Join Savannah and Jeremiah as they dive into the world of holistic pet care, focusing specifically on dogs. They share valuable insights on the importance of a holistic diet and nutrition tailored to your dog's age, breed, and lifestyle, emphasizing that what they consume can significantly impact their health. The hosts discuss various aspects of dog care, including mindfulness, physical activity, socialization, and emotional health, all of which contribute to a well-rounded, happy pet. With personal anecdotes and experiences, they highlight their journey of transitioning their dogs to a raw diet and the benefits they've observed. Tune in for practical tips and expert advice, especially as they prepare to welcome a holistic veterinarian to answer your burning questions about animal health.

Takeaways:

• Feeding dogs a holistic diet requires consideration of their age, breed, and activity level.
• Mindfulness, socialization, and physical play are crucial for your dog's emotional health.
• Holistic veterinary care should focus on natural treatments and minimal interventions when possible.
• Regular monitoring of your dog's health, including their poop and behaviors, is essential.
• Establishing a strong bond with your dog is key to effective training and communication.
• Dogs thrive in environments where they can explore, socialize, and engage with their surroundings.

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Foreign.

And welcome back to Casting Seeds.

I'm Savannah, your holistic health practitioner and host.

And I'm Jeremiah, your co host.

And you're listening to the only holistic health podcast that gives you God's singular truth to give you individualized discernment.

We are doing our part two of holistic pets, specifically dogs, because that's what we have.

So this week, we're going to be talking about holistic diet and nutrition, what that looks like for dogs.

We are also going to go over alignment and massage and whether or not that's even important for your animals.

We're also going to be going over mindfulness and mental stimulation, also physical activity in play, because that's kind of with it, but still separate.

We're also going to talk about socialization and emotional health of your dog.

And then lastly, like, holistic veterinary care, what we did and what we didn't do.

And in a few weeks, we're going to have a holistic vet on the podcast that's going to answer any questions that you guys have about any animals that you have.

So send those into us, and we'll be able to ask Dr.

Bates specific questions about all sorts of different animals and how she would treat them, because she specializes in large animal and small animal, which is very rare in veterinary medicine.

So we are super excited for that.

And she's going to be listening to these episodes and tell us whether or not she agrees with things that we have done or haven't done.

So there's a little bit of extra added pressure for that as well.

And she's going to be honest.

You know why?

Because she's a good personal friend.

Yeah.

She's going to have no qualms whatsoever calling us out and telling us we're dumb or not dumb for doing certain things.

So, on to holistic diet and nutrition.

What do you.

What are, like some.

Some big yeses for you?

Okay, holistic diet, nutrition.

This depends.

And I think if you.

If you have a pen and paper, I would write this down.

This depends on the age of your dog, the breed of your dog, the lifestyle that you live with your dog, how active or inactive they are.

And I don't know, I would also say, like, the environment that you live in as well, because your dog may be going into your backyard and you may not be realizing that some of the things that your animals are eating are actually bad for their diet.

And it's not the diet that you're feeding them that's making them sick.

It's things that they happen to be getting into around your house.

So with diet and nutrition, this kind of covers a lot.

The same way that I feel like the training kind of sprinkled into a lot of the things that we're going to be mentioning today.

It's like we.

We kind of went over all the things generally with training.

Yeah.

So for our dogs that are border Aussies, they're half border collie, half Australian shepherds.

Dr.

Bates is actually the first person who told us that Ivermectin.

So, like, a lot of people tend to get herding dogs to be around horses, but ivermectin is something that Australian shepherds in particular, and a lot of herding dog breeds are severely allergic to.

So if they try to eat horse poop and things like that, which ivermectin is in a lot.

In a lot of horse poop, it actually makes them really sick.

I don't know if it can kill them.

I don't remember, but I remember her saying it can make them really, really sick.

Yeah.

I don't remember if it would kill them.

But I do know the reason why she told us is because we live in a horse community.

Yeah.

And all of our paths have.

All our hiking paths and even road paths have horse poop on it.

Yeah.

Even our own street sometimes.

Yeah.

We'll have.

That was so weird the first time we saw that.

Yeah.

On our main street, I was like, outside my front yard, there was a horse.

And there's no dirt around here.

It's all pavement.

So that was.

Yeah.

We have police and also just people owning their own horses.

Yeah.

So that's what I meant by environment.

That there can be things around or even just herbs or plants or fruits and vegetables that your dogs could be allergic to that you don't even know they're getting into.

Before we get into what we think is one of the best diets for animals in general, but specifically dogs, I would also like to get give a caveat in the fact that the same way that we talk about if you guys listen to any of the body mapping episodes, that you have to pay attention to your body parts and understand what they're telling you.

So many people on the Internet and everywhere around brag about their dog's frito paws, about their, like, kind of stinky coat or things like that.

Yeah.

Not that they really love, like, a stinky dog, but it's like the dog smell that they love.

Like, they fall in love with their dog smell.

And what they don't realize is that when your dogs actually have Frito paws.

That's a yeast build up in their paws and also in their gut.

And it means that the things that they were eating was actually not good for them.

So the same way that when humans are really stinky, when we have extra bad, extra like stinky BO for women, when your menstrual cycle smells off or funky or even just in general down there, poop, urine, breath, anything, your hair, anything that you can think of that feet that could be stinky or smelly, you shouldn't be that way unless you're sitting in your own excess sweat all day.

Like, that's the only time that it should kind of ferment and be gross because bacteria is brewing in that area.

But outside of that, if you just work out one time and it's like you're in the sauna and you smell and it's gross, like really bad, nasty BO that means that the food that you're eating is not good for you.

So let's translate that into animals.

If your dogs have Frito paws, that means the food that you're giving them is causing a yeast buildup and bacteria in their paws and in their gut.

Your dog's toes, your, their little toe beans should not smell like Fritos.

And babe, you know, like we've given, we've tested with the dog's diet will sometimes give.

Like sometimes the dogs will go over to my parents house and we'll literally know when they've had something they shouldn't have eaten because they'll cuddle with us.

And what happens, we'll smell their feet.

Or we'll take them for a walk and we see the change in their poops.

Yeah, yeah, we see that.

It's like, it's a tall tale.

It's like.

Yeah.

What is that thing that parents do?

It's like they tell their children your tongue turns black when you lie.

We know when you're lying.

And then they don't want to show their tongue when they speak.

There's one too.

Like your eyes turn green or something.

Like bright green.

And kids will to close their eyes while they're talking to their.

That's funny.

So they don't see the eyes.

Yeah, but like we, we care about our dog's fecal matter.

Jeremiah and I almost got chickens and their fecal matter.

Actually, we have a, a compost pile in our backyard with our dog's poop.

And there are tons of grubs in there.

It's like very rich, beautiful, amazing soil that we've been accumulating over two years.

And we were really excited to feed the chickens those grubs because we give our dogs all, all natural food.

And it would have been a perfect little ecosystem.

But obviously we decided no on the chickens, which now I'm realizing that we could have said yes.

Yeah.

With this whole thing.

That will be a.

A different episode where we talk about some future things happening with Jeremiah and I.

But we realized that if we didn't give our dogs the diet that we do give them and the variety that we give them, we wouldn't be able to see how one little change that we make can drastically affect their fecal matter.

And it made us start to realize how important it is to even check our own feces and urine in that way.

So living in a holistic lifestyle with your pet and animal is important, and it's actually deeply rooted into what we've always done in society and culture.

For thousands of years, that's how we've cultivated animals.

That's how we've cultivated livestock.

And this is actually a normal thing and a normal process.

The same way that you check your dog's poop for worms and things like that.

Humans used to do the same thing and check that for themselves.

So, yeah, there are lots of different ways you can obviously go about this.

And I want to say, too, that the same thing with humans, how there are different backgrounds and races of people and DNA backgrounds in general.

It's going to be important for you to do the best diet and nutrition for your specific dog and breed and background.

Yeah.

So this is not a one size fits all.

We will say what we give our dogs.

Um, Dr.

Bates also told us she was the only vet that we ever spoke to that made this clear, uh, that most herding dogs also, especially Australian shepherds, do not do well with eggs or chicken.

And we did end up testing that.

And every time our dogs ate chicken or eggs, their fur was stinky and their paws got really Frito smelling, even though the dogs loved it.

And they would be itchy all over, they'd scratch.

So love.

I don't know if you want to talk about how we gradually got our dogs into more of a raw diet, because it take.

It took about two years for our dogs to get there.

No, it was shorter than that.

We, We.

We first started with that raw diet.

Kibble.

That came with a kibble and a.

A raw dehydrated meat.

And then we use that.

We did that for, like, the first six months of both of them.

And then we started to gradually, like, Give them raw turkey, raw beef.

Yeah.

And not a lot, like, not their whole meal, but we started to just wing them on to that and then.

But for it to become their full meal, it did take about a solid two years, especially for Atlas's diet.

About to say that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because we got him at three months, not at eight weeks like we did with Holly.

So that was the other thing, too.

Depending on where you get your dog from, if you get your dog from the pound or from like a friend for family, their health history, you can't just shock their system and get them automatically into all healthy food.

Same thing with humans.

Yeah.

You can't just go all at once and do, like a swing because it's bad for their gut.

Biome.

Yeah.

Like, one of the things that we also really try to do is introduce organ meats mainly.

And I think that's what helped us get more into the raw food diet, because the organ meats were, I think, really helping their.

Their gut.

And then as we learned, we realized that we needed more fiber in their diets for their poops and stuff.

Yeah.

And then once we figured that out, we were able to go full raw with.

With the right amount of fiber and the right amount of vitamin powder that we use.

Yeah.

So our breeds are, you know, they're not wolves.

They.

I mean, I'm sure they descend from wolves, like, thousands of generations, but it's not the same.

So our breeds need to have a variety of fiber, but we also were giving them too much of card.

What is it, the fiber?

I'm trying not to say carnivorous, cruciferous.

Cruciferous.

What is the fiber?

Like broccoli and things like that.

You're the holistic health practitioner.

I know, but I can't remember it right now.

Anyway, it's the broccoli that like broccoli and those types of things can give dogs a lot of bloating and gas and give them diarrhea.

So we realized that we had to cut back on certain fibers that can be caused bloating and gas, and give them very specific fibers.

So we're going to talk about a raw or like a natural diet.

Most holistic pet owners prefer feeding their dogs raw or minimally.

It's mostly like a minimally processed diet.

For Jeremiah and I, we've noticed our dogs prefer cooked food or warmed food.

So we do heat up in, like, a tea kettle, hot water, and we kind of do a mixture.

I make like a.

A plant mixture with rice and different veggies, and it's Kind of seasonal veggies, whatever's in season.

But normally it's a ton of pumpkin because our dogs do really well with pumpkin.

So we get, like a giant thing of pumpkin puree, mix it with the rice, and then what we do.

Carrots, peas.

I'm just trying to think what's in that vegetable melody.

Melody?

Yeah, it's a vegetable melody that comes in a frozen pack.

Oh, never heard of that.

It has, like, a bunch of different veggies in it, but not the ones that cause, like, gaseous stuff.

Blueberries, strawberries, sometimes mango.

I just kind of mix it all up.

And whatever is also cheapest at the store because they're also dogs.

They're not.

They're not humans.

I want them to live a healthy life, but I'm not going to go get the crazy best organic stuff for them.

It doesn't matter.

We buy during the seasons and also during the sales.

Yeah, exactly.

And we also switch it out between turkey, beef, and tuna.

Tuna cans are our favorite because especially for backpacking and stuff, you can just kind of throw them in a bag and then open it for them.

But it's so easy.

So you just have their veggie part and then you have their meat part, the tuna.

I noticed that they're.

The turkey raw, they do best with especially Atlas.

He has more.

More of a sensitive stomach.

But Holly's like our special.

She can eat anything.

She does really well with beef.

Again, these dogs, though, like our bread and are from more of, like, the Highlands of Ireland and Scotland there and also Australia.

They're around beef and would be eating more beef naturally from their DNA and their background.

So, I mean, that's.

So that's what we feed them.

We did have to wean them when they were puppies slowly off of the processed kibble that they had from their previous owners that we got them from or that they were technically saved from, like Atlas.

Dr.

Bates recommended that.

Yeah.

So we slowly did it.

But I do wish that we listened to her more when she said, do not introduce a ton of different varieties of meats and foods.

Savannah was excited.

She try the mussels, try the shrimp.

Yeah, I definitely.

I gave them tons of different things.

I did not wait a year for their gut to get normal.

We should have stuck to one or two, possibly.

But she even said one, just one protein and get them used to that for a year.

So that took a long time.

And then I think we would've avoided a lot of gut problems for Atlas if I was a good listener.

But I Wasn't.

Uh, but yeah, we also do supplements.

We.

Every once in a while we did fish oil, but I actually put muscles in their food and give them that omega fatty acid or sometimes anchovies.

Yeah.

So that's really good for them.

Spirulina and just gut probiotics, which we actually use through fullscript.

So we give everybody who listens to our podcast 20% off on fullscript.

You can use it for humans and for pets, and we can write down the ones that we get, which actually cuts it down to, like, only $10 a bottle.

And it lasts us over a month for all their vitamins and minerals, which adds, like, zinc, iron, protein, like, so many things that are awesome for them.

Folic acid and.

Yeah, I know that.

Folate and folic acid.

Yes, we give them folic acid.

Again, they're dogs.

So, yeah, we.

But we just make sure that in general, whether it's making their treats, because Jeremiah dehydrates meat, sometimes we give them a lot of fat scraps.

Jeremiah and I eat really clean, so even our leftovers, we give to them.

We'll throw it in the rice and have it cook in the rice.

And they love that.

Yeah.

We also want to make it clear, too, that most Thanksgiving foods are not safe for dogs.

There's a ton of herbs, except that.

Pumpkin pie if it's sugar free.

Yeah, your dogs will love you for that.

But most of them have a ton of garlic and onion and things that are just so unhealthy and not safe for dogs.

Jeremiah and I try to stay away from, like, corn and soy and preservatives and a lot of cheese.

Our own bodies, too.

Yeah, this.

Literally, the things that Jeremiah and I eat are what our dogs eat and vice versa.

We just eat a way better version.

Yeah, I know we offended some people.

The other day we went to Costco, which is a little hack that we do for our dogs.

We go and get the 10 pound ground beef at Costco for our dogs, and then we weigh it out and feed it to them each day.

So I get the 10 pound ground beef and I have to ask for it special because you get a big discount.

And some guy was like, oh, my gosh, how'd you get that?

What are you using that for?

Are you having a party?

And I was like, this is our dog's beef.

And then he looked at me confused, and I was like, yeah, we get.

We get a half cow.

Like, we get a cow.

So my husband and I don't need it.

This is.

We get ground beef from the grocery store for our dogs.

And he's like, that's what we eat.

And I was like, have a great day.

Like, I didn't.

I didn't.

I just felt so bad and awkward.

And he was really nice.

And then we talked about where to get cows from.

So it's funny because I know a.

Lot of bodybuilders, they post about it.

It's like, oh, I buy my ground beef over here.

I'm like, good for you, because that's my dog food.

Yeah.

And there's no.

Honestly, there's no judgment there because we understand that times are also hard.

Yeah.

And I think we were just planning for that, and we understood that.

So we knew that we want to eat as clean as possible.

And we went in with my family and bought a half cow.

So we made it affordable for us.

And some people also do that for themselves as well.

And we have a few friends that do that with their families.

Yeah.

So just know that you can actually make what seems like unaffordable food for yourself affordable for you.

Yeah.

But that actually, us making our dog food, even getting the more lean beef and stuff like that, going to butchers, sometimes I'll just be at, like, a Vaughn's and I'll be like, do you have any leftover scraps?

And then I get things for free.

So just stuff like that we'll buy.

Like, our filler is more of, like, beef liver.

Yeah.

We could buy beef liver at our local market for, like, $2 a pound.

And we'll buy like, 15, 20 pounds.

Or even other weird organs like heart and eyes and things like that that our dogs love.

Yeah.

We just found a place that sells the turkey.

Turkey?

Yeah, Giblets.

Yeah.

So we'll be buying a couple pounds.

Of that $4 for, like.

Yeah.

It's just so cheap.

Yeah.

So it's stuff like that.

See, like, Jeremiah and I are really thrifty, and we look at those things and we think, oh, my gosh, that's going to be great for the dogs.

Or that would be great for us.

So.

But we tend to get our meat more from farmers.

So when I'm at the grocery store and we see really good sales of meat, we immediately think of our dogs.

This is also easier, though.

We don't have kids, so we're not thinking about those things.

But it's just a lifestyle that we cultivated before we had a big family, so it's just kind of easy for us.

And once every week and a half, I have to remake the veggie Rice dish thing for the dogs.

I make it in bulk so it just, it's, it's really simple for us.

And then when we start running low on meat, we either go get the tuna, turkey or beef and.

Yeah, and we'll, we'll switch it up, you know, if we had tuna in our last purchase and we'll do turkey the next purchase or beef and yeah, it, they enjoy it so they don't get bored of it.

Yeah.

And even if they did, I don't care.

They're dogs.

It's whatever we can afford.

Anyway, let's jump over to herbal remedies because I kind of like how our dogs really enjoy taking pills.

Yeah, they do.

So we accidentally got a surplus of heart and soil supplements and Jeremiah and I were like, we, we actually got an extra box and I knew I wasn't going to get through it very quickly so I used some of the extra liver powder and would put it on our dog's food or use it as like a treat every once in a while when we were low on regular liver and things like that that they normally eat.

So that's a special thing.

And it's a very expensive thing to give to dogs.

They don't get that often.

But now they like taking all of their pills.

Yeah.

So now if I do like a pill clinkly sound, they will literally run over and think that they're getting a treat even if it's not one.

But honestly, like a lot of herbal teas cool down, especially chamomile is probably the biggest one that we use.

People talk about using lavender quite often, but it's in the menthol family and I think we talked about this last week.

So anything that's in the menthol family is not healthy or safe for dogs to consume.

Or cats.

Uh, and then catnip obviously is great for cats and it helps get them kind of excited and loosey goosey.

And it's also calming for humans.

We love using calendula for our dogs, especially for when there are.

A few times our dogs got blisters on their paws when they were running around on the concrete at my parents house and we made a calendula salve for them and that was great.

And the dogs would lick it off, which was healing internally, but it also stayed on their palms externally.

Uh, I haven't used a ton of echinacea for them, but I know that echinacea is safe for most breeds.

I would still check with your veterinarian because we have not personally used Echinacea ever.

With our dogs, it's mostly been chamomile.

And dogs can eat ginger, but just know it's warming.

And it can also get them, like, really antsy and, like, wanting to run around.

And it can give them diarrhea if you give them too much.

Anything warming can possibly cause diarrhea, but if your dog has constipation, it is safe and okay to use ginger again, using it for motion sickness and stuff.

I still.

Chamomile is like the go to for all of those things.

Calming.

I know people use also marijuana for their dogs and CBD oil.

I do think those things are great, but they're so expensive.

And chamomile is just such an easy way to get dogs to take it.

And we tend to like to do the tincture because our dogs won't drink, like, chamomile tea.

They don't.

They smell it and they walk away.

Yeah, most dogs do.

It's not like their.

Their favorite thing in the world.

Um, but yeah, Jeremiah and I have used it a lot also.

If you give your dog too much chamomile, it can make them urinate themselves because they lose control of their bladder.

So just be aware that five drops equates to one cup of tea.

And we use about 30 drops on Holly, and she's 40 pounds, and you can see her just kind of relax.

We use it for fireworks, for stress, for anything.

Road trips.

Yeah, yeah.

Anything that you could think of.

And then what was the other one we did with the Atlas for his ear infection?

Oh, yeah.

Apple cider vinegar.

Yeah.

When Atlas had an ear infection because he ate a bunch of stuff that he shouldn't have eaten, that actually cured his ear infection for several days, I think, like a week.

Yeah, yeah.

Every day we did it, like once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once at night.

We just poured.

I don't know.

I got one of those.

What are those?

Those plastic syringes.

Yeah.

You could like, give children and dogs and stuff.

Yeah, yeah.

And then I just went.

Yeah.

Into his ear.

Yeah.

And he hated it.

But when he took it off and when he was.

Yeah, ears cooled down instantly.

Yeah.

He felt better.

And he had come and nuzzle us and, like, say thank you.

Which actually kind of goes into our next section, which is massage and chiropractic.

So, love, do you want to kind of explain how we did this?

Because we had to train our dogs to be able to receive it.

Well, yeah, our dogs.

Okay.

My wife, Savannah, she does this for a living.

She Is a massage therapist.

She's a muscle alignment.

She gently started to get our dogs used to just her hands being in areas of the dog's bodies that were hurt or they felt injured.

And the dogs really started to trust her.

And so Savannah started working into those deep tissue areas, and they released, and the dogs really took to it.

They really enjoyed it.

Right after they're done with their.

Their release, like, they just wanted to give her so many kisses and everything.

And the dogs really appreciate it.

And to the point where now they actually ask for it.

Yeah.

They'll go up to her, lay down next to her, and, like, give her the paw that hurts.

Or lay on their backs and, like, spread their.

Their chest and their tummies.

Yeah.

It kind of became, like, the way that you can read your own kids.

It's easy to tell when your dogs, like, want something.

I don't know.

It's like you understand their communication.

People who have animals know exactly what we're talking about, and it's more than just, like, a nuzzle.

They literally will, like, look at you like they're in pain, and you're like, what's wrong?

But, yeah, the we with Holly, we took her on a hike when she was a little too little.

And again, Dr.

Bates warned us that their hips, like, don't take them on big hikes until they're over a year old because their hips are growing into place, and you can cause hip dysplasia.

And after this one hike, it wasn't even that.

It wasn't supposed to be, but it.

Was just the size of the rocks.

Yeah.

It ended up becoming boulders because we accidentally went off trail.

Do you remember?

Yeah.

And so we were with another dog also.

Yeah.

And so she wanted to follow the other dog.

Another dog's a little bit bigger.

A lot bigger.

And so we actually ended up.

We got home, and I could see her right hip was much higher than her left hip.

And I just slowly, over the next two days, I just kind of put my hand and sunk it into her tummy, because I know how to do alignment therapy.

And we didn't do, like, a quick adjustment, but you could feel a muscle kind of twisted, and it finally released, and she yelped a little, and I wanted to cry, but then she felt so much better, and you could see her shake it off.

So Atlas took a lot longer because he came from an abusive home, and we really.

It took months and months for him to kind of get used to it.

But, I mean, it's just like with any pet and training.

You have to be consistent and loving and gentle and kind.

And Jeremiah would do a really good job at, like, holding their head and, like, kissing them and saying, good boy, good girl, while I was doing it.

So kind of was a two person activity.

But it's also the same way that I train, actually parents to do alignment work on their kids.

So.

Yeah.

I do love acupressure, canine massage, and what is it?

Chiropractic.

If it's atlas.

Gets adjusted once a month.

Yeah.

He came to us with a little bit of hip dysplasia.

Yeah.

And we're praying that it slowly will go away because we've been building up his joints and we'll see.

Yeah.

And also his diet, it really.

That really helps.

You give him stuff that bring down inflammation.

And then also just how you exercise your dogs.

Yeah.

Which that kind of goes into the next section.

I kind of want to blend, like, mindfulness and mental stimulation and physical activity, because I think.

I agree.

I think they're all the same.

Yeah.

I think a lot of people kind of separate them, and I understand that because one is more like interactive toys and puzzles.

Yeah.

And then the other ones going out on walks and thinking about physical health.

But the same way that for humans, that's all cohesively one.

Like, being mindful and having mental stimulation means that you have to have physical stimulation.

Wax on, wax off.

Yeah, exactly.

So for our dogs, again, this depends on the breed.

Right.

If you have a Cavalier, which is like.

I don't.

Do you know what that is, honey?

Yeah, it's a.

The cute little mean dogs.

No.

What?

Cavaliers.

They're so sweet.

They could be a little mean.

No, that's from, like, Ladies lady and the Tramp.

She's a Cavalier.

Yeah.

Get out of here.

They're like, the sweetest dogs.

Most of the ones I've met have a little bit of aggravation in them.

I don't know who you're around, but those are mean people.

If they're cavaliers or mean.

Just.

Some dogs are just.

They got that attitude, you know, like Chihuahuas and Pomeranians.

Jeremiah is doggist.

He likes big dogs.

Any dog under, like, 30 pounds is kind of mad at the world.

Oh, my gosh.

Anyway, so with mental stimulation, we noticed that our dogs were the most mentally stimulated.

It didn't matter how many toys or things that we got for them.

The reason why we got a second dog is because Holly did so well and was more mentally stimulated with dogs.

Yeah.

Like that social aspect.

Dogs need a pack, and that's why?

We also didn't crate train because we wanted our dog to be able to roam and have that stimulation inside and outside and be independent.

And honestly, we're so thankful that we got a second dog.

Like, at first everyone was like, what are you thinking?

Yeah.

But it was a little hard at first, you know, financially and also just like time consuming because now we had to retrain and everything.

And Yeah, I didn't think.

We thought about how Atlas was going to be so much bigger and need to eat so much more.

Yeah, that was another thing.

Yeah, Just things that you don't think about.

Yeah, we were not.

I mean, also, we weren't expecting them to be as big as they are.

Yeah, they both got much bigger than we thought that they would.

But I mean, it just.

It's one thing that you budget for and then you make time for.

But honestly, the toys and the puzzles, you would have to really train your dog to get super into toys and puzzles.

We were doing that.

We've named certain toys and they know to how to go get them and pick them out.

Um, Border collies are super intelligent.

So that was really easy for us to train.

But honestly, like, the positive reinforcement training and playing message methods with our dogs make made it so that they can go and play and grab toys and have that freedom within the house and they have that confidence consistently.

Um, same thing with physical activity.

If we did not train our dogs properly, physical activity and play would suck.

Like, yeah, I accidentally trained Holly to growl while she plays because I was growling with her.

I was like.

And I was like, playing with the toys.

And now she does that with all the other dogs.

And I'm like, yeah, I wish I didn't do that.

And then Atlas is just quietly playing.

I'm like, that's perfect.

He's like our gentle, good boy.

Yeah.

So that's it.

Like, there are things that you just.

You learn that, you know, I wish it was a child.

And we could say verbally, like, yeah, but we.

And we try to undo it, but it's kind of hard.

And Jeremiah and I have also admitted, like, there are things with physical activity.

Like, Holly still pulls a lot on the leash.

We wish that we didn't have to feel like we retrained that almost every single time we take them out.

So we are saving to obviously work with a trainer.

But I mean, at the end of the day, they're such good dogs and they do have also natural behaviors that we want them to be able to do, which is like, a healthy amount of barking.

Or even growling if they want to tell another dog to keep their distance.

And even Atlas now every time.

So the first time, ambulances went by and they sat for a long time in front of us.

Jeremiah and Atlas and Holly and I were on the street corner and we howled jokingly, like, with the sirens.

And we realized we accidentally trained it after that day.

A lot of dogs like to howl at sirens.

I know, but they were just sitting there like good, normal dogs.

Yeah.

And then today we took our dogs on a walk and a bunch of sirens went by, and Atlas started going, oh, don't get me wrong, it was so cute.

It's so cute.

But, like, we looked at each other and we were like, we did that on accident.

And Jeremiah goes, not on accident.

So it's just that kind of stuff where you're like, dang, yeah, maybe we aren't so stoked that we trained those things, but also, it kind of is like, good memory.

So you have to figure out what type of training and physical activity and play works best with your lifestyle and also with your dog.

Like, we are super excited to go take our dogs backpacking.

But it's other animals and other dogs that we wouldn't trust.

So they.

We would keep them on leash the whole time.

Yeah.

Our dogs listen really well to us, and we know that they would obey us no matter what.

But at the end of the day, we have to be protective over them.

So, yeah, we try to run our dogs as much as possible and walk them and play with them.

And they love more than just walking and going on a hike.

They love playing and they love sniffing things.

Like, those enrichment things are so important for your animals, for your cats, dogs, hamsters, fish, even.

Like, they have to have some sort of enrichment.

So if you're not understanding or taking the time to get to know your animal and what's best for it, then you really aren't giving your animal the best life that it can have.

It's interesting.

I was just thinking this.

All animals are territorial.

Oh, yeah.

And if the animal never has an opportunity to smell its own territory or like other animals, that's.

That really sucks.

Yeah.

It doesn't get to have any type of relationship.

Just never thought of that.

That's why there are dogs.

Like, they're just mean and aggressive because they don't know how to interact with other dogs.

They just sat in a backyard their whole lives or they sat in a house.

Like, a tiny little dog can sit in a House its whole life.

So, yeah, we just want to make sure that we're being good stewards of God's creation, as we've been called to do since Genesis.

But let's go into.

In general, I think one of the.

Before we go into veterinary care is the last one, socialization and emotional health.

Because I feel like we were just kind of talking about that.

When you talk about stimulating your dog, socialization is so important.

And I'm not going to just talk about socializing with other dogs.

I'm going to say also with, like, different ages of children.

When we first got our puppies, we invited everyone over, right?

Yeah.

To socialize.

All ages.

I mean, Samuel.

How old was he at that time?

We had our friend bring over their son, and he was just barely walking, and when he saw the puppy, he was, like, stoked, and they just really clicked.

Holly loves kids.

She.

She's a little standoffish at first.

At first.

And I think that's a really healthy boundary for a dog to have, to just get a feel for the people that are new into her home or the area.

And then Atlas.

Atlas, on the other hand, with kids.

He didn't really like kids in the beginning.

No, he did them.

We had issues with one of our.

Our neighbors throwing cans.

They had a bunch of kids, and they'd throw soda cans and things at our dogs.

It was horrible.

And I also think the kids where he previously lived kicked him.

The kick him into the house because he had issues with doorways and other people walking through them.

Yeah.

And it was specifically with kids because he just ran away when kids showed up.

He didn't trust him.

And what's funny is now they're the opposite.

Yeah.

Holly.

I mean, Holly's actually good.

I feel like the more we've brought them into public places and socialize them, they're so good.

But she wants.

Holly would rather walk around them and, like, have kids chase her and play.

Yeah.

And Atlas will just sit there and let them pet.

But we also.

Our dogs know that we have stood up for them.

Like, Atlas doesn't like being Peter on top of his head, which, by the way, most dogs don't.

So when kids come over, we always tell them, put your hand low and let the dog sniff your hand and then pet underneath first.

So, like, giving our dogs the space and the choice to allow yes or no so that little kids don't just, like, get up in their face.

Yeah.

And there's times Atlas is like, no, I'm not in the mood.

And he walks Away.

And I'm like, I'm sorry.

Next time maybe.

Yeah.

And I think those types of socialization situations are healthier than just interacting with other dogs.

Yeah.

We mentioned in the other episode that we are not stoked.

Two dogs meeting on leash.

And you guys can go listen to that, because I don't want to get into that all over again.

But I will say human interactions are really important and of all ages.

And supervised also.

Yes.

Not.

Not without you.

Or letting your dog just run off somewhere or letting someone run up to you really quickly and be aggressive with you and.

Or your pet.

But even, like, just sitting at a restaurant or sitting at a park and letting people walk by.

Just those types of general situations where your dog is going to be stimulated by seeing things and letting them whine or setting the boundary of, like, hey, you've been whining for a minute.

No.

And then when they're quiet, giving them treats and just telling that they're doing a good job.

These types of things of just doing life with your dog.

This was really hard for Jeremiah.

So hard.

He.

The stress of us going out to a restaurant and having to constantly correct them that Jeremiah was like, I can't relax when they're there.

And I was like, yeah, I know, but that's kind of the point.

If we do the work now, then when they're older, then we don't have to stress.

And I think even though that really took him out of his boundary and I kind of pushed it a little bit, I.

How are you happy that I did that?

Happy?

Yes.

I found joy in the fact that they're great now, but in the moment.

In the moment, I was not happy.

I'm not very good with interacting with, like, new environments for dogs and kids.

It stresses me out a little bit because, like, I need to keep an eye on it and I need to know what's going on because I just get a little worried.

Yeah.

And you get a little overstimulated, too.

Yeah.

Like, I'm like a dog.

No, no.

It's just you care and you want to make sure everything's okay instead of.

And I have to constantly tell them, like, take a breather.

Just let things happen.

It's okay.

Like, let the dog make a mistake or, like, let a kid make a mistake and let them learn from that mistake, otherwise they never will.

Right.

So it's also, you, like, God is so good bringing couples together that way where we can work together and kind of work off of that.

If you're a single person listening to this and you have a pet, if you're not getting the results that you want, maybe think in kind of the opposite direction that you were going.

Like, if you're used to over training and overbearing that pet, maybe take a step back and let your pet freak out and fail for a moment, and then let them have their thing and let them realize it and let them come to you.

People think that dogs can't do that.

Oh, our dogs know when they've done something wrong.

Yeah, they do.

Have you ever heard that?

Oh, what are they called saying dogs don't step on the same trip over the same rock twice?

No.

Yeah.

Once they learn their lesson, they learn it for good.

In the Bible, it says, though a dog will return to its own vomit.

Well, I mean, because dogs like to eat everything.

Okay, I guess that's a little different.

But, like, dogs have that sense of, like, direction that is always there.

They know where they are, they know what they're doing.

Just like how they.

Yeah, they just know that.

And once they figure it out, it's permanent.

Yeah.

Well, I hope that this was also really helpful to you guys.

I don't want to get a ton into holistic veterinary care because we're going to talk about what we did with Dr.

Bates, but I do want to say that we were so blessed to, one, be friends with her, but then two, for her to move.

She was possibly not going to move back to California when she went to vet school, so when she did selfishly, we were so happy.

Yeah.

But she was such a great doctor to work with.

And knowing that we asked her to have the bare minimum.

We're going to do whatever is legal.

When it comes to.

Are we allowed to say the word no?

My gosh.

When it comes to the pokey pokies, apparently if we say the V word, we get banned on YouTube.

We get hit with warnings.

Yeah.

And after three strikes, we're out.

And it has nothing even to do with humans, so it's so stupid.

But pokey pokies, if you guys need to know what that is.

Some people in different areas say cupcakes.

I don't know.

They say different stupid things.

But you know the things where you poke your arm and then you get injected with things.

Dogs have them also.

Yes.

All animals have to get them for different things, like rabies.

And I.

I do think you could say for animals.

No, that word.

You can't say it.

No, you can't say without the end of that.

No, you can't say it at all.

When Jeremiah and I first got Holly.

We asked for whatever the bare minimum legal thing was.

Just a reminder.

Our dogs are not humans.

We have a different lifestyle choice that we would pick for us.

And for human children, these are pets.

So whatever we legally have to do to get that done, we would get done.

But also, we would like the bare minimum as much as possible just because we wanted to have all natural pets.

And whatever is injected into them would leech and be onto us because it would come out through their fur and stuff.

Right?

Yeah.

So Jeremiah and I asked for whatever the bare minimum was, and we were.

Would do their checkups or whatever is needed.

And.

Yeah, because we want them to be healthy and safe.

Correct.

And we constantly check in with her on what is healthy.

I mean, we've never done acupuncture for our dogs.

We've never done.

We do a little bit of chiropractic because our friend is a horse chiropractor, so he checks out Atlas's hips.

Just things like that.

Um, so we've been really blessed to be around more holistic people.

And then we get holistic treatment for our dogs and for us.

I forgot we didn't say why we don't do kibble.

That's part of the dietary thing.

And I think.

Obvious.

I think.

Well, I.

I don't think it's that obvious, because I know tons of people that really care about their pets, but they feed them kibble.

And there's a long list of lawsuits for skin cancer and tumors.

Cancer in general.

Yeah.

And that's just from kibble.

Well, also to the lack of nutrition that you get from kibble.

And regulations also.

Yeah, there's a lot of things.

There's literally.

I've read that there's literally sawdust inside of their food.

Yeah, well, it's actually sometimes in our food, too.

I know that's true.

So, yeah, it's.

It's that kind of stuff that we talked about with our vet and.

Because I think also it was a blessing.

A lot of people think that someone green, she came fresh out of veterinary school, and I was like, you're our vet.

And people say that green doctors aren't great, but actually, I love green doctors, whether it's a vet or a regular doctor, because they have all of that info fresh in their memory, and they have the newest and latest info, so you can compare it to, like, older stuff and talk to them about studies and things like that.

But that's why she was able to tell us so much about our breeds specifically.

And, yeah, we Love her.

And I don't know what if we ever moved, I don't know what we would do.

Come back and visit her.

Yeah, just our.

Our vets in California.

We're gonna take the dogs out there on a road trip.

But yeah, so I.

Nutritional counseling that's done through her.

Any type of herbal questions, it's.

I always vetted through her.

And yes, general googling is okay, but ultimately, if I had a real question, I'm really thankful that I have a good friend on speed dial.

And even if she got back to me like two hours later or a few days later, then if it wasn't a right away text, I just know I'm not going to risk it and give it to my dog or be around it.

It's just going to be a no.

If I question it at all, it's a no.

That's such a great point.

What you made there.

And I don't know if you realized it, but you should build a community around the lifestyle that you want.

So if you want dogs or cats, you should make some friends that have cats and are experienced with this and also have a vet that they trust.

And then you could also go to their vet and stuff.

Like, yeah, build a community.

This is a thing that you want or this is a thing that you love.

Who are you doing this for?

Yeah.

People often tell us that we're very lucky or we're very blessed to have all these people in real life.

Like, oh my gosh, you just happen to have a vet who's a friend.

You just.

It's just Savannah, she is so social and she's like a butterfly of all the groups and everyone loves her.

No.

God really gifted me with one roll.

Wonderful wife that has plenty of connections that I never needed to make.

But here's the thing.

Okay, Listen.

I made those connections by like connecting with like minded and like hearted people at church.

Yeah.

Which is amazing.

No.

Yeah.

Most of these people are Christian.

That's the other thing that's really cool.

So don't be afraid to put yourself out there and talk to people and talk about your interests.

And guess what?

If people don't like your interest, good.

It weeds out the weirdos that you don't even want in your life anyway.

Amen.

Let them think you're a weirdo because they're not the right kind of weirdo.

Anyway, we are so thankful that you guys got to listen to our.

I think we covered everything.

Yeah.

That was all of it.

I was worried we were gonna have to have like 30, 000 episodes on dogs.

Too bad we can't, like, get them to say hi.

We never taught them to speak.

Oh, that should be a next one.

We should teach them how to bark on command.

They're napping on the couch.

It's so cute.

I won't disturb them.

But Atlas and Holly, say hi to everyone.

No, I'm just joking.

We're not those people.

But genuinely and seriously, I am very thankful that you guys listen to these.

I know it's very different from our normal podcasting and our normal episodes, but we get asked so much about our dogs and why they're so healthy, why they're so well trained.

And honestly, we just poured our heart and souls into these little buggers, and we want to have good, safe, healthy dogs for when we do have children.

And they were great practice for kids.

And they still challenge us every day in communication and lifestyle and committing to the lifestyle that we said we're going to have.

Yeah, like staying active and doing all those things.

So I'm really blessed and thankful to have a husband who was so sweet to give me a puppy after our second miscarriage and after our third one, I was really blessed to be able to give him a puppy back.

And no more pets.

Even though we almost.

Really.

No more pets right now.

Yeah, no more pets.

Okay.

Even though I really wanted those chickens in a bunny, but we'll talk about that later.

Yeah, we love you guys.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode and also shout out.

Oh, yeah, I just about to say.

It too, to Karen and Papa who are listening to our podcast and who literally specifically asked for a shout out.

So sweet.

We love that you guys listen to this and we also want to say special shout out to all of our listeners worldwide.

We're so thankful that it has grown this much and to think that our one year anniversary is coming up in January.

We have to do something.

Oh my gosh.

So, yeah, we have to do something so special for that.

But we love you guys.

We pray that these episodes bless you and that they're informative but also fun and normal and hopefully challenge you guys and different, different ways, especially spiritually.

And if they've.

If you guys have any questions and would that you would specifically like to ask, Dr.

Bates, make sure that you throw that in and let us know asap, because we're going to be scheduling that with her soon.

So may the Lord bless you and keep you guys.

Please keep casting seeds and we'll see you soon.

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