Invitation to participate in my research project

[Nordanes]

Hi all,

My name is Tom and I do research into extending the life of large breed dogs. I have fed raw (pray model) since 2000 and seen how this has affected my Great Danes in such a positive way. One of my Danes passed away this August at the age of 13. I adopted him at age 4 and he was in a bad shape from being locked up in a garage, sleeping on a cold cement floor and fed very poor quality food for most of his life. Still I got 9 good years with him.

I currently have two Great Danes one is 5 and been on raw since I adopted him at age 1 1/2. I hope he will reach 13-15 years. My second Great Dane is Odin. I just got him and he has been on raw since the age of 12 weeks. My goal with him is to reach 16 years. This will basically double the expected lifespan of a Great Dane.

I document everything I feed Odin and will do that for the rest of his life.

I hope to get other dog owners to participate is my research. You do not need to record what you feed on a daily basis. What I need is an update every 6 months.

I hope to prove that feeding raw has lots of benefits and also will extend the life of large breed dogs.

I'm also interested in tracking any size dog and document the many benefits they enjoy too.

If you like to be a part of my project please go to bigolddogs.com and register your dog(s).

Also if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Tom

[angeldane]

I have a raw feed dog, but I also give her some kibble.
FYI someone posted the results of a raw/grain inclusive/grain free study on this site a while back.
I think you should include size of dog, and age started on raw.
Smaller Danes seem to live much longer.
I had two dogs who lived 17-18 years on ol'Roy. One was rescued at an unknown age. Both were 40~50 pounds.

[Nordanes]

Wow.. that's the smallest Danes I ever heard of.

I have tracked age, size and what my Danes eat for 12 years now. For the next 10 I would like to hear from others feeding the raw diet.

Tom

[Meatos]

A similar research project is discussed here: http://www.dolforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61734

We have been feeding raw for almost 10 months now and our girl just turned 3. It's an amazing diet. Prior to that she was on Orijen Regional Red.

[Nordanes]

I have seen this survey. I want to track and document raw fed large breed dogs for the next 10 years in real time. Now that I know for sure that raw fed is so beneficial I like to expand this project and hopefully involve more dogs.

I have used the Pray Model for 11 years after giving up on the Barf model after 1 year. I have not fed my Danes any sort of carbs during this time with no negative issues whatsoever. I actually noticed the opposite in terms of more muscle mass and less fat.

Tom

[angeldane]

Wow.. that's the smallest Danes I ever heard of.

I have tracked age, size and what my Danes eat for 12 years now. For the next 10 I would like to hear from others feeding the raw diet.

Tom

No they were just dogs, just saying I had kibble feed dogs who lived a very long time they were small. I had a giant mutt, 170 plus he died of heat stroke at age 10 also kibble feed.
I think it's highly likely your smaller sized Danes will live on average longer regardless of diet compared to super sized specimens.
Large breed dogs are 50 plus pounds, unless you want to stick to giant breed only.
But it would be most interesting to see how long raw only feed dogs live. Several show Dane kennels on the main site feed raw. Maybe breeders would have a combination of longevity and diet they'd be willing to share.

[Nordanes]

[QUOTE=angeldane;766325
I think it's highly likely your smaller sized Danes will live on average longer regardless of diet compared to super sized specimens.
[/QUOTE]

I agree with this. It just does not make sense that smaller dogs should live longer than larger ones. The larger the breed the more they suffer from an incomplete diet and also live shorter lives. I'm on a mission to reach the age 15-16 with my current Danes by going back to basics. Kibble is only 100 hears old. Raw is thousands of years old.

I'm from Norway and lived in the farm country. I remember several farm dogs that reached the age of 16-18 and these were large breeds like Norwegian Elk Hound and Samoyed fed raw chicken, pork and dried fish.