way in these past 20 years.

Early on we recognized the importance of further honing our training skills. I joined the Association of Pet Dog Trainers in 1996, and Kate and I attended an Ian Dunbar training seminar in the summer of 1996. The methods we learned were so very different, and we came away from that seminar excited about incorporating games into our classes and with an interest in trying to use food rewards.

In 1997, with the encouragement of Dr. Dave Cloutier at Veazie Veterinary Clinic, we expanded our classes’ offsite to the Veazie Community Center. This meant we could offer even more classes each week, as we had previously been working out of the retail area after hours. It was at this time that we took on our first assistant trainers; we were now offering more classes than Kate, and I could teach on our own.

At the same time we were teaching in Veazie, we began the remodeling of the loft above the store into a training room at Green Acres. Our training room is far from ideal; it is smaller than average. However, working with what we have has kept our class sizes smaller than average and our instructor to student ratio higher than average. Both factors have been of great benefit to our clients. Today we teach as many as 14 classes per week, both inside and outside, the latter dependent on weather.

In early 1997, I attended my first seminars on clicker training. These seminars got me experimenting with my new Golden Retriever puppy, Tikken. In June, Tikken and I traveled to upstate NY to attend a Volhard Top Dog Instructor Camp for a week. Their focus was on motivation; not with rewards, but with corrections via a choke collar. It was a frustrating week for me as I was being taught things that I had recently rejected. I learned what I could about student management and instructional techniques, and while I learned a great deal, at night I found myself working with Tikken using my clicker and food rewards.

Gus and I continued to train and that summer we were enrolled in one of our advanced classes that Kate, our Operations Manager, was teaching. During recall work, we were to put our dog on a stay at one end of the training field, walk to the other end of the field and call them to us. Gus remained in place, and when I called him he came, but at a snail’s pace. As I recall, we did that exercise twice with the same result. At the end of the class, Kate took me aside and asked “Do you and Gus do anything that’s just fun? He’s clearly not enjoying this, and I can see that you’re disappointed in him. Why don’t you take some time off and stop classes with Gus?” Yes, I had just been kicked out of class by my employee. I am so grateful that Kate had the wisdom and the courage to make that suggestion as it was the best thing that could have happened to the relationship between Gus and me. That was the last training class Gus ever attended. Instead, we played fetch, and I taught him how to do silly things like spin using the clicker and a target stick.

After the Volhard experience, I attended another clicker training seminar, and my mind was made up. I was a bit concerned about the reception that I would get from the public, as this was a major shift away from the predominant training methodology in the area. However, in August of 1997 I sent out a press release and received coverage from our friends at the Bangor Daily News. When an article is on the first page of a section, above the fold with a color photo of a dog, people read it. Before the day was over I was getting calls; “How do we sign-up for your clicker training classes?” Still testing the waters, I quickly developed a clicker based curriculum and opened enrollment in Green Acres’ first two clicker classes. At the end of those classes, I no longer wanted to train with aversives; however, from a business perspective I was uncertain that our market would support this kinder and gentler form of training. I knew two other trainers, Gail Fisher and Carolyn Clark, that had made the switch, and they inspired me to do the same. I am glad to say that many years later I had no need to worry. Our training program has grown by leaps and bounds precisely because of our focus on science, kindness, and getting results.

In November of 1998, I attended my first APDT Educational Conference and Trade Show, five solid days of learning and networking opportunities. One month later I was invited to join the APDT’s Education Committee by APDT’s founder Dr. Ian Dunbar. The committee developed and implemented the profession’s first certification exam. This was a significant step forward for the dog training industry. The practice of dog training is unlicensed, mostly unregulated and until the release of this examination there was no universally accepted standard of what a dog trainer needed to know. In 2001, I was one of the first Certified Trainers. Since then a total of seven Green Acres’ trainers has been credentialed as Certified Professional Dog Trainers. Four have since moved on to different career paths, but that does not diminish their accomplishment. More and more people are taking steps to ensure that a trainer has a CPDT credential before enrolling their dog in a class. Just the idea that we now have a credentialing body for our industry, where none existed 15 years ago, shows significant growth in our field.

So in summary how has dog training changed in the past twenty years? It has become less about art and “secret” techniques and more about evidenced based science. Science has refuted the dominance construct that prescribed the need for having an adversarial relationship with your dog and replaced it with the concept of cooperation and positive reinforcement. The majority of trainers no longer use or recommend harsh punitive-based methods like alpha-rollovers, choke collars, and shock collars but instead use management, clicks, and treats. There are now several independent certification bodies that credential and ensure that those in the profession keep learning. The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) has recognized the importance of behavior as part of animal wellness and has taken a very public stand against the use of any aversive tools in training. The Pet Professional Guild is building an organization of pet care professional and pet owners committed to “No, Pain, No Force and No Fear” pet care. Dog trainers, scientists, and veterinarians recognize that the dog, as well as other animals, are pretty amazing and more like us than we ever could have imagined. We are moving away from an egocentric understanding of their behavior to one that is more animal-centric, In other words, we have finally realized that as humans, it is NOT all about us.

All of us in the dog training profession still have much to learn and to me that is what keeps me going. I cannot wait to immerse myself in the next amazing discovery about the delightful companion that we generically call the dog.

Lastly, remember that story about my Cairn Terrier Gus, his unenthusiastic recall, and Kate kicking me out of class? I am happy to say that my current best friend Muppy has a most remarkable recall thanks to what Gus, Shed, Sandy, Dulcie, Crystal, and Tikken have taught me on this journey. Muppy thanks you all for being so patient and kind with me.

Category: Reflections-20 Years in Pet Care Services

Reflections on 20 Years as a Pet Care Professional – Pet Food and Nutrition – part 2

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