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German Shepherd Weight

19 17:36:49

Question
Hi There,
We have a 1 year old female german shepherd.  She came from a very reputable breeder.  She, now at one year only weights 50 pounds, she is 22 inches at the shoulder blades.  We are concerned whether her weight is idea.  The breeder told us that this bloodline is slow to mature, about 18 months.  She is not spayed yet.  We have her on a raw diet that the breeder provided to us.  We feed her the "Common sense frozen food" the website, commonsensedogfood.com/) only we make it ourselfs.Is she small for her age and will she grow much more.  She doesn't look "skinny", just sleek.  She has an absolutely beautiful coat, like velvet.  Do you have any suggestions on what we maybe should be feeding her or if the diet is fine. As well, how often should a dog have a bowel movement.

Answer
Your vet has seen her, and I haven't.  What does he say?  50 pounds and 22'' at the shoulder?  That sounds way too light for that height.  I have absolutely no confidence or raw or other homemade diets.  Nobody has ever given me any real proof they are better for dogs.  I see too many dogs thriving on commercial chows to buy the unsupported claims for alternative diets.  I would get her on a common brand of dog chow.  

Even those dogs fed once a day may have 2-3 bowel movements in a day.  

Suppose you knew a breeder that bred hundreds of dogs a year, mostly Labs, Shepherds, and Goldens.  They provided all the medical care for most of them the first year.  At the end of it, they did a complete physical including hip X-rays on all of them.  They then spent $35,000 training them before giving them away.  They have a large data base of breeding records.  Dogs with any physical or temperamental problems are unfit for the program and are a waste.  Their well equipped clinic and vet staff are available for serious problems as long as the dog is working.  When the dog is no longer able to work, it is replaced at again the $35,000 plus a large emotional upheaval for the person depending on the dog. They have experimented with different diets and exchanged data with other such breeders.  Don't you think that what ever they are feeding is healthy and safe?  What kinds of controlled studies do you have backing your choice of diet?  How objective are the sources of your information?  Is your dog's health, their top priority?

I have been raising puppies since 1991 for a large dog guide school that does exactly that.  What do they feed?  They instruct us to feed Pro Plan chicken and rice puppy chow until 4 months and then switch to adult Pro Plan chicken and rice.  I know enough of the people with the trained dogs to know they continue the Pro Plan.  The group I meet with monthly for training includes people that have raised puppies for 6 different service dog schools.  Some of them are feeding other premium commercial chows including Iams and Eukanuba.  Any dog owner wanting a healthy, long lived dog can make this regimen work, leaving more time to spend on the dog.  It is also relatively economical.

The BARF and other raw diets are built on many fallacies, starting with the idea the chicken from the supermarket is similar to natural prey.  Not so.  At the processing plant, all the nutritious insides including the organ meats are removed.  They are sold to the commercial dog food producers.  Have you ever seen a predator eat a kill?  What do they eat first?  Right, all those nasty byproducts that go into the commercial dog food.  

The AVMA condemns the BARF diet.  And they are not concerned about contaminating you and your families food handling all that raw meat in your house.  The FDA and the CDC are.  If you do go with it, practice good sanitation.