I love my job. Every day I get a ton of questions, from basic raw feeding information for people starting to consider changing over, to very specific questions about balancing diets and supplements. We are not veterinarians or nutritionists, but we are well versed in the items we stock, know what their application is and what to look for to make sure they are working.

Every day we learn more, as we get new questions about new problems we have not heard before, or as we are presented with new products designed to address problems we haven’t had a solution for previously. Not every product works for every client, but in most cases, we end up making a difference.

One of the most frequent question we get now is about whether we sell puppies, or can point people in the direction of a place to get puppies. This is a pandemic related issue, there is more demand than supply in most cases, especially for puppies, and small breed ones at that. Adopting and older, larger dog is still fairly easy, and a greatly rewarding thing to do if you can handle it. In many cases, older dogs can be easier, most are already trained and are a lot less demanding of your time than a puppy would be.

We really wish we could be more help in locating pups for people, but its just not something we can do. We do have helpful documents on our website to help make sure you get your puppy in a safe way, hopefully avoiding many of the pitfalls that can happen to a first time puppy buyer.

Occasionally, I get a question that sounds like it needs one answer, but gets a very different one. Today is just such a day. Customer was in yesterday and we discussed switching their dog to a raw diet. Quite an extensive session, lots of questions, and they went home excited. First meal the dog ate most of the food, but left some behind, which surprised them.

Today, the dog refused completely, so they called for advice. Most of the time, the answer is adding in something tasty, like a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, or nutritional yeast, or a bit of low sodium stock or juice from a can of tuna or salmon. These all get the pet interested in the taste/smell.

But sometimes, its a texture thing. Dogs that are used to putting their nose in a bowl of kibble and chomping up kibble like a steam shovel sometimes don’t like putting their nose into a bowl full of meat that is in one big chunk. They don’t understand how to eat it.

The solution? A plate. Put the raw on a plate, and arrange it in bite sized piles/balls on the plate. This makes it easy for the pet to pick it up in one motion and gulp it down. And today, this was the answer that was needed. A pet that refused a bowl full of nice, fresh raw food gobbled it down when it was served on a plate, and then proceeded to lick the plate clean in their best Thanksgiving Dinner style.

Getting the phone call, giving the advice, and then a return call minutes later after the success, well, that makes my day. That is “job satisfaction” at its best, knowing we have a happy pet and a pleased pet parent getting a belly full of awesome food that is going to change their lives. We don’t always have every answer, but we’re darn close to it. And we work hard to figure out answers to what we don’t know, yet. It’s why we’re here.