If you know the Precourt’s, you know this topic, keeping your pet healthy and happy, is true to their hearts. In this episode, Dr. Bart and Kelli share personal stories about their dogs,  the history of dog food, what’s in packaged dog food, and why and how you should feed your dog raw food.

Our special guest, Kelli Precourt, is an Olympic athlete, founder and co-owner of Balance Health Studio, and dog lover. 

Together, Dr. Bart and Kelli, are dog parents to seven fur babies: Dr. Bob, Daryl, George, Jimmie, Stevie, Paris, and Tobi. 

Kelli and Dr. Bart diligently train and raise their dogs with their health and wellbeing as a top priority. 

The couple said they have learned how to best raise their dogs through years of trial and error, and they’re excited to share their experience and knowledge with you.

Watch the live show below:

When Their Love of Dogs Was Born… 

When Dr. Bart met Kelli at a party, she came in with a pug named Tyler. Since then, Kelli has been avidly studying dog nutrition, and the couple continues to grow their pack. 

They’ve had twenty-plus dogs over the past two decades.

The Dog Can Heal Itself…

The first time Dr. Bart heard this phrase was about twenty years ago after hours of driving to a remote vet in Alabama. 

His canine best friend, Norman, has torn both of his ACLs and almost didn’t wake up after the sedative a vet gave him. 

“The dog can heal itself. They never used man to heal. We have to help the dog heal,” the holistic vet said to Dr. Bart. 

Dr. Bart was reassured. He understands this language very well. The holistic vet did acupuncture and laser therapy to Norman, and she gave Norman Standard Process supplements. 

The vet also told Dr. Bart to feed his dogs raw food, like liver from the store and chicken breasts with bones. 

“He needs to heal his muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bone. So we have to feed him muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bone,” the vet explained. 

Dr. Bart recalls this moment testing his personal philosophy. How much did he believe that the power that made the body, heals the body?

However, Dr. Bart followed through with the supplements and raw food, and Norman lived healthily until he was eleven. He tore his ACLs when he was three. 

The History of Dog Food

Before there was any dry, processed dog food, dogs ate meat. They ate table scraps or whatever they could get outside. Then in 1859, James Spratt traveled from the United States to London. When he got off the boat he saw the crew members feeding the dogs a type of biscuit made out of flour, water, and salt. 

Spratt then got the idea to make dog food and package it. The first packaged dog food was literally flour, salt, water, and a little bit of blood, which was the only feed in there for the dog. 

Spratt was a great marketer, and he positioned this dog food as elite and exclusive. The packaged dog food was wildly successful, and Spratt then brought it over to the United States. From there, the dog food industry continued to grow as more people entered the market. 

Around the 1900s, dog food manufacturers began to can dog food, which had some horse meat in it. During World War II, dog kibble was born because the nation was rationing cans for the war.

In 1964,  the Pet Food Institute funded research to essentially tell people that they should no longer feed their dog table scraps because it’s bad for them. In other words, the dog food industry convinced people that table scraps were no longer nutritious enough for dogs. 

However, that’s far from the truth. Real food is great for the health of your pet.

The Diseased, Dying, and Decaying Inside Every Package  

Dog food companies put an extremely low quality of meat in kibble. Kelli said there is only one dog food brand whose kibble has human-quality levels of meat in its kibble. 

When kibble is made, it’s made out of diseased, dying, and decaying meat.

Manufacturers also use high heat oils and carbohydrates to make kibble, and starch is the only way it stays together in a firm ball.

The meat in kibble comes from rendering plants, which are not approved for human consumption.   

Just in the same way that low-quality oils, like canola oil, are toxic for our bodies, the oils in dog kibble are also toxic for your pet.

What Happens When You Feed Your Dog Kibble? 

The number one reason a dog goes to the vet is allergies. Think ear infections, watery eyes, and licking their paws. 

These allergies are food allergies. When we eat processed food, we’re devoid of minerals and vitamins. You’re not getting the fundamental building blocks, like collagen and proteins, of our anatomy. 

When dogs don’t have minerals, they have weak ligaments. 

Kibble causes dehydration and inflammation.

There’s good news, though, if you do choose to feed your dogs kibble. If you feed your dogs green leafy vegetables on their kibble three times a week, your dog is ninety percent less likely to get cancer.

So if you do choose kibble, take twenty percent of the kibble out and put in twenty percent fresh food. That action will make a huge difference. 

How To Do Raw Food 

With vegetables, you need to puree it because dogs can’t break down the pure veggies. You can also stream it a little, but the nutrient content goes down a little as we heat the food. 

When we talk about raw, we mean the organs, bones, skin, collagen, meats, and proteins. Essentially, we mean the whole animal when we say raw. 

You can buy premade raw foods. There are a lot of commercial foods that are premade.

Cooked bones splinter and that can be a challenge for your dog. So, we don’t want to give them cooked bones, but raw bones are more springy. Now, you do want to be cautious to chop the bones up if your dog swallows things whole. 

For their dogs, Kelli said she toes two tablespoons of the vegetable puree in with the meat.

Links to Supplement Mentioned in the Show

Canine Whole Body Support 

Questions from the Audience 

Should you feed your dog the same thing every day? 

I would change it up. You want to rotate the proteins and vegetables or else you’ll create nutrient deficiencies in your dog. 

We also add raw eggs or scrambled eggs to their foods. Soft boiled eggs are the best way to serve eggs to your dogs. We also use goat milk for our dogs in their food as a probiotic. 

Bone broth is also awesome for dogs. Kelli said she also scoops coconut oil into their food.

How do I start to transition to raw food?

Start with raw dog food. I love Answers and Primal. You can literally also go to the grocery store and buy chicken breast or ground beef and put that into their bowl. 

How do you determine the amount to feed your dog? 

There’s a lot of different philosophies. I think it’s two percent of your dog’s body weight. I used to weigh it out, but now I eyeball it. For us, we do ninety-five percent meat and about five percent of veggies. Because I’ve been doing it for so long, I know. That’s why prepackaged raw is great though because you’ll get a little patty of portion size. 

What’s Next?

We have put together a dashboard of all of Dr. Bart’s videos, based on health topics, in our Level-Up Health Membership.

This library of health content is low cost, so we can help you on your journey to becoming superhuman! 

Not only is it extensive, but it will continue to expand with new videos each month. Also, you will have the opportunity to share these videos with your friends and family!

Dr. Bart Precourt

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