Meet Ollie, our black lab, he just turned 6 the other day. And to celebrate we gave him a bucket of sour cream and 6 bananas, his favourite fruit.
It was quite accidental how we got him, we had no intention of getting a dog really since we were travelling so much back then, but one day I casually listened to a friend, a vet working at the police K9 unit bragging about his sniffer dog and the puppies on the way and he just happened to show me the pedigree of the dog- and to my utmost shock I saw the name of my dog I got in ‘87 among the great grandparents! Now Daniel was the best dog ever. He was a lovely black lab, won several shows in Hungary and did well in the dog school too, and was a dear family member. He grew old together with my granddad and they kept each other company in the last few years, and in a second I found myself thinking about a puppy…
So just out of simple curiosity I went to see them when they were 5 days old, still sure that we were not getting a dog… But guess what; they were incredibly cute; 4 yellow pups and one black one, which is the colour I prefer, look at him just fitting in my hand here:
Somehow people prefer yellow labs in Hungary so the black one was not signed up so we had some time to mull over it, but the fact of the matter is once you saw the puppies you were lost, we were any case. James never had a dog before and said “Wonder if he will be a dog that fetches sticks? Does the word “retriever” mean anything to you? I asked….
So we said yes and in August instead of going to the Sziget festival we picked him up and brought him home. And yes he turned out to be a dog that fetches sticks, balls and there is no way to keep him out of water, he would even break the ice of the pond in December for a dip.
Ollie 5 weeks
I heard about vegetarian dogs before but I was somewhat sceptical but the same vet friend told us about a couple of veggie dogs in his practice and at the same time we found Yarrah organic vegetarian dog food in the pet shop, so decided to try raising him vegetarian and see how it went ready to adjust his food if the vegetarian diet didn’t suit him. I was just amazed how he thrived on Yarrah and our leftovers; we found out soon that his favourite foods are bananas and tomatoes- so much so that he ate all the tomatoes in our garden. (Do you think we got any sympathy from friends? Alas, no, it is our fault for raising him vegetarian. This made me very interested in upside down tomatoes).
We couldn’t get Yarrah food for a few months and we tried the vegetarian Royal Canine but he didn’t like it at all, and to be frank it is not really vegetarian because it contains fish oils. Luckily now Yarrah is available all the time now.
My mum used to cook meat, rice and such for my old dog but he did love fruit and veg very much, in fact he loved tomatoes and peppers the most! I have been chatting to other dog owners and many report that their dogs would raid the bin for potato peelings, apple cores: I guess most dogs crave a lot more fruit and vegetables than most people would think. A friend of mine said that his dog would prefer any fruit to tinned dog food. The fact is that most dog food is junk, it is downright scary what goes in the tin, our vet urged us to buy quality dog food because the cheap varieties destroy dog’s livers and kidneys, and also many people pointed out at our dog school that their dogs seems to die a lot earlier now that they are fed on dog food than back in the time when people cooked for them or fed them with leftovers. A few years ago a well known brand was fined in Hungary for advertising their dog food “very meaty” when it contained in fact 4% meat. That makes me think that there are plenty of almost vegetarian dogs out there but instead of good nutritious food they get flavoured junk.
So I was indeed sceptical in the beginning but now after 6 years I think I can say from experience that it is not only possible to keep dogs on a vegetarian diet but it is also beneficial for them. During these 6 years Ollie has been ill twice; once with a kennel cough and once he had some mites, but compared with other dogs, or his great grandfather, that is pretty good indeed! He is very athletic and has a lovely shiny coat and far too much energy. Our local vet, doesn’t know he is vegetarian (this is after all Hungary where many people still think meat is an absolute necessity for humans) but he always compliments us on keeping him so healthy.
We have no illusions, if he had a chance he would eat meat, like he eats anything he can lay his paws on from scavenged apple cores to cat shit… (sigh) just like children would stuff themselves with chocolate or ice cream if they had the chance, but just because they like it, it doesn’t mean it is good for them.
There are a couple of drawbacks of keeping a veggie dog: he nicks the tomatoes from the bushes and also has perfect digestion- which means that you have to bend down to pick up poo 4, or sometimes even 5 times a day…
