As the Old Year winds down and we all prepare for the holidays, I`m offering a bit of a gift myself, in the  form of a new course – one I have been asked for, and urged to do for years – at a very special, one-time-only price. This is the Canine Dietary Formulation course – in which those who have been learning to develop balanced homemade diets for their dogs will have all questions answered, and then some. Note please-  this course is open to all, but teaches foundational principles, so if your dog has a condition that requires a therapeutic diet, we won’t be able to meet your needs here. A consultation with an experienced professional is absolutely your best approach.

In the new course, students will learn how to calculate nutrient requirements (minimum, recommended and upper limit), how to provide and manipulate macronutrients (protein, carbohydrate and fat) provide for all required nutrients in optimal levels, and understand basic interactions between vitamins, minerals, fiber, amino acids. We will cover detailed information on non-nutrient constituents in plant foods, working with bio individuality, and food storage and preparation. An audit of the Basic Canine Nutrition course is recommended, but not a prerequisite.

Here’s how the twelve weeks will unfold.

Week One: Introduction to dietary formulation – principles, tools and reliable resources, plus an overview of current, popular dietary approaches, and where they may go awry

Week Two: Energy and Macronutrients: How much food your dog really need? What should it consist of, in terms of carbs, fat and protein? Are all carbs really so bad? We’ll look at all of this and more. Formulation starts with macronutrients and energy.

Week Three: Protein and Amino Acids – how much does a dog really need?  Sources, requirements, signs of deficiency and excess

Week Four: Fats and fatty acids – much confusion on this one floating around! here we will get the skinny on fats and why we need to understand fatty acids, not just the total amount a dog takes in from all sources.

Week Five: Micronutrients; an overview, and requirements – vitamins and minerals are required in much more precise amounts than fat, carb and fiber. This is where many home made diets fall down – and yours never will again

Week Six: Vitamins – food sources, interactions, how to supplement

Week Seven: Minerals- food sources, interactions, how to supplement

Week Eight: Interactions and Anti Nutrients – all foods contain more than essential nutrients, and we need to understand some of these to  get started

Week Nine:Supplementation and food storage/preparation

Week Ten: Putting it all together; forming the recipes. We’ll use nutritiondata, your own dog(s) as examples, and start figuring out how to actually put a completely balanced recipe together. We’ll look at raw and cooked diets, and get the foundation set up.

Weeks Eleven and Twelve: Practicum in recipe development – vitamins and minerals, calculating fatty acid content, what to do if it doesn’t seem to work, substitutions.

This course may be taken as a weekly class, or you can take your own time, send me questions as required and complete in a more leisurely fashion, (A ceiling of 6 months is recommended, so you keep some momentum). The regular cost will be $200.00 but just until January 1, it’s half price! And  just to sweeten the deal, any student who enrolls at the reduced cost, before January 1, can opt to take the Audit version of the full BCN programme for just an additional 100$.  That option is normally $250.00.

For more information, or to enroll, contact me at catlane@thepossiblecanine.com. I don’t have a link set up for this course yet, but you can make payment arrangements with me directly.
We will use all class notes and Internet resources, so no additional texts are required. I will provide a Recommended Reading list, but you don’t need to purchase anything extra to get started.

The start date for the Canine Dietary Formulation course is January 13. I look forward to this long overdue but seriously fun course, and sharing knowledge with you all, for the health of our dogs! Let’s feed them optimally! and learn about all our choices.

Manly Dan says YAY! for homemade food and variety!