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I think German Shepherds a great dog
because of their massive amounts of
versatility
they're extremely versatile dog in the
aspect that they can do all kinds of
work for people and they also could make
a great home pet and you know they're
used from everything from range of a
seeing-eye dog which is you know an
extreme sound temperament a dog to a
working dog for police or military or a
sport or competition dog and everything
in between
my name is Chris Taylor a breeder of
German Shepherd dogs I have been out of
my own personal kennel for the last 15
years with Vaughn Taylor HOF kennels I
my family has a history of breeding as
well my mother's side she comes from
Germany and been kind of raised and
grown up around the German Shepherd dog
my entire life my job every day 80 100
plus hours a week as training and
working with within my kennel and which
is German Shepherds I train all breeds
of dogs but probably because of my
background with the German Shepherd my
involvement within the breed I'm very
well known a trained German Shepherds so
the mass majority of the breeds of the
dogs we work with are from the German
Shepherd breed the German Shepherd was
obviously created and by Max von Stefan
it's was the founder of the breed and
obviously at the time of the inception
of the breed the the diet was raw food
or even sometimes cooked food but we
didn't have kibbles back then so any of
the dogs were typically fed you know
direct raw food diets and while it
wasn't really well known at the time you
know what they were doing nutritionally
so much and they were onto something by
staying that way but at that time even
our diets didn't have quite the
preservatives other steroids of the
MSG's or any of the other you know
things we have put into our our foods
today that they did then so the diet's
subsequently were were predominantly
healthier you know you have a lot of the
goat farmers sheep farmers it's
Shepherd for Shepherd dogs and that as a
fantastic protein source had fantastic
green tripe source and a lot of the the
farmers you know fed that directly to
the dogs and and chickens as well as
extremely common least less expensive
for the farmers that they feed their
dogs as well so it's pretty natural for
them to have that I feel feeding all
dogs so raw diet is a good idea it's
there as to what their natural Anatomy
is designed to digest and we haven't
even through our eugenics of selective
breeding we haven't done much to alter
the digestive system in the anatomy very
little I would say if anything at all in
most breeds but the the dog's genetics
and natural Anatomy is designed to eat a
raw diet I think the biggest benefit to
feeding a raw diet to a German Shepherd
dog or working dog in general is the
amount of energy they're able to produce
from that diet and the usefulness of all
the calories that are within that diet
there's not a lot of empty calories in
Morada actually there's very little to
no empty calories in a raw diet versus a
kibble has a tremendous amount of empty
calories I always use the analogy of
kibbles or kind of like a fast-food
restaurant
diet and a raw diet is kind of something
you would have a nutritionist develop
for you at a gym where you don't have a
lot of waste in your diet Maddox
advocacy for raw food is just that I
don't really like to see how much the
dogs are affected by eating so many
preservatives and an unnatural diet and
the reality is for dogs even the top of
the end kibbles are just different
grades of fast foods in my opinion it's
kind of like comparing the difference
between McDonald's and in and out
there's still not really a healthy food
they're not natural for the dogs and
there's tons of empty calories and lots
of preservatives they're not good for us
they're not good for anything else
every doctor any human would go to would
tell you to avoid preservatives and eat
more fresh foods
and it's kind of odd to me that many
vets don't recommend fresh foods for
dogs yeah I made the switch from kibble
to raw primarily as a health concern I
had dogs that were having some some
issues with the feeding you were seeing
it in the coach for seeing dry skins
they're seeing a lot of allergies and I
started looking in the specifically what
allergies where and what was really
causing them and once you got past like
the flea and tick allergies and things
that can come environmentally different
grasses pollens things like that it came
down to food and I started thinking okay
dogs are allergic to chicken or dogs are
allergic to potatoes or certain starches
and things of that nature and more and
more I came to realize that it wasn't
the actual chicken that the dogs are
allergic to is the preservatives that
the chickens were that was used to
preserve the chicken in the kibble and
and when they changed the context of the
food by baking it and they used all the
preservatives to keep especially the
meat products then I realized it wasn't
chicken it wasn't beef it wasn't duck it
wasn't Buffalo it wasn't any of those
the actual proteins
it was the preservatives that kept the
proteins and that was what was causing
all the allergies and the issues to the
dogs and you'd see it obviously if
you're allergic to something anybody's
that's drink and I know has lactose
intolerance even in a slight you know
amount you drink a cup of warm milk
before you go to bed that's cuz ER
intolerance to Dino those of the lactose
and even puts you to sleep or drops your
energy level and and that was very much
the case when it came to working with
dogs and he saw they didn't have the
energy level that they did and as soon
as I started developing a raw diet for
them and you know
investigating it more and I came from
the strong athletics background where
nutrition is a very important factor and
I literally just kind of incorporated
that and then started investigating you
know how dogs digest and using a little
bit of my biology background and and
noticing the difference in effects of as
I started to evolve in my raw diet and
to develop what we use today that it
started making tremendous strides at you
know I stopped having any of the
allergic reactions to the dogs the
stools were smaller they didn't smell
the dog's energy level was through the
roof
I didn't have the teeth issues it as
you've probably seen the videos later
the dogs teeth are very very clean we
don't brush the dog's teeth ever
we don't ever formally clean their teeth
they eat the raw food the bones and the
raw food help keep the teeth clean and
and it's a it's just we've basically
eliminated so many health issues from it
that it's a it's been just a humongous
advantage I'm not saying it's the only
thing but definitely huge our formula
that we make with our company's wild
instincts raw is more of a complete diet
formula we find that there's there's
still a necessity for some of the other
ingredients that we were able to put in
beyond like a barf diet or a pray model
only diet so we have added some other
ingredients into ours that we feel
create more benefit for the dog as well
obviously we stay with you know we have
certain proteins that which include bone
and an organ meat and we do get the
majority of our dogs vegetation and
digestive enzymes which I feel is
probably the most important thing going
today within a dog's diet is having a
balanced digestive enzymes it helps keep
the any other pancreas healthy and the
rest of the digestive system healthy and
capable of processing and digesting all
these nutrients and so we include
several key ingredients beyond the
proteins beyond the bone beyond the
regular organ meat like a liver kidney
heart long those types of things the
green tripe I think is probably the most
a necessity most necessary ingredient we
have and the reason again like I said it
was primarily the digestive enzymes that
are that I've are coming out of that
green tribe that we get it's not found
any really anywhere else
obviously we add some probiotics and
prebiotics and that as well those are
important we use typically use a
goalkeeper and for for us outside of
that like I said the green tribe is
probably what makes a giant separation
in that and how we utilize it
makes a big separation between our raw
and and many are most others then our
vegetation mix what that we use in there
is able to be processed without the
green tripe in the digestive enzymes in
the green tripe and how its how its
processed by us the vegetation is
basically useless you know when I see
vegetables and and fruits and
ingredients the mass majority of that is
just extract because they're not capable
of digesting it because the dogs within
that diet they don't have included a
digestive enzymes so and the raw food
business kind of it grew and it was
inception that has I started creating my
own kennel and right away I started
seeing and kind of the downfalls of
feeding kipples and different variations
of kibbles that I was trying at the time
and and I got introduced to the idea of
raw feeding diet by my friend and mentor
Tom Paine and he originally discussed it
with me and in that it triggered
something in me and then it became an
obsession for probably about the last
fourteen years the raw food diet is
optimum for the training rigors that our
dogs go through because it just helps
them you know can't maintain the energy
to to push farther and harder and they
don't lose time due to any allergies or
reactions or dietary insufficiencies
that you would have on a junk food diet
or a kibble diet or anything like that
you know any athlete if they were on a a
junk food diet and would wear a fast
food diet would would definitely have
starting having the detrimental effects
with that and it's basically you know
keeping their nutrition in a very strong
level helps them with their muscular
system their skeletal system they're
getting appropriate amounts of calcium
so they're all getting very strong bones
especially with the exercise that we do
as high-impact exercises that definitely
helps them harden up their bones and
then we do a ton of conditioning work
and build a muffled content with the
appropriate protein quantities and it's
just uh it's it's been the right kind of
diet to allow them to continue to push
every single day day in doubt
temperament and emotion certainly can be
affected by a raw diet we quite often
help prescribe that diet to people who
have temperament issues with their dogs
again getting back to allergies are a
high issue when it comes to or a very
popular issue when it comes to dogs
especially we're here in Southern
California we deal with a lot of a lot
of clients that have allergy issues and
when I see a temperament issue and an
allergy issue a lot of times that is
they are directly correlating and
working together and when we solve the
allergy issue the dogs not feeling bad
anymore he's feeling better he's feeling
happier he's feeling healthier and you
start seeing a lot of that being a lot
of the temperamental issues subsiding
with with the allergies a raw food diet
has direct correlation to the dog's coat
having the essential oils that are in SS
necessary in the diet especially the
omega-3s and fats are directly
correlated dogs coat in the health of
the dog's coat and with the absence of
allergies dog skin is healthier we don't
have the code issues the dryness of skin
the itchiness the rashes the hot spots
things like that aren't quite as common
when they're on the raw diet
Radha also has great benefits to the dog
skeletal system as well as their tendons
and their ligaments the amount of
calcium that's put into the percentages
of a good balanced raw diet is directly
affecting dog's muscular system our
skeletal system and and their tendons
and ligaments dog's teeth are benefited
greatly by our raw diet they don't have
so much of the build-up that you have
with a kibble so they stay pretty clean
everything is washed out quite easily
and the bone within the raw diet helps
create the little little miniature
toothbrushes basically to keep down a
lot of the tartar and plaque off of them
digestion is critical when you're
talking about a raw diet I think again
getting back to green stripe and the
digestive enzymes found on the green
tribe
absolutely essential without the
digestive enzymes you know dogs can
process bone and they can process some
proteins and the rest of the diet is is
has to be obtained or the rest of the
digestive enzymes has to be obtained
within the diet the pancreas can create
very small amounts of the other
digestive enzymes necessary but
predominantly it's it's being filled
back up by the diet of the dogs eating
and so the ingredient of greens ripe and
the digestive enzymes found in the green
tripe is essential but again essentially
the dogs they can't create this on their
own so being a predator they're stealing
that or those digestive enzymes from
another animal that can't create that
for example other herbivores that eat
grasses or eat vegetation they have
larger multiple tracks stomachs on long
digestive system and they can break down
greens you know much easier than the
very short digestive tract of a dog a
dog has high acidic and in a very short
digestive tract so they can you know
digest and tear apart proteins without
too much of a problem but greens are or
very very difficult for dogs to digest
so being able to take those greens that
already pre digested from another animal
and that's that's just part of the
physiology of dogs the big physiological
differences between a show line German
Shepherd and a working line German
Shepherd or basically how they're
created to move a show line is created
to be more of a gating dog and a moving
dog and a working line is typically
created to be more of a jumping dog a
driving dog a striking dog so they're
more made for sprinting and in getting
more short burst distances not they
can't go long distances but they're
going along distance is more based upon
their desire and their drives than they
are based upon their physiology one of
the issues behind a lot of the show
lines that I see is weakness of tendons
especially you see it in their passwords
DC in their hawks and I think abroad I
can strongly benefit that by firming
those up at an earlier age a lot of
times you see that and puppies have very
weak passwords every week tendons and
need to tighten up their tendons and
you know breeders and show enthusiasts
they'll wait and they'll they'll expect
that those will firm up as they mature
and they they kind of do sometimes but
they can strongly benefit from a raw
diet buy and have them firming up a
little bit quicker typical life
expectancy of a German Shepherd is 10 to
12 years ish you can see dogs push on a
lot farther than that and a lot of times
we can argue that it depends on lines
and some what does I think it depends on
genetics period and that's just like
yeah you or I or anybody else that has
that in their family they have longer
genetics a lot more longevity in their
genetics and as others have shorter
longevity and but we have found
definitely a raw diet definitely helps
expand that just through Oregon Health
is probably the predominant benefactor
of a raw diet meaning they're not having
the stresses that are having that you'll
have you know processing a lot of
preservatives every day and that takes
tremendous strain on the liver in the
kidneys and the heart and and we see
dogs break down from that quite early
cancer is another thing you'll see from
eating a large amount of preservatives
and diet of course that's that's
probably the most obvious one this is a
raw diet especially a more natural raw
diet doesn't have so many preservatives
in it or any preservatives in it at all
the only thing we used to preserve our
food is freezing it so like the first
dog you saw coming out today was Merrick
he's been raw fed for probably the last
year a little more than a year and a
half of his life he's two and a half
year old dog now the last year and a
half his life he's been strictly raw fed
he had been on some freeze-dried raw
before that and some varied kibbles and
some raw as well but he wasn't really
consistent with that before and you've
seen him mature really nicely he's added
a bunch of muscle part of that as a
conditioning for sure but a bilities to
have the nutrition nutrients delivered
into his body and the appropriate
amounts has allowed him to
that muscle his bone is and his bone
density is definitely hardened out and
become much nicer and he's always you
know from the inception of starting to
get the raw diet all of his uh his
tendons have firmed up very nicely and
strongly and so we see a very strong
tendon
the second dog we brought out was cask
the cask is turning 3 in November and
same thing he's been raw fed since he
since I obtained him at 11 months old
and he's been exclusively raw fed again
you see the tremendous coat you see the
great teeth see the excellent bone and
the muscle structure and just a very
sound dogs never had you know we don't
have the skin allergies or any of those
problems sir the third dog we had out
the female with our name is anna anna's
about the same time line of raw feeding
as merrick she actually had you know a
couple years of her life before wrong on
some higher-end kibbles and in a various
raw formulas and freeze-dried formulas
but for again for the last about year
and a half of her life she's been
strictly raw seen a great change in her
especially being it she's been a mother
a couple times over and to go right
through you know pretty large sized
litters without any issues at all plenty
of milk plenty of ability to feed and
always having an abundance of that and
and again bouncing right back from that
the weaning process isn't hasn't had any
alteration whatsoever walters yeah I've
been raw food since he was born or well
since he's been weaned actually and he's
out of our our kennel but we've
definitely had him bulk up and build
some bone density and some muscle
density yeah raw diet is incredibly
important for a puppy in my opinion the
the their growth allows them to grow at
a more natural rate or I think a large
amount of kibble you can have too many
passed down steroids preservatives
growth hormones things like that using
the diet that passes right on down to
the to the puppies a digestive tract and
and it gets absorbed and concurrently I
see those dogs you know grow at
natural rates and they're grown in
healthy rates as he saw in the last
puppy that Gabe brought out the seven
months old he's a very nice size for the
age he hasn't grown too fast he's not
having the issues like panelists ëitís
or any the growing issues that you have
in dogs that are too large too fast and
uh he's had no skin allergies or ear
infections or anything of that sort he's
been able to be a pretty healthy dog and
it's a and we've only been able to quite
easily keep you know parasitic things
under control as well again German
Shepherd is extremely versatile breed
and the great benefit from having a raw
diet it allows them to be all that they
can be and allows them to have the
energy to be that great working dog or
to put in those long hours as a service
animal and and keep them going and I
think it's for any dog that's gonna have
long hours or a high energy output it's
it's nutrition just as anything for
anyone or any athlete whether they be
canine or human four-legged or - they
need a they need the nutrition that
needs to be appropriate for them and
even if your dogs on a working dog I
feel you know health and nutrition is
important to every person it should be
important to everybody's dog as well if
you love your pets care for them they
are not able to make the nutritional
choices for themselves you have to make
those choices for them and if you really
care for them and love them you'll give
them the message nutritional values that
they can have and I believe that that
comes from a raw diet
