Raw Food and Aggression! - Page 1

Is there a relationship between feeding raw food and increasing the aggression in dogs? I heard it from some people, but I don't have any experience of my own yet. Say your dog is hungry, and it smells blood, would that affect the dog's behavior? Would these dogs be able to live in peace with farm animals, such as, chicken, ducks, etc.?

     I think this SHOULD answer your question. She ate Raw food. She also slept in bed with me and my kids, played in the back yard with kids for years, and I'm sure she came across more than one Skinned Knee. NO ONE WAS EVER EATEN! She ate  with puppies and kittens, and wrestled more than one horse. Never more than just my Big 'Kitty-Kat'.

I don't know alot about this .Here is what I do know..I Know a jerk who worked on a cow farm.He Is a farmer I guess,well he raised  GSDS  and started to bring home calves that had died for one reason or another,he started feeding the dead calves to his dogs with the hide still on them.I know YUCK right.well he comes home one day and finds one of his dogs killed his beef calf..has a fit about it .calls me up ranting about how much money that beef cow cost and blah blah blah.wondering how could his dog just suddenly do such a thing.Duh what a jerk !!       Funny me and kitkat were posting at the same time.She is much braver then me..

feeding raw does not increase agg. in dogs. ive been feeding it to my clan of gsd and i can actually say that they are less agg. than when on deried food.

get Ian Billinghurst book  raw diet

best regards

emir ali sadaghiani

No I don't believe there is any increased aggression with feeding raw. In fact I feed deer and elk. When walking the dogs  if they run, well my dogs would chase them a short ways (usually out of sight, couldn't hear me screaming for some reason). Then one day one was wounded and it ran to the fence, my male was in hot pursuit, when it stopped so did he, he went up to it, sniffed it and had a look like your no fun, came running back up the hill to me. This was before breakfast too!  I could come up with a couple more stories but you get the jist.

Kitkat, who is in the picture with you?

Wuzzup, from your story I understand that, that "jerk" shouldn't have fed the dead caleves with the hide still on them? That's an interesting point.

Trailrider, I like your story and I'd like to hear the others.

we feed raw and our dogs are not aggressive.  overfeeding, i.e. too much protein, might give the dog more energy than needed. if this happens you might see that s/he needs more exercise and if not given the proper exercise the excess energy might reduce the dogs self-control making the dog more impulsive. but imo this would be easily remedied by reducing the quantity of food and upping the dogs activity. 

about the gsd's killing the calf, i think it has a lot more to do with poor socializing/'job training', meaning the owner did not teach the dogs to bond with the living calves & cows so that they understood they were to protect the other animals not chase and kill them. it also sounds like he allowed his dogs to form a pack, which diminishes the 'need' for a human leader causing the dogs to begin the processing of becoming feral/independent.  perhaps the 'taste of calf' did taint the dogs but i think that is an easy 'out', just a way to shift responsibility from the owner to the dogs and that the real issue is a trainer problem.  a well bred, well raised and well maintained farm dog would not kill what is in his care no matter what s/he is being fed.  imo this is a case of poor imprinting, poor training and poor bonding and most probably poor breeding to boot, and has nothing to do with whether the calf was skinned or cut up or cooked before being fed to the dogs.

i think it's important to remember that dogs have been used as farm hands long before kibble was available and farmers were able to feed their dogs scraps from butchering etc without the dogs turning on the animals they lived with. eating raw meat and hunting and killing are very different experiences and you will only be inviting problems if you let your dogs hunt and feed themselves.  i remember as a kid my dad telling us when we took his hunting dogs (gsp's) for walks in the woods not to let them hunt rabbits because it would 'ruin' the dog.  hunting for ones dinner is a very primal skill that really should not be allowed to develop especially if you want to have your dog off leash around other animals. 

imo if you raise gsds around other animals from very young pups to desensitize and imprint on them, provide them with sufficient quantities of food so they are not so hungry that it triggers them to hunt (occassional fasting should not be a problem), train them and incorporate them into your life so they look to you for direction (basic bonding), as well as observe them and meet their needs (developing trust and loyalty) - all the things that ought to be done anyway - you will have no problem feeding raw.

another great raw resource is lonsdale's website www.rawmeatybones.com

A couple of mine are on raw, they all get periodic raw meals and treats.  I live on a small hobby ranch with many different types of animals.  I can take three of them to the barn with me, off leash, and they don't bother any animals.  Go through the middle of the flock of Guineas, ducks, geese, watch the sheep, ponies, and mules.  The barn (and house) cats play with them.    The house cats share beds with them.

I don't think feeding raw is what makes a dog aggressive.  JMO.

Lol, lol, lol.....are you having me on.

RAW feeding does not increase dog aggression. Here's a link to a list of RAW feeding myths.

www.rawfed.com/myths/