Feeding Your German Shepherd Dog, Part 1

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Here at German Shepherd Watchdogs, all our dogs—whether they are our trained Schutzhund dogs or family protection dogs—are fed a natural raw diet that includes raw meat, bones, and organs. In our experience, we feel this diet provides the best nutritional support to both our working dogs and family protection dogs. We encourage feeding a raw diet over a highly processed commercial diet for several reasons.

First, your trained German Shepherd Dog is primarily a carnivore. Their unique anatomy and physiology are designed for a diet high in meat-based protein and fat and low in carbohydrates. Unfortunately, most processed commercial foods are the exact opposite: high in carbohydrates, and much lower in protein and fat. This places an extensive burden on all of the dog’s body systems, and can incite degenerative and inflammatory issues in these systems. Some of the first and most common signs are foul-smelling breath and ear or skin problems such as ear infections, yeasty ears, skin infections, hot spots or excessive itchiness that leads to much scratching, licking, and chewing.

Second, like all animals your German Shepherd Dog thrives on fresh, real food. Dr. Francis Pottenger’s famous meat experiments demonstrated this conclusively, testing the effects of various meat-based diets over 10 years with a colony of 900 cats. Published in 1983, this study clearly showed that the cooked diets resulted in various degenerative diseases and overall poor health in the animals and their offspring, whereas the cats fed raw food thrived and continued to thrive with each successive generation.

Third, we have fed this type of diet to our trained German Shepherd Dogs for over 10 years, and have seen first-hand the difference a raw diet makes with our own dogs and the dogs we import. We have seen many dogs become transformed on raw diets. Their coats become shiny, glossy, and thick, and they do not stink or feel greasy. Their skin becomes more elastic and healthy, and skin problems and food allergies seem to disappear. Stained teeth and rancid breath are replaced by clean white teeth and fresh breath. Energy levels and muscle tone increase, and the dogs appear much more robust and healthy. Once people meet our dogs, the difference a raw diet makes becomes very apparent; soon they are asking how to feed a raw diet in order to achieve this level of health!

Next blog we will talk more about what we feed, but until then, please research the benefits of raw diets for your German Shepherd Dog.

A sampling of informative websites:

Informative books:

Raw Dog Food: Make It Easy for You and Your Dog!, by Carina Beth MacDonald. This book is simple and streamlined, and gets into the nuts and bolts of feeding a raw diet. It also includes information on feeding vegetables, if one is so inclined. It is one of the most accessible and straightforward raw diet books out there for people new to raw feeding.

Raw Meaty Bones, by Tom Lonsdale. This book is best for discussing WHY we should feed raw; this extensively researched book would be the book to hand to your veterinarian if they are reticent about your decision to feed a raw diet.