I was just reading a post on another forum by a young lady who is getting into training her dog for therapy work. The group she was/is going to work with will not accept a raw fed dog. Anyone ever heard of such a thing? Their reason was "pathogens" but for heavens sake, the dogs' teeth can be brushed!

I think if they had an actual case on it it'd have been proposed as a law. People don't want Grandma dying from the therapy dog visiting her, you know?

I don't really see why you even have to tell these people what you feed. What business is it of theirs?

The therapy group in question is the Delta Society--the largest (or one of the largest) therapy dog organizations.

There are other therapy organizations that will accept raw-fed dogs.

I don't agree with their assessment of the risk at all, but it's a private organization and they can decide to include/exclude based on whatever criteria they see fit. My standard smart-ass response is "will they take dogs that eat poop?"

 Quote: tracy collins

The therapy group in question is the Delta Society--the largest (or one of the largest) therapy dog organizations.

There are other therapy organizations that will accept raw-fed dogs.

I don't agree with their assessment of the risk at all, but it's a private organization and they can decide to include/exclude based on whatever criteria they see fit. My standard smart-ass response is "will they take dogs that eat poop?"

That's hilarious, and I bet the answer is probably yes.

 Quote: SamanthaTopper

I don't really see why you even have to tell these people what you feed. What business is it of theirs?

Are the Delta food police going to come & search your house to see what you feed?

Do you have to show store receipts for your dog's food?

Or are you on the 'honor' system.

I’ve heard of the controversy but it’s never come up in the facilities I take my dogs to. In fact we were just at the assisted living home, for their Summer’s end (depressing thought) barbecue a couple of days ago. That’s two large, raw fed dogs mingling in amongst the residents (majority wheel chair bound) while barbecue festivities were taking place.

They were in the action the entire time but I do put them in a down/stay off to the side while food is being served (not that anyone’s asked but it just seems like a positive step all round).

On therapy days they always get their normal breakfast less that dousing of salmon oil. They get their full daily dose with that evening meal. And not that I think it stinks or that they somehow retain the smell but I have had a few salmon burps right in the kisser - not terribly pleasant so I just avoid that little possibility.

They’re always fully exercised, lots of water to drink, a good brushing and we head out.

They will give kisses when they’re solicited and I’ve been told on quite a few occasions that my dogs don’t “smell like dogs”. I think they smell just like dogs should (fresh, earthy, summer breezy) but I take that to mean they “don’t stink” like perhaps some not so healthily fed dogs do.

Bacterial transfer is always a concern when dealing with any kind of fresh meat. I’m sure the majority of these facilities also bring in fresh meat for daily cooking. I ensure my hands always washed in hot, soapy water and my boys have big tongues that seem to clean their faces up just fine. I’ve never fed them just before we leave but there’s a lot of reason for that not just a possibility of bacterial transfer.

A facility cook/caregiver with less than perfection cleanliness could pose more of a health risk to these folks than I feel my raw fed dogs ever would.

Love it Tracey! I try really hard to be honest in all parts of my life, but if I was kept from being able to do therapy because of what some uniformed person thougth about my dog's food, I would "forget" to mention it.

I suspect that they want no possible connection between a visiting therapy dog and E. Coli or Salmonella/Listeria/hot Staph. Such a connection could impact future therapy work, could devalue the whole program.
While E.Coli and Salmonella are just as common on spinach and lettuce as they are on ground beef and raw factory farmed chicken, I can see their point. If I had a child on chemotherapy I wouldn't want it licked by a dog who ate raw chicken
an hour ago either. Stools and other doggy things are standard doggy germs, rarely intestine melting killer bugs. Standard doggy germs do not produce ghastly toxins. Some of the bugs on factory farmed critters are pretty hard to kill with the strongest antibacterials known. A sick patient wouldn't have a chance.

It's only this past year or so that I've learned about the affinity of hot staph, etc., for factory farming. It's as if incubators for resistant microbes had been developed deliberately.

I imagine it's noticeable that there's an increase in posts on this board about people choosing local pasture-raised poultry, awareness of not fiddling with the dog's built-in mechanisms against pathogen illness (his caustic stomach acid, his short fast digestive system which features greatly diminished colonizing opportunity for pathogens, compared to us), the POV that there are some dogs (a relatively small percentage) who shouldn't be fed raw, the importance of proper handling of both the raw meat and poultry and the dog's feces, and so on.

We've talked about mechanically removing a lot of the surface pathogen population on, say, poultry, by rinsing it thoroughly under running water and then pouring boiling water into the sink and down the drain.

Of course, much of the same caution, like avoiding cross-contamination in the fridge and on counters and cutting boards, is just as appropriate when handling the raw meat that will be cooked for human consumption.

We've talked about not letting the dog kiss the humans on the mouth, etc., and, as Michael WIse put it, "keep dog poop out of your mouth" ..... back when all we were worried about was "normal" bugs from dogs snacking out of the kitty litter and licking their butts.

Now it looks like we should be even more careful.

I was outraged when that ban on raw-fed therapy dogs was enacted by at least one private org. Now I've seen some of the papers from the New England Journal of Medicine, Johns Hopkins, the Pew Commission, UC Davis, U of Georgia, the CDC, and many more, about the connections between the sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics to accelerate and/or maximize growth in slaughter animals and drug-resistant pathogens, and my POV with regard to vulnerable patients is less black-and-white and a lot grayer.

All JMO! And nothing has made me less of a raw-feeding advocate or less enthusiastic about what I feed my own dogs. And I agree that "A facility cook ..... could pose more of a health risk to these folks than I feel my raw fed dogs ever would."

I feed my dog factory farmed chicken every day, and I hope for kisses! I'm not careful at all --- except I don't feed any raw ground meat, and I don't feed turkey.
We had a dead turkey yesterday. I put her in the dumpster, even though the Pinker thought she looked delicious.......