What I Have Learned the Hard Way

The Exchange - What I Have Learned the Hard Way

A couple of months ago there was a tainted pet food scare, which led to the deaths of several animal pets in the United States (and elsewhere I’m sure). Since I have dogs myself and since I breed dogs I took careful note of the situation and after some of my puppies became sick at the same time as word of the tainted food broke, eventually leading to the death of my prized pup, I did a lot of research on the situation regarding processed dog foods, especially canned foods and other so-called “wet foods.”

As a result of that research I started feeding my dogs raw food and food made specifically for human consumption. Food processed for animal consumption is of far lesser quality and does not have to meet the same rigid standards regarding pesticide content, disease and toxicity taint, etc as food made for human consumption. In addition human food is generally packaged and transported in a safer and more efficient fashion. This is especially true regarding food imported from foreign countries and companies, such as products from China.

More information here:

More evidence of Chinese Laxity in manufacturing, safety, and regulation standards.

China closes food factories

China Executes Executive


Also I have discovered when shopping for food that if I feed my animals meat and other food products meant for human consumption, and buy the cheaper brands of these products, the price of feeding my animals has actually declined. That is to say that I can feed my dogs more cheaply and less expensively, and in greater bulk, by buying packs of wieners (for example) than by buying cans of dog food, and because the human food has to meet higher safety standards the food I now give them is far safer than what I previously fed them from cans. However I should also mention the fact that we tend to buy domestic food products, not imported ones.

I very much regret that my prized puppy died as a result of tainted food, and had I known then what I know now this could have been avoided, but from now on all of my dogs and animals will be fed inexpensive raw meat and vegetable products meant for human consumption, and despite the fact that it is cheaper than store bought canned pet-food, will nevertheless be far safer and better for them.

As a sidenote I should mention that my two adult dogs now seem far healthier and more relaxed and in better physical condition generally speaking than ever before. Even as they age.

Below is a list of foods I now feed my dogs and as soon as my bitch is delivered of her new litter and the puppies are able to eat solid food, the foods my puppies will also receive.


Solid Raw Food

Yogurt (basic and unflavored) – for digestive tract benefits
Eggs – especially good for coat
Hamburger
Tuna Fish – helpful for brain development, intelligence and training and concentration
Various Other kinds of Fish
Wieners
Turkey
Ham
Bratwurst
Bacon
Soup
Gravy
Peas
Corn
Baked Beans
Canned Carrots
Sweet Potatoes
Small Quantities of certain Chocolate as a behavior and training treat (which they like a lot)
Milk (occasionally, mostly to my bitch while she is pregnant)


Dry Food

Variety – we use a variety of store bought, high nutrition, commercial types of dry dog food which have proven and which we know to be safe
Biscuit or Bread – Human, not animal types
Dog Treats (which have proven safe)
Chews for teeth and gums


Liquid Food

Milk
Coffee – black, no sugar
Tea
Beer
Water

Additional Foods and Nutrients

Animal Vitamins

Metaergogenics which I developed for myself and my family (same formulae’s) dissolved in water and other liquids


Most of time I present the raw foods fed them as mixed topping to their dry dog food, at other times (about once or twice a week) we will blend and liquefy their solid, raw, food and pour the blended matter like a thick soup over their dry dog food. I do not feed them all of the types of food listed above at the same time or at the same meal but rather mix various types of food for different meals. During the day we allow them to free feed but for their night meals we mix the raw food with their dry food as described above.

Advantages – Healthier, eyes brighter, coat shinier, more active and prone to run and play. Seem far more intelligent, alert, observant, easier to train, and more naturally curious. Skin and coat free of disease, and cleaner. Outbreaks of ticks and fleas seem to be rare (which is a big advantage living in as rural an area as we live.) They seem to sicken very rarely if at all, and they seem to rest in a relaxed manner. Seem calmer and more relaxed generally. As for my experiments in increasing canine intelligence and producing a dog, which is generally far more intelligent and capable than normal, this change in diet has proven very helpful. See this entry:

Other Treatments and Regimes – Including occasional deworming and other treatments to destroy parasitic infections and reduce disease.
Bathing – about once a week or once every two weeks in summer and about once a month or so in winter. Because of the size of our dogs we always bathe them outside.
Flea And Tick treatment – liquid sprays and drops which are spread along length of body, we rarely use flea collars now due to allergies, expect in the wintertime.


These are some of the lessons I learned and the benefits of the research I did as the result of the tainted food scare.

I hope this information is useful to you and your pet. My experience with pets is limited to dogs but I imagine the same benefits might be had and enjoyed regarding your cat and other such pets.




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Granpappy

Pesharim - Granpappy

I'm gonna be a Granpappy of grandpuppies.

My Great Dane bitch is getting ready to litter. This will be the third generation of the same family of dogs to inhabit my household and be part of my family. The first girl dog we had, Kara, a Saint Dane (combination Great Dane and Saint Bernard) was the bitch of the sire of this generation. She was a great dog and favored a Great Dane in appearance except she was light brown in coloring. She was extremely tall and fast and loved running the deer, but unfortunately she was shot by a hunter early one morning. We're still not sure if she was mistaken for a doe or just shot out of spite but luckily she as hit dead square in the chest by a high caliber round, and so she only rolled once (given the evidence of where I found her on the ground) and died quickly. Still, it tore me up for awhile. She was a great gal.

Luckily she had lived long enough to litter once and we kept some of that litter of ten, the rest we sold.

The combination cross breed of Great Dane and Saint Bernard is really beautiful and most of the time comes out looking one of two ways; Like a Great Dane in figure with a slim, tall and lithe body, as well as like a Great Dane in snout and face but with either short of long hair and of various colors (I call this variation the Saint Dane), or looking and colored and built like a Saint Bernard but with the face and snout of a Great Dane (I call this variation the Great Bernard). The Great Bernard is really beautiful cause you get all of the strength and power and intelligence of the Saint Bernard without the ugly pug nose.

We kept two of the Great Bernards from Kara's litter and both were very hardy and tough, large, powerful, and fast, but George, one of my Great Bernards was bitten either by a copperhead or cotton mouth or got into a nest of snakes at the river. He was long haired and by the time we figured out what had happened to him we had to get the horse doctor to come out and put him down. God, that was awful. I sure was attached to that dog and he was one helluvah good dog. I mean one of the best I've ever even heard tale of. He was amazing. And tough as new fired pig iron.

Our other Great Bernard, who looks just like a Saint Bernard, except for the fact that he has a long snout and in the face looks like a Great Dane (a truly beautiful animal) lived. He was bitten by a snake (or a couple) once too but we had the horse doctor operate on him cause we found it on his paw and although he lost about 30% of the paw initially to necrotic tissue and snake toxins he was young and tough and we nursed him for about two months back to full health. So he has lived thankfully and now we have a black as midnight Great Dane bitch who we have mated him with to produce a new litter of Great Bernards and Saint Danes.

I'm really looking forward to this litter as it will be our third generation of pups from the same family and I can't say enough good about these new breeds. They are massive, powerful, fast, good hunters (you wouldn't know it from the size but they are excellent squirrel dogs), loyal, extremely intelligent, make incredibly good watchdogs and are fearless (more about that in my newsletter) and are good with kids. My Great Bernards even attacked an armed policeman because he thought the policeman was an attacker because the agent came out to the house while I wasn't around and my dogs thought he was going to attack my girls. The agent was dressed in all black SWAT/Assault gear and since I personally trained by dogs to attack any armed intruder (especially in black - that's how I dressed when I trained them) who comes near my wife or daughters while I'm not around both my dogs went for the cop. The cop wasn't hurt, he got back to his cruiser in time with only a fang scrape to the elbow, and although I didn't like the fact that they had attacked an agent secretly I was so proud I could have popped. It didn't even take a command, my dogs just saw the cop, saw he was armed and approaching my girls and just automatically drove him off.

The cop had just come to the house to talk to me about a case involving one of my neighbors and although he was shaken up and told me my dogs scared the crap out of him, he also said those were the two best guard dogs he's ever seen. Said they were so fast and quiet that he would have never noticed them until he was surrounded had my daughters not tried to call them back. I taught my dogs not to bark on the attack until right up on someone (so as not to give away their position) and then bark and growl and nip and snipe like crazy to drive off any intruder. I also trained them to take down the intruder if they have to, especially an armed one. They sure did me proud. After the agent caught his breath and calmed down we both had a laugh about it, though he did have to undergo rabies treatments as a precaution (you have to undergo rabies treatments if you're bitten on duty regardless, even though neither of my dogs had it) and you could tell he was still wary of my dogs. I just glad he never drew and took to shooting. I shoot around my dogs all of the time but neither one ever liked it, and I'm also glad he didn't shoot either of them out of fear. I guess they took him so quickly and by surprise that all he could think of to do was run. So as far as a watchdog you can't beat the breed, and I'm absolutely certain either one of my dogs, or both, would have given their lives to save my daughters. You can't beat that as far as loyalty goes.

As far as I know I'm one of the first people to ever breed these two kinds of dogs, the Great Bernard and Saint Dane. And I'm really looking forward to seeing what my bitch will produce. She's extremely tall, in great shape, and is extremely intelligent. So far I've always used a male Great Bernard and a female Saint Dane or Great Dane as the bitch. I've never tried breeding a Great Dane sire and a Saint Bernard bitch, but that was Kara's lineage, her mother was Saint Bernard and her father Great Dane.

I highly recommend the breed(s) and intend to keep breeding future generations from the same family and stock. By the time my children grow up I'll be able to pass on a pup or two to their children as well.

The only real problems are feeding, both breeds eat a huge amount (but I don't mind that, I like to see healthy appetites and strong and intelligent creatures) and they need a lot of room (but since we have a large estate, we're set in that regard as well) to run and hunt and get plenty of exercise, and adolescent chewing. I believe they could chew through a good size oak, no problem, if they ever took a mind to it. Otherwise the only problems are fairly short lifespan (about 9 to 12 years) and because of the huge size and mass, in later life I expect hip, joint, and bone problems. But I also intend to experiment with improving the breed to create dogs with longer lifespans and I've been experimenting since they were all pups with vitamins, diet, nutrition, and supplements to ward off any hip problems.

Overall I'm extremely proud of my dogs and am really looking forward to this new litter.

They should be a mess of really beautiful brutes. If they are as strong, intelligent, and capable as their parents then they'll also do me proud.



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Humours of Idleness - Spiders and Insects and Anthills, Oh My!

Humours of Idleness - Spiders and Insects and Anthills,
Oh My!

This time folks I've decided to post some of the photographs of insect and arachnid and botanical life I've found on my property.
These images will compose the next few posts.

Future photographic posts will include nearby landmarks, pictures taken during my vadding and rudding expeditions, animals life found on my property and on nearby farms, and various other subjects.

Now for the Show:

My favorite local spider, a large black and yellow argiope. She made her web near the corner of a nearby building.

Her eggsac.

Her feeding.

Grand-daddy longlegs (being shy)

I ran over a huge anthill by accident in the tall grass. This caused the entire exposed colony to swarm. I took a picture but they swarmed over and into my boots within two to three seconds. I got a real good going over before being forced to run in the house and take a shower.


Anthill with larvae


Large red and black local Cow Killer


Local American migratory grasshopper

Invisible Hand - Parallel Intelligence

Invisible Hand - Parallel Intelligence





Now for something completely different. I’ve been working on a few things lately and thinking about a few things. This is one of them. I’ll return to the others later.

While sitting at a church service on Sunday, the pastor with going over a sermon derived from the book of Hebrews. The passages from which he read described both Old Testament priestly practices, and were comparing those practices to the ideals of Christ as High Priest. Implicit in the passages from which the sermon was derived were discussions of animal sacrifice.

Since I have for a very long time been working on experiments to increase the intelligence of my animal pets, and since recently I have been working on a series of books which would fictionally detail animals that are of parallel intelligence to human beings, I was very interested in those passages and what they implied.

It is my intention, to engage in experiments on animals, which will eventually produce animals that are comparable in intelligence to human beings (in most respects), but remain animals in all other respects. That is they would not be possessed of human intelligence, but would be possessed of an intelligence comparable to, or parallel to, human intelligence. Yet in all other respects, such and mannerisms, instincts, views of the world, sensory capabilities, physical appearance, genotype, etc. would remain animals. The ideal test subjects of course would be domesticated animals with a long history of interaction with humans, such as dogs. (Eventually I also hope to help develop technology which will allow basic communications between these types of animals and humans.)


And after reading several passages from the Torah in Hebrew it has occurred to me that it is entirely possible that some animals may possess souls (even if in latent form) similar to (not identical to but similar to) that of the human soul. So I was listening to the sermon or Sunday and it suddenly struck me that if they became conscious enough to perceive themselves in a manner parallel to the way in which humans perceive themselves then how might such an animal develop a view of their own soul? A self-reflective view. (Or would they?)

I got this idea from carefully rereading those passages in the book of Hebrews which detail animal sacrifice. I began to consider how what an animal such as a dog might view the subject of animal sacrifice. Would for instance a dog of sufficient intelligence and consciousness even consider himself a dog? Would he consider himself an animal? Or would he consider himself merely an individual and not really in terms of species? (After all species is a human categorization.) How would he view the entire historical subject of animal sacrifice, especially after gaining some consciousness of what it implied? How would he view human beings? Would he consider himself a type of human being yet merely different in appearance because he lives among human beings and interacts with them constantly? (I am sure my dogs consider themselves in some way human beings or equivalent in most ways to other members of my family.) Would he consider other dogs to be dogs or would he consider them to be a form of human being? How would he draw the lines of division and similarity between members of different species and between different individuals? I cannot imagine they would automatically draw the same conclusions humans have (I don’t even automatically draw the same classification assumptions of the standard formulations) of species, genus, family, and so forth.

Could he grasp the concept that his unique and parallel intelligence to his human compatriots makes him unusual or would he assume that all other dogs are like him? If he could grasp the difference between his own consciousness and that of “normal dogs” then how would he view the distinctions between himself and other, more normal dogs? Would he even make a distinction based upon intelligence and different rates of consciousness and intellect? Would he consider himself more like other dogs that are more like himself in appearance, physical nature and sensory capabilities or more like a human in whom he shares more mental similarities?

Would such a dog (of parallel intelligence) produce offspring like himself or offspring more akin to more normal dogs? How would the development of parallel intelligence change his genotype? Would it, or would it just change expressed variation?

How would the development of an animal or different types of animals who possess parallel intelligence change the way in which we interact with such animals? Would it change our methods of interaction? Should it do so?

What kind of art and literature (through the use of technology of course) would such creatures produce? Would they produce unique cultural, spiritual, and religious ideas? Would they have any interest in science? How would they view technology? Why would they think or be this way? Would they even bother with concepts like religion, science, and art? If they didn’t what would this say about us (humans). If they did and their productions and conclusions were either similar or very different then what would that say about us?

This brought to mind a series of experiments I have been conducting for some time regarding intelligence and dietary modification(s) with my own dogs. Several people have remarked to me how extremely intelligent my dogs appear to be. And one of the methods (One, I use many others of course) I've used in trying to shape their intelligence is dietary modification. They take basically the same metaergogenic aids, vitamins, and nutrients and so forth that I take to augment both my physical and mental performance. They also eat an extremely wide variety of foods compared with most dogs. They eat dry dog food which is heavily laced with vitamins and nutrients, they drink the same metaergogenic waters and liquids I take, they eat canned dog food, they eat table scraps, they eat vegetables mixed with meats, they eat tuna and a lot of other kinds of fish, they eat eggs, take milk, drink coffee, beer, milk shakes, chocolate covered peanuts, peanut butter, potatoes, biscuits, breads, gravy, and consume several other types of foods. (By the way recent study has led me to discover the fact that bears and dogs are related. I can see many similarities between certain dogs, my Great Bernard for instance, who even looks a great deal like a bear in the head and face and in body size, and some bears. I’d like one day to get a bear, take it out West to Montana or someplace like that, raise it basically in isolation except for being around me and my dogs, and see if I could modify it’s behavior and intelligence in the same way I have with my dogs. I’ve always instinctively intuited a close connection between bear behavior and introverted human behavior.)


I cannot draw a direct correlation between their (my dogs) dietary habits and their seeming intelligence however I can say this as far as their being adaptable - they are adaptable both in what they're willing to consume and in most other respects such as behavior, training and flexibility of experience. (I consider adaptability to be one of the keys and cornerstones to the development of higher grade intelligence. The more adaptable to change the more flexible the mind, the more flexible the mind the more curious and the more a creature is able to look at problems differently and devise more unique and efficient solutions to problems. Intelligence is not entirely a matter of problem solving, but problem solving is a big part of higher level capabilities regarding intelligence.) I do not want though to get into an involved tangential discussion of these matters because I can go on and on about the subject. But it has struck me as being of real importance the correlation between diet and intelligence and capabilities in animals and in people generally.