Read Part 1 of this article here.

A while back I published a post about Canine Life’s new Muffin diet. It was so intriguing to me that Thomas and I decided to see what it was all about. I bought the pre-made muffins with turkey and sweet potato and holy cow the dogs went nuts for them. And that was it, we decided to fully commit to the home cooked diet and kick the kibble forever.

We decided to buy the muffin mix and bake our muffins at home so we could control what went in them.

The Ottawa Dog Blog Home Cooked Diet Recipe and Directions

with TONS of photos! Check out the entire set on flickr.

What You Will Need

All food prices from Loblaws unless otherwise stated

• Canine Life Pre-Mix Adult Trial Pack (20 Muffins) – $8.00 @ Bark & Fitz in Kanata
• Blueberries – $2.50
• Butternut Squash – $2.99
• Apples – $3.28 kg
• Frozen Beans – $2.00
• Eggs (free run large) – $4.19
• Safflower Oil (organic) – $4.79
• Cranberry Juice (organic) – $10.99

We now buy the 6kg bag of muffin mix ($45.00 @ Bark and Fitz) because it lasts much longer. This bag usually lasts us around 3-4 months. We use the regular muffin mix, but Canine Life also offers a gluten free and a cancer mix so you can tailor it to your dog’s specific needs.

This method of feeding is also great because you can control what goes IN the muffins. Our recipe is a lower protein mix for our dogs, but your dogs might prefer or require more protein so you would add a meat in there. The muffin mix comes with a sheet with substitution options. For example, you just need a green vegetable and an orange vegetable.

Orange vegetables are: carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, butternut, acorn or hubbard squash.
Green vegetables include: green beans, zucchini, broccoli (not if your dog has a thyroid problem)
For added protein, you can use: regular ground beef, chicken, turkey, veal, lamb, venison, ostrich, buffalo, salmon, tuna, pollack or mackarel.

The Canine Life website as a huge list of ingredients that are in the muffins to make them awesome. That list is also included in the muffin mix package.
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This article has been a long time coming; I’ve actually been writing it for over a year. To read it in pictures, check out the many, MANY photos of cooking this stew on flickr.

In May of 2009, I attended a workshop held by the Therapeutic Paws of Canada. I was there as a vendor to promote the Ottawa Dog Blog as well as my new photography business. What I didn’t realize was that I would hear a man speak that would forever change my life, and change the lives of my dogs.

Dr. Eddie Beltran is a holistic vet in Ottawa and is one of the pioneers of his field. He began to speak about the over-vaccination of our dogs (more on this later) and the harm that it causes them. He spoke about nutrition and about keeping our dogs healthy, rather than only treating them when they aren’t well. My eyes were opened that day and I remember so clearly speaking with Jill, the Pawstry Chef, who was also there as a vendor about Dr. Beltran and everything he had spoken about. The very next day I switched vets, to Dr. Beltran, and was so lucky to have my dogs accepted as his patients.

Thomas and I immediately liked him. He just has a way with dogs, and people. He knows how to read dogs and figure out things without any sort of scans, x-rays or medical drama. He took a look at both Paddington and Corduroy and was quick to tell us that they were both overweight. If anyone has seen our dogs, your reaction would probably have been the same as ours: wait? what? hold the phone? they are overweight?!?!?

When we fed our dogs kibble, we left it standing out in the bowls all the time so they could eat whenever they were hungry. Dr. Beltran explained that although we didn’t realize it, Paddington and Corduroy were competition eating, so that if one ate, the other one did as well, even if they weren’t hungry. Therefore, they were both overweight. Paddington was slightly overweight and Corduroy was quite overweight.

Taken aback by this information, Dr. Beltran went on to explain something that was so simple. He’s studied for years to find out what has the most impact on a dog to lead a healthy life and the answer is: good food and water. So simple it’s astounding!

Kibble, no matter how good quality it is, is still processed. And while feeding your dog good quality kibble is better than feeding them bad kibble, no kibble is still best of all. Dr. Beltran encouraged us to leave our kibble days behind and embark on a journey into the world of home cooked dog diet.

He explained that when you present the food to your dog every day, they begin to anticipate it and salivate which is really good for their digestive systems and does all sorts of good things for them.

We hmmmed and hawed and gave him many excuses about being too busy but he insisted we try it. He gave us a simple recipe (which we have since modified – below) and challenged us to try it “just once”. We went home, bought the ingredients and haven’t looked back since. Paddington and Corduroy’s reactions alone were enough to convince us. They more than loved it! We decided to stick to the home cooked stew in the morning and just feed kibble at night. We moved completely away from kibble a few weeks later and I will touch on that in the next installment of this article.

And after that long winded explanation about our journey into home cooked dog diets, here is what you’ve all been waiting for. This specific recipe has been tailored to fit our dogs needs from the original one by Dr. Beltran. It contains less protein than a more active or larger dog would need. There is no argument that the absolute best thing you can feed your dog is a raw diet, but we didn’t want to do that, so home cooked is the next best option.
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Once again I’d like to thank everyone who participated in this year’s Dogs in Disguise contest – whether by entering your dog in or simply casting your vote. We had over 2000 votes this year!!!

And now, what you’ve all been waiting for:

The Winners Are…

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The Bad Dog Mug Shots taken at the BARK Picnic are now ready to be downloaded. Thanks to the dogs who participated!

If you had a Bad Dog Mug Shot taken at the BARK Picnic, please follow these instructions to pick it up:

* Click here to open the album

* Find your photo and click on it to make it bigger

* Above the photo there will be a button that says: All Sizes – click on that

* Click the link of the size photo you would like to download (Square, Thumbnail, Small, Medium, Large, Original) and a link will appear that says: Download the *size you chose* size

I never ever thought I would say this, but my dog’s identity has been stolen. It was brought to my attention yesterday that someone has been using photos of my dog, Corduroy, as well as photos of myself and family, to scam people out of money. They claim that the people in the photos are them when they are actually myself, my fiancé and my two dogs, Paddington and Corduroy. The scammers stole my photos of Corduroy from my flickr website.

I have heard about this scam before. They post an ad on somewhere like UsedOttawa, Kijiji or Ebay, presumably with a photo (in this case, of Corduroy). You answer the ad and request more info to which you get a response with more photos (of Corduroy and us this time) and a speech about how they are on a religious mission to another country and that they need your full address and information along with money so that they can “ship the pupppy” to you. This is all a complete lie so that they can steal YOUR identity and money.

This scam is well documented online and if you have received ANY version of this scam, contact PhoneBusters straight away. I called my local police station who referred me to them. PhoneBusters is a team made up of the OPP and the RCMP committed to investigating internet related fraud. I have opened a case against these people and hopefully at least something can be done to stop them. Who knows how long they have been using my photos…

It is so difficult nowadays with the internet being as it is. It is easy to take someone’s photos and use them as your own. But on the other hand, I don’t want the internet privacy laws to get stricter either because that would bring a WHOLE new set of problems to the table.

The solution for now is to be proactive – to recognize a scam when you see one and contact the proper channels. We must remain educated and by all means, look into adopting a dog from your local shelter!

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