A Special Report by Will Falconer, DVM 2016
What is Natural Rearing, Anyway? A very old term, natural rearing speaks to raising youngsters in a manner that respects Nature s laws. We find ourselves in a tiny time warp now, in the past two hundred years or so, where we ve lost touch with the natural world to a great extent. People often don t even believe their senses in our current age. Clients tell me stories of their naturally raised dogs drawing people in like magnets, unable to resist petting them and gushing over how magnificent they are. Inevitable questions arise. How did he get so amazingly beautiful, so strong, so agile, so perfect in his behavior, so The answers scare them. We feed him a raw meat-based diet, similar to prey. He no longer gets pesticides for fleas or heartworm. He s unvaccinated, and I ve seen that alone made a huge difference, compared to my last dog. The questioner, once elated, gets a serious look on her face, stops petting that magnificence, and backs away a few steps. Oh. Elements of Natural Rearing Raising a natural youngster often includes those decisions just mentioned, among others. The goal is to bring the domesticated animal into the warp and woof of what s kept the ancestors and wild cousins (wolf, bobcat, wild Mustang) thriving for millennia. Yes, we live in modern times, but no, all that s modern and domesticated does not necessarily produce health. Packaged food and vaccines are two perfect examples. 2
In fact, most of the truly vital animals I know have gotten that way by largely avoiding most modern medical practices, even though they are regularly sold as prevention and being a responsible pet owner. You might be seduced briefly by that shiny package of pet food that promises to be 100% nutritionally complete. But, upon digging a bit, you d also learn the sordid history of those supposedly complete foods causing disease and death. Carnitine and taurine deficiencies happened. Oops. Like what s being fed, what s not dropped onto shoulders, and not injected, natural rearing would include fresh air, exercise, socialization, pure water, species appropriate fresh food and thoughtful decisions about neutering. The Problem With Self Identification You may have run into this: a vet calls herself holistic, and yet recommends revaccinating your already vaccinated animal. Perhaps every three years. Maybe even <cringe> annually. Both recommendations, by the way, even in the world of conventional veterinary medicine, have been recognized for decades to be baseless practices. Worse, they carry a significant risk of harming your animal. If you re aware, as I hope you are now, of duration of immunity, you ll remember that veterinary immunologists (the folks who don t sell vaccines, but study them thoroughly) called out way back in 1992: Immunity to viruses persists for years or for the life of the animal Furthermore, revaccination with most viral vaccines fails to stimulate an anamnestic (secondary) response. The practice of annual vaccination in our opinion should be considered of questionable efficacy 3
So, what qualifies someone to append the word holistic to their job description? You guessed it, there are no real standards. As a smart consumer, you need to be cautious with those who self identify and may do so to make a buck versus take their chosen job description seriously. And so it is with natural rearing breeders and holistic vets. The definition among the folks calling themselves NR breeders is wide ranging and vague. We surveyed all we could find and came up with quite a significant disparity among them in both adult and puppy management practices. What part of this is Natural Rearing, Please? My researcher was tasked with finding the best of those calling themselves NR breeders, and we graded them for you in the list below. There were actually some really surprising practices among her survey that were just obviously not going to qualify these folks to make the crème de la crème list at all. Here are several practice from people who called themselves NR breeders: Feeding a low quality kibble to the pups after weaning. (From heaven to hell) Weaning before Mom was ready, like at 5 weeks old. (Economic decision?) Sending to a new home by 6 weeks old. (See above: These guys are just costing money, let s get some cash! ) Flea and tick and heartworm pesticides used in parental stock and/or youngsters Vaccinating youngsters Vaccinating breeding stock Now, the last two may sound like normal procedures to some. But, while widely practiced, they are not in line with natural rearing principles. Remember, animals 4
are not born broken and in need of repair or completion by a vaccination. Not true in the wild, and not true if you ve got your natural rearing hat on while you re making health decisions for domestic animals. Our Grading System I chose the criteria that I d be looking for if I set out to buy a puppy today. Here s what we asked and how we assigned points: I d urge you to ask minimally these questions, and probably more: 1. Are you open to me sending you an immune boosting supplement for my pup? 2. If I opt to, would you give my youngster nosodes for parvo and distemper before I pick him up? Question Award Criteria Points possible Do you vac pups before homing? Winning Answer: No 20 Do you vac breeding animals? Winning A: No 20 What age weaning? Who decides? 1. A: Mom decides 2. A: 8 weeks or older, breeder decides 1. 20 2. 15 What s fed to weaned pups? A: Raw, balanced diets 20 How many generations of pups have met these criteria? BONUS PTS 1. A: 3+ 2. A: 1-3 1. 20 2. 10 Do you use a homeopathic vet (or A: Yes 50 equivalent) to treat your breeders constitutionally? TOTAL POINTS POSSIBLE 150 3. Do you sell me a pup free and clear of obligations, to raise the way I see fit? 5
The Promise of Homeopathy Bonus Points Inherited chronic disease is common among all creatures down here on the planet. Perhaps you can track what your own parents suffered from and what health challenges you deal with and see the similarities. My inherited disease was extremely clear: 1. Eczema appeared on my right thumb base in my late 30 s at the exact spot (!) that my mom rubbed creams and ointments into her right hand for years prior. 2. Prostate disease killed my dad, and both my elder brother and I had issues with our prostate glands. One got it later in life, one earlier. One got surgery, one not. Unlike modern medicine, homeopathy, with its century s long history shows the potential to cure the chronic diseases. Therefore, its highest use, in my mind, is using what s called constitutional prescribing. This can be used to cure breeding adults, so that offspring come into the world with no or minimal inherited disease tendencies. It surprised me as we surveyed breeders calling themselves natural rearers that so few took advantage of this. It takes a trained homeopath to do this work. It s much more involved that using arnica for injury or arsenicum for diarrhea and vomiting. A trained homeopath will hunt up recurrent symptoms (which might appear subtle, like shedding year round, doggy odor unless bathed regularly, weepy eyes, waxy ears, etc.) and find whole animal remedies. These prescriptions are carefully chosen, carefully matched to the patient, carefully dosed, and carefully evaluated, until all symptoms disappear. AND (the important part) the whole patient is clearly left in top health, vital energy, balanced behavior, and stays that way without the continued use of remedies. That state is called cure. 6
Breeders who told us they did this got bonus points for it. We asked who their vets were to verify this. The List, Please So, here s what we came up with, amid lots of attempts to contact breeders who never responded and many who were weeded out for things like vaccinating their puppies and breeding stock. Note: This list has been updated to nearly double the numbers of breeders who qualified, thanks to further research. Current to the best of our knowledge on September 14, 2016 Breed Breeder Basic Points Bonus Points Total 1 Labrador Retriever Fall River Labrador Retrievers 100 50 150 2 Bernese Mountain Dog Dr. Sara Fox Chapman 100 50 150 3 Catahoulas Cats Cradle Catahoulas 100 50 150 4 Border Terrier Boldwind Border Terriers 100 50 150 5 Jack Russel Terrier Swanback Jacks 100 50 150 6 Standard Poodles Genteel Standard Poodles 100 50 150 7 German Shepherd Stronghold Germand Shepherds 100 50 150 8 Australian Shepherd Kyanite Acres 100 50 150 9 Leonberger American Beauty Leonburgers 100 50 150 10 NewFoundland Moonribbon NewFoundlands 100 50 150 11 German Shepherd Sapphire German Shepherds 100 50 150 12 German Shepherd Brandenburg German Shepherds 100 50 150 13 Great Danes and GDAB Great Danes and Ibizan 100 50 150 Ibizan Hounds Hounds 14 Italian Greyhound Lepus Sighthounds 100 50 150 15 Italian Greyhound Rhamah Greyhounds 100 50 150 7
16 Golden Retriever Golden Paw Prints 90 50 140 17 Flat Coated Retriever Donibruk Flat Coated Retrievers 80 50 130 18 German Shepherd Von Mathausen German 100 100 Shepherds 19 Irish Wolfhound Arahu Irish Wolfhounds 100 100 20 Australian Shepherd Bonza Australian Shepherds 100 100 21 Australian Shepherd Olde Bay Australian Shepherds 100 100 22 German Shepherd Kriegsund German Shepherds 100 100 DDR DDR 23 Australian Shepherd Run Amok Farm 80 80 It s Still: Buyer Beware There were, unfortunately, not too many breeders to choose from who did everything right (my definition) and your breed of choice might well not be in this list. The ones who do these true NR practices likely have their litters spoken for even before they are conceived. I suspect demand far outstrips supply. If that s encouraging for you as a breeder, I urge you to seek out a good vet homeopath to get all your ducks in a row and up your game. You ll be doing a service not only to the continuity of the breed but to the pet owning public who wants the healthiest youngster possible to live a long, vital life with. There are many lists out on the web of breeders claiming NR status and I d urge you to exercise due diligence before you take any at face value. 8