Ancestors V Modern-day

I read that Siberian Huskies were bred by the Chukchi people of Siberia for sled pulling and companionship. As an active, energetic, resilient breed, whose ancestors lived in the extremely cold and harsh environment of the Siberian Arctic, its no wonder new owners with little knowledge struggle to accommodate them as a “family pet”.

Siberian Huskies show a genetic affinity with historical East Siberian dogs and ancient Lake Baikal dogs, and can be traced to a lineage which is over 9,500 years old. Considering this fact of ancient origin, I wonder if this contributes  to why ours seem to thrive on a raw diet. Its not everyone’s idea of fun, preparing chicken parts and chopping beef, fish lamb and offal up, especially when you get to the tripe! But after weeks and months of onerously trying different foods, kibble, shop bought, home cooked, I stumbled upon BARF feeding.

When you think about it, there is an old wives tale “ As fit as a butchers dog”, as with all myths and tales they all originate from past when language wasn’t as countrywide and access to knowledge was limited, our ancestors relied on relative information. The proof is in the words, we certainly found that since the switch to raw food we seem to have eradicated upset tummies, bouts of diarrhoea, itching and ear infections.

There is so much literature widely available across the internet, it fundamentally stands for Bones and Raw Food or it could be Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, the latter is probably the more educated of the text. Either way it is basically a balance of raw meat, uncooked bones, offal with a few veggies and grains thrown in, although apart from the odd carrot ours remain unconvinced about the veggie side of the platter!

I find myself interestingly drawn to the fact that the idea of a BARF diet is to culminate a feeding regime for dogs (and cats) that ultimately emphasises on species-appropriate nutrition.

Yes ! I can see the Huskidz, extremely pray driven as they inertly are, chasing chickens, foul, rabbits pheasants even goats and sheep if left out in the wild to fend for themselves. What I find hard to imagine is Harry taking out a cow! Yet beef forms part of the recommended list and they do indeed love it! Further reading for me I think!

The Huskidz are wonderful, loving, companions, hilariously mischievous and funny, useless guard dogs, terrible listeners,(unless it’s the fridge door opening), have zero recall, would find agility poles useful to gnaw on and sprinkle fairy dust all year round, with extra big helpings a couple of times a year. Indeed having a happy husky in your life involves them owning you, they defy all the rules of a domesticated dog in a modern home environment!

In summary if you are reading this you will be way beyond the husky trial! You will probably now be husky guardian to one, two or even more, you will be in denial of the hair all over your clothes and spend your Saturday morning having extra husky cuddles in bed whilst you diligently chase that 1 hair out of your brew!