Geniuses Of The Week

And Black Friday, our first ever!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We are so grateful that you are with us on this journey. It’s been quite a ride so far, and we have even more cool stuff planned for y’all. Stay tuned!

This week we scoured the internet to bring you the best geniuses from our own posts and beyond. Some might be trolls while others are professionals spouting nonsense. It’s hard to tell sometimes if people are serious or not (too many trolls). Some have genuine questions that we do our best to answer. Before that we wanted to share our first ever Black Friday Special!

We are offering 20% off on our limited edition holiday flavors. Beyond cute names and packaging, they are blends of natural, functional ingredients to help your dog thrive.

Onto the geniuses:

Peppers = Rabies???

This genius’s comment was so out of left field that we thought she might be a troll. Serious or not, it is funny nonetheless. People often have beliefs that are not based on any rational causality. Sometimes these beliefs can be wide spread. This is a new, particularly insane, one.

The connection between peppers and rabies is nonsensical. Not only does the rabies virus need a mammalian vector (the animals that spread diseases), the rabies virus does not survive outside of a mammal. Nearly all cases of transmission to people involve an animal bite, as the virus lives in the saliva of rabid animals. Simply drying a surface of infected saliva neutralizes the virus. Also, even though non-bite infections are technically possible (saliva into fresh wounds) there are only a handful of documented cases of this ever occurring.

If anyone can tell us how someone could come to the conclusion that peppers cause rabies, we would love to know (lol). We love including bell peppers in the dog’s meals, by the way. If you ordered our cookbook, check out the Chicken Fajitas recipe (p 149) when it arrives.

Dogs don’t know the difference between real food and kibble!

A follower tagged us in this video, and we immediately facepalmed. This genius is apparently a real vet that gives advice on the internet. She claims that dogs don’t know the difference between a real Thanksgiving meal and their kibble. On top of that she claims real food is the cause of pancreatitis and will potentially cost you thousands of dollars in vet bills if you feed your dog anything other than “dog food.”

In other words, she’s saying that dog’s don’t know when the turkey is cooking in the oven? AND, when the family gathers and feasts on roasted meat and veggies and they can only watch? We think dogs deserve deserve fresh, whole foods; not just on Thanksgiving, but throughout the entire year! If dogs can smell cancer, they can certainly distinguish high-quality proteins from the processed meat powders that go into kibble. While we agree that you shouldn’t hand them a plate of candied yams and stuffing with onions, we hate to see fear-mongering around feeding dogs real food.

About pancreatitis, we’ve droned on about the misunderstanding of its pathology for years, but most people still don’t know, including vets. There is no scientific evidence that shows real food causes pancreatitis. Even the link between high-fat diets and pancreatitis is based on a handful of studies that define high-fat differently. Furthermore, diagnosing pancreatitis is extremely difficult. The most common test for it has up to a 40% false positive rate. Studies also show dogs often have subclinical pancreatitis (34% according to one study), meaning that they have it but don’t have symptoms. According to another retrospective study, the highest-risk dietary event for a dog to develop pancreatitis is eating out of the trash.

Unfortunately, geniuses often have degrees and credentials that can make their opinions appear science-backed. However, they reveal themselves if you put aside their credentials and just analyze what they are saying.

Serious question: how does fresh food still cause tartar?

This person is wondering why fresh, balanced food still causes tartar on their dog’s teeth, when it is supposed to be healthy? The bad news is all food causes tartar, not just kibble or processed food. This is why people have to brush their teeth multiple times a day, and on top of that, undergo regular dental cleanings.

Tartar is hardened plaque. Plaque is the soft sticky biofilm of bacteria, food and saliva that form on teeth after all meals…not just processed meals.

For the nerds, tartar, called calculus in literature, is plaque that hardens when calcium and phosphate in saliva mineralize it. This reaction starts in as little as 24 hours and within 7-14 days can be established as tartar. Once tartar forms, the only way to remove it is through scraping or specialized tools. Brushing doesn’t remove tartar. However, regular brushing and flossing can reduce plaque, and subsequently, tartar.

So…brush your dog’s teeth. If you’re too busy for daily brushing, once or twice weekly brushing can still make a big difference in the accumulation of tartar.

That’s all for this week. Happy Thanksgiving!

All the best,

Joelle and R.A.