The BARF feeding regimen actually consists of throwing a raw carcass (usually chicken) to your dog and letting him eat it bones and all. The thinking behind this concept is that dogs used to eat raw food like this for thousands of years in the wild. Many are praising the multitude of benefits that the BARF diet provides.

The problem that I have with the BARF diet is that dogs have also been domesticated for thousands of years. They have not had to feed themselves in packs such as wolves and coyotes do for a long time because of the relationships that they have established with man. Man has traditionally fed their dogs leftover scraps from dinner that has been cooked long before the commercialization of bagged dog food.

Dog’s bodies have adapted over time to a convenient lifestyle of being given cooked foods. Today’s dogs can get Salmonella and E. coli poisoning it’s just that they are more resistant to these bacteria than their human counterparts. However, the corn and wheat that are added to bagged dog food have not ever been a source of a dog’s natural diet in history. These ingredients can be triggers for allergies and other ailments.