Healthy Choices for Dog Bodies

I was raised in a rural area of the Midwest and was very fortunate to have had a mother who placed a great deal of emphasis on her family’s nutritional needs. Homemade meals with lots of fruit and vegetables, locally raised meats and Mom’s sweet tooth that was satisfied by the likes of rhubarb sauce or sour cherry pie were daily blessings. My mom was a ‘locavore’ decades before that term was invented. In fact, she probably would have thought that whomever came up with that term was a little on the wacky side. To her way of thinking, she was doing what mothers should do—raise their kids the healthiest way possible.

For her that meant having a huge garden every summer for growing things like lettuces, peas, radishes, kohlrabi, cucumbers and cauliflower. What she didn’t grow herself she would get from a local farmer who happened to have an apple orchard or cherry trees. She would order a side of beef from my uncle in the fall and freeze the cuts of meat until the next butchering season. She and my aunts would even go driving in the countryside looking for wild asparagus that would be growing along the seldom-travelled gravel roads.To this day I still thank my mother for teaching me to eat healthful whole foods, fresh foods, and foods that aren’t sprayed with poison and laced with chemicals or GMO’s.

When my partner and I started Bark Stix 16 years ago, this food philosophy carried over into our business. We had just rescued our first greyhound and she was so malnourished from being at the track (she was no longer generating money for her owners, so she was fed just enough bad-quality food to survive) that we were disturbed. We wanted to find the healthiest food and snacks possible. Sixteen years ago, this proved to be a very difficult task. The grocery stores carried junk, and there were really not a lot of good choices in the pet supply stores either. So, in a nutshell, we started our own health-driven dog treat company.

Mom’s food philosophy has come full circle, especially in the Bay Area. In the pet world as well, we are blessed to be in an area that is filled with healthy food options. From the farmers that grow the produce and the livestock, to the small manufacturers who supply quality pet food and snacks, to the mom and pop retail stores that sell these products to their regular customers, we’re all family in a way—all dependent on each other. And you can bet all of these people want to provide the best darn product they can. If a customer has a question or a criticism, she or he can email or call and know that they’ll be able to talk to the owner of the company just by asking. Try doing that with the corporate behemoths of pet food manufacturing. Their financial bottom line is way more important to them than the health of your pet.

Unfortunately however, all these great food options do come at a higher cost. People tell me that they can’t afford to feed themselves organic and local much less their dogs and cats. I know that the high cost of living in the Bay Area can be prohibitive, and we’ve had to make hard choices as well. Feeding my dogs and myself clean food is so important to me that I’ve cut way back on eating out, watch more movies at home, and just bypass some of the little expensive habits like lattes at Peet’s. My health and the health of my dogs are my bottom lines.One of the most profound statements anyone has ever made about food was uttered over 2,000 years ago by Hippocrates, and it is especially relevant today: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”