Feelgood Dog Sports Blog

John Rogerson will be returning to Argus Ranch in Auburn Wa. doing a three day seminar on aggression Nov 7-9 2007. For information please contact Holly Leale at oleale@comcast.net or 235-333-2347.

John will cover all the aspects of Dog to Human aggression. Including but not limited to, the triggers, remedies and underlying causes of some of the most serious forms of this problem.

He will also be covering Dog to Dog aggression and many of the often overlooked causes of why a dog becomes difficult or even dangerous around unknown dogs. Dog to dog aggression is often seen as less
serious or immediate of a problem mistakenly by many, but is one of the most common issues dog owners deal with; especially in multiple dog homes.

About John Rogerson
John Rogerson, founder and principle lecturer of the Northern Centre for Canine Behaviour is now widely acclaimed as the world’s leading  trainer/behaviourist, having pioneered the majority of techniques that have now become standard practice in behaviour therapy and  

Mid-Oregon Performance Clicker Club presents A Steve White Tracking Seminar
February 23 & 24, 2008 In Eugene, Oregon

Variable Surface Tracking
Learn how to train your dog to track accurately on asphalt and concrete and to move confidently from hard to soft surfaces. White, a long-time canine law enforcement handler, trainer and supervisor for one of the largest police canine units in Washington State, specializes in teaching tracking, scent work and behavior modification through the use of positive reinforcement based on operant conditioning. He has developed a method that uses sprayed water—called hydration intensified tracking training—to help dogs learn to track on hard surfaces.

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Recently, I added bbpress forum softward to this blog. I’m not necessarily interested in having a forum on this blog but since it is mainly a test site for me I thought I’d give it a shot. It is software from the creators of WordPress so it is simple and clean, easy to install and work with. I guess if I had the patience I would’ve tried to integrate it with my current theme but…ugh, too lazy. Integrating to WP is simple. So am still happy overall with WP as a content management software. It’s versatile and easy to use. I did briefly look into Joomla for content management software but I have to admit that I’m really not much of a geek. Like it tho and if I had more time and interest I’d like to try it…someday.

Flint and Sandy

I’m sorry that it’s not possible to individually notify every Bravo user of the recall and that by federal regulation we must issue a press release to the AP wire service so that it has wide distribution. We did that *voluntarily*. Also – only 3 specific Bravo products from 3 *specific* batches are being recalled, not all of our products.

I also am somewhat surprised to see a raw feeding group upset about this recall.

*ALL* raw meat carries pathogens. Whether you buy from the grocery store, from wholesale meat suppliers, or from prepared raw diet manufacturers.

It is impossible to avoid. The USDA allows poultry producers to have up to 23% Salmonella contamination on poultry. A good portion of chickens are actually *born* with Salmonella. So the poultry products that manufacturers must use are contaminated long before it ever gets to us. Since these are *RAW* diets and we don’t cook them, the bacteria is left intact. This is true for *every* raw diet manufacturer and for every person who feeds raw regardless of their source. Raw meat has bacteria – that’s why people are told to wash their hands after handling raw meat. ANYONE who has fed raw has fed pathogens such as Salmonella and Listeria.

Do Salmonella and Listeria pose a threat to our dogs and cats? Not really. If you go to our website you’ll find a recall FAQ that gives citations about how Salmonella is a normal part of the intestinal flora and how dogs apparently neutralize the bacteria. There’s even a quote from the FDA Consumer magazine that acknowledges that healthy dogs and cats rarely become ill from Salmonella.

So why is the FDA involved and why did we do the recall? You can find more information on that on our website also. But briefly you should know some of this:

The FDA agents told us that we are just the first of the raw diet companies to be visited, and that they hope to be able to shut down the raw diet industry and stop raw feeding. So this is an industry problem, not a Bravo problem.

The FDA has a very black eye due to the melamine recalls. So, they want an easy win so they can prove they are safeguarding America’s pets. Raw diets are an easy target for them.

The FDA is holding raw diets to a *cooked* diet standard and has no desire to be reasonable and acknowledge that you can’t hold *RAW* meat to the same regulation that governs *cooked* meat.

The FDA and USDA are currently in a bitter battle. The FDA is trying to take control of USDA operations. We believe one of the reasons Bravo was chosen was that we are a USDA facility. By bashing Bravo they are able to bash the USDA.

This recall is the result of politics and unreasonable bureaucrats. Bravo raw products carry the same risk – and BENEFITS – as any raw product – whether home-prepared or manufactured.

We have been a company dedicated to high quality. That’s why we use antibiotic-free poultry, and grass-fed, hormone-free red meats. It’s why we manufacture in our own USDA plant under USDA human processing standards. Other than the reality that all raw meat has some pathogen presence, nothing has changed. You can still count on us to make a high quality and beneficial products.

To those who have been sending notes of support, thank you very much. We’re caught in the midst of a political struggle and it helps to know there are people who understand and appreciate the passion and care we put into Bravo products.

Melinda Miller
Bravo Raw Diet