How to Truly Care for Your Dogs: Water, Food, Stress & Longevity

0:03Darin Olien:Welcome to Super Life with me, Darin Olien, a podcast where we explore, discover, and share solutions that promote a healthier life and a better world. Together, we'll ignite possibilities, inspire change, and build sovereignty, creating a roadmap towards a super life for you and for all. Get ready to start living your super life.

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3:05Darin Olien:And with a 100-day risk-free trial, free shipping, and returns, you can experience this game-changing cookware with zero risk. Come on, who wouldn't want to do that? Hey everybody, welcome to the show. This is Darren Lee and this is the Superlife Podcast. If you listen very closely, you will hear dogs in the background drinking water. This is perfect because in this solo episode, this is about our dogs. Animal care, yes, mostly focus on dogs because I have dogs. Many people do. We're going to talk about water, talking about food. We're going to talk about activity and whole body health. So buckle up.

3:49This one's a fun one. Today is about our dogs, our animals, our family. There is nothing I love more than my dogs. Anyone who knows me knows I'll do anything for my dogs. I'm going to share how I take care of my two German Shepherds, Chaga and Ella, the water they drink, the food they eat, how they move, how I manage to deal with stress, my stress as it relates to them, and so we don't have to carry that along and have it affect them. I'm going to talk about naturopathic versus conventional care a little bit, what actually works, and yes, we have real studies with a big bibliography. I also want to give a big shout out to the Forever Dog authors, Rodney Habib and Dr.

4:40Karen Becker. They were inspirations of mine years ago. Rodney helped out when Chaga was going through some stuff, so a big shout out. Check their books out. They're some of the greatest longevity experts with dog care on the planet. So first, I'm going to dive into water. So as I drink water, so do my dogs. Every morning when I wake up, I create my water from reverse osmosis. I add a pinch of crystal salt, Redmond salt, Celtic salt. I add a little bit of that, just a pinch in the glass, and I also fill up the water bowls for them. That is something we do. So make sure you filter your dog's water.

5:30RO water is great because it's clean, it's fresh, there's no chlorine, there's no pesticides, there's no PFAS. You don't want that accumulating in the animal. There's a reason that these animals are getting human-like problems. You know, they're eating kibble is not a good plan. So I think you know that. And most of you who are listening to me right now probably have avoided kibble and those types of super ultra processed food in your animal. If you haven't, no judgment. But now it's time to switch. So dogs generally need about 44 to 66 milliliters per kilogram of body weight per day. So if your dog weighs 100 pounds, roughly that's 50 kg, right?

6:27So that gives you an idea of how much water you should be feeding your dogs. Listen, a good rule of thumb so you don't have to calculate everything is they will let you know. Always keep your bowl of water filled with the dog, especially in the summer, man. I had one instance when I got Ella for the first time and I was running her and she literally stopped under the shade and started shaking. She was just on the verge of a heat stroke, which was scared the hell out of me. Chaga regulates well. Ella wasn't quite used to the exercise that we do. And I had to be very aware. So stewardship is so important for our dogs.

7:13And I'm going to talk about energy as it relates to dogs. I'm going to get into that. So make sure if you're tap water that you're switching out to reverse osmosis water. This isn't hard to do. It is very easy. And of course, you save yourself and your dog's exposure to toxins. Another thing is it's easy just to keep filling up the bowls, but you should wash them. Wash them every day. Wash them out, scrub them, use stainless steel. Don't use plastic and make sure you wash them because bacteria can build up quite a bit. So I do use RO filter. I also use, by the way, this wasn't even meant as a plug, but Monovitality is a company I love.

8:04Ocean plasma, fulvic acid. I put that once a day in the water of both of my dogs and they grow to love it. Helps balance them because they're getting all the electrolytes. Helps balance their endocrine system. So very important to do, but something I do. You don't have to do everything I do. I will share parts of this where what I do, you don't have to do everything I do. So don't think you're not being a good dad or mom of your pets. It's just something that I have built now. Eight year relationship with Chaga and I got Ella later. But I will do anything possible to have them thrive in their life.

8:51So food. Let's talk about this. I'm plant based for sure. But there is a great company called Bramble. It was formulated extremely well for dogs. It's plant-based completely. I tell you what, I love it. And Chaga and Ella grew to love it. Now, I've done microbiome tests, so I can't be exclusively on Bramble yet. So I am using Viva Raw, which is a raw food, and it is meat. obviously I don't love that being a plant-based person but my dogs based on where they're at right now is I have to nurture them into and if they can thrive off bramble and some of the research does show that it is possible for dogs cats no they are 100 carnivore dogs can create enzymes with exposure to food.

9:55Dogs forge, right? Coyotes forge. I've seen coyotes scat all over the place. I'm like, oh, that's that berry from over there. So it is possible. So this is what I do. And one thing that lines up, it seems to line up, and based on the studies, show that feeding your dogs once a day is better overall. So it's part of a dog aging project. It was an analysis of dogs that were over 24 kg or about 40 to 50 pounds found that feeding them once a day had lower odds of GI problems, dental issues, orthopedic strength, kidney and urinary tract support and liver and pancreas disorders cleared up by just feeding the dogs once.

10:50This also helped with cognitive scores. So this is a powerful thing. I have the link in the bio. You can read it. This is incredible dog aging project. So one easy thing, just like, so they have fasting periods, just feeding them once a day and the dogs consume their food like crazy. They really appreciate it. Also, raw versus cooked food. So this is important. You need to also, I'm not going to cover every little detail here. So obviously, you know if you're a dog owner that you have to be very careful at switching their food. You can't just straight up change it. You have to slowly move into it or else you're going to have an issue.

11:35You're going to have diarrhea all over the place. So that's not something. But when you're switching from kibble to raw, which is really important, the gut microbiome needs to go through changes. So these changes don't just happen straight away. So there are actually guidelines that you can go and look at the show notes that I'm adding, but also gut bacteria. There's an incredible company that I've used several times called Animal Biome, where I did a bunch of tests on Chaga's microbiome so I could see where he was allergic to certain foods and reacting and the bacteria that he didn't have so it wasn't breaking down properly.

12:22So I did this whole analysis. And obviously, with this diversity of food and fibers are really important. It goes the same with obviously humans. So you need to be aware that when you're changing from kibble to raw, you have to go slowly. Just slowly start to, if it's a tablespoon to a cup to more of a cup, just watch the consistency of the stool and take safety first, obviously. And make sure that the companies are testing. What I love about, I use Darwin's for a long period of time, a raw food company, and Viva Raw is what I use now, and they do all the testing. So they do batch testing, and their sourcing is pretty incredible.

13:12So I get frozen bramble, which is plant-based, and I get frozen Viva Raw delivered to the house, and then I have a separate freezer in the back that I store all of their food. And this is just fantastic. So again, be aware that changing food is very important. So I already covered the microbiome test that I did with animal biome. You can check them out. And then they give you an analysis. Work with your vet to see if there's any dysbiosis anywhere. And then you can include the bacteria that your animal may need. and obviously exposure to diversification of soluble and insoluble fibers. But something that's easy to do is pumpkin is great for dogs.

14:04Cooked sweet potatoes are fantastic. The rich ones and polyphenols, the purple ones are great. And berries. So what I'll do every once in a while is I'll add some fermentation, veggies into the overall mix, as well as different berries. So I'll grab a one week, I'll add blueberries and I'll add, sometimes I'll just cut up some red leaf lettuce, I'll add to it. I'll be eating pumpkin and I'll add some to chaga and Ella's bowl. Like these things are always good to do to create that diversification and get their antioxidants and anthocyanins and polyphenols get that ramped up. Okay, so in terms of walks, again, I live in a great area where I specifically chose to live here.

14:58I walk my dogs four to five times. Chaga looks at me. I know he needs to run, and I walk out the door, and I run him. I walk him. They're being exposed to nature all the time. I don't need to put him on leashes. I know I'm in a fortunate situation. But if you can, these are great little hacks that you can use for you. Like if you've been sitting at your computer, maybe every set alarm, you know, set a little alert every hour, you just get up, do some squats yourself, but just go outside. Even if it's 10 minutes, five minutes with your dogs, this is really good. Gets you outside, gets you natural light, gets you a little exercise, and definitely supports your dogs.

15:43So this is an incredible aspect. And the dog aging project also gets into the different types of dogs. The cognitive health is going to be better. They're going to feel more relaxed and chilled if they get enough movement. These things are great. Let them sniff on some walks. Let them take in that information, but also do intervals. So make commands, make them walk with you without sniffing so that you still stay in that alpha mode, right? So these things are great. Heal, stay, all of these things. Chaga gets so stoked to run with my mountain bike. He runs, I ride the mountain bike and he gets so excited.

16:28I gotta like have him sit and chill out, stop barking. and then I go ahead and then I command him to go and then he's so stoked. So those little training commands are good to do to keep the discipline of your animals. So this is important. The other thing is that I've noticed because we're so connected to our animals is I really work on my stress. When I'm stressed, Chag is stressed and I see it in him. I see his energy's low. I see kind of a skin reaction. I can see it in him. So my dogs have become a barometer for my own well-being and my own stress. So I actively work on my stress. Plus, I've been starting to work with this incredible practitioner of the endocannabinoid system, Danny Fontaine.

17:18We're going to do a podcast here soon. And I've been giving Chaga and Ella CBD to turn on their endocannabinoid system as well as calm their nerves and keep them chill. It's been fantastic. So, you know, dogs also can smell human stress. It's not just, I'm just making this up. They can actually smell your stress from breath to sweat. Their olfactory system is leagues above ours. So those stress signals are creating shifts in your dog, period. So learning about your own stressors is extremely important. Okay, so that's kind of what I've, from a general perspective, and here's some of the cool things that I've been doing with chaga from the beginning.

18:10So I use Therisage PEMF mats. I put it on chaga too. I use the amp coil for energy balances. I put it on chaga as well. if he stays there, right? The next segment I'm gonna get into is conventional and alternative or natural pathic, right? So I look at this as the same I would look for myself and that is under an acute, severe situation, auto accident, you name it, emergency situation, conventional all the way, of course. But then in terms of overall care, overall support of the body systems, and also, you know, chaga has been going through some challenges. It expresses as an autoimmune condition.

19:04But of course, I don't believe that something comes from nothing. Meaning there's always a reason. There's always a way to reverse engineer. and there's always a way that the body's trying to tell us something. The difference here is Chaga can't give me feedback. He can't talk to me, right? So we have to go into a lot of different things. So my approach after nine years of working with Chaga, my 85 pound German shepherd, and now Ella as well, who's a 60 pound German shepherd, I view it as if these were my kids, what would I do? And so that's my approach and everyone's different. I've used both doctors, of course.

19:53If I need to bring Chaga in, he got something in his paw, I go down conventional all the way. Chaga had some bacteria and some infection, I couldn't get a handle of it, he got quite severe, I put him on antibiotics. You know, these kind of things you got to go case by case. But I've also got exposed to a ton of naturopathic support for chaga. I have probably worked with over 10 different vets. 80 % of them are naturopathic, are holistic views, are acupuncturists, chiropractors for the dog, all of those things. So that's where I'm coming from and you have to come from what will work for you and your pet.

20:39And again, coming from if we feed our dogs, treat our dogs with just giving them regular tap water, giving them kibble, it's ultimately unfiltered water with, you know, what's in that water, all kinds of junk. If you're taking that approach, then chances are those animals will express what we're seeing in our population already. Diabetes, you know, cancer rates, conditions that are showing up as a result of the environment we're creating for them. So reverse osmosis water, pure water. I think I've already said this, but I add the electrolytes back in, monovitality, all of those things. Plus, a variety of food gives them the electrolytes, the minerals that they need.

21:31But in terms of, I'm going to go through a bunch of modalities that I've worked with, with vets. One is stem cells. So, the great work by Dr. Bob Harmon, a vet, 20 years of understanding stem cells. It's also paved the way for human trials based on his work of animals. So Chag has received stem cells and he's got great results from it. Again, I don't look at all of this as cure-alls because nothing, in my experience, being a human, taking care of myself, being in the health world all of my life, as well as operating as a steward and a caregiver for these pets, Nothing is a magic bullet. They're integrative.

22:24There's multi-systems going on, and ultimately you want harmony and balance for your animal. So stem cells are fantastic for that. Musculoskeletal, healing responses, regeneration of joints, skin issues, etc., etc. I've also done acupuncture. Chaga responded extremely well with acupuncture, calmed his central nervous system. Ultimately, what I believe is it's the stress response that kicks up. And without getting into a lot of it, Chaga had some trauma in his life. And so that is almost a PTSD response, as well as he's always taking on my stressors, which I noticed. Even though I tell him, I communicate to him in my own special way that be a dog and enjoy the incredible life you've created for yourself.

23:21It seems as though currently today he is always, one of his jobs he's decided is taking and trying to support me. So, one of my protocols for supporting my dogs is always being mindful and being, when us living together, is being mindful of my stressors. Truly acknowledging, not just blowing off subtle things that I'm going through because I see it in him. Chaga and Ella are my barometers of stress, 100%. I see it in their eyes when I'm stressed, when I'm happy. I can see those shifts. So that is a huge part of the dog's life is taking care of yourself. Now, if you're not motivated to forgive yourself, to let go of things for yourself, then use your pets as the catalyst for you to take better care of yourself.

24:22Better care of yourself, more happiness and joy and contentment and releasing of trauma is infinitely better for your dogs. I've seen it and I know if you're a pet owner they are a sponge of you they reflect back to you so I've also used red light I've also used the amp coil at a great podcast with Aaron Bigelow on the amp coil I've used all of these things on Chaga they respond well and Ella as well as PEMF I've used Therasage and And I'm a proud supporter of Therasage and all their devices. And I've let Chaga lay on that when he's had some flare-ups of his skin issues. It helps to drop him down into parasympathetic.

25:11And I've also recently found a great healing center, a veterinarian, Dr. K. Big shout out at the Healing Touch Veterinary Center in Tarzana. So it's like 20 minutes from me. I bring him there and he gets ozone baths, oxygen baths, basically, IV, vitamin C IVs, boosts his immune system. And we also have done food sensitivities, food allergy tests, microbiome tests by the animal biome. And so now we can avoid certain foods, add certain things, support them in traditional Chinese medicine, herbs, applications, those kind of things, as well as just normal care. Chaga's coat gets matted sometimes and he gets irritation.

26:12So I wash them with a wand in the shower to keep kind of on top of these kind of things. And this is like the bottom line is I approach my dogs exactly how I approach myself. I feed him a variety of food, both vegan friendly food with the diversification of fibers that have been vet approved, as well as some cooling meats. chaga can't eat all the all the meats out there i don't want to buy a lot of meat for my dogs if they're thriving and some of the research again shows that you know that dogs can develop these enzymes and again it's exposure it's environmental exposure so what you're exposing your dogs to is a lot of what they're going to express so one other thing i want to emphasize is meal timing.

27:11So I've really, I used to feed them twice a day, but now I see a major difference in feeding these dogs once a day. I have some research in the show notes to support this, but the getting a longer fasted window, even for the dog seems to be incredibly good for them. Now, if you have a, you know, a smaller dog that's higher pace, maybe you need to acknowledge their body type and feed them more often. But for me and my dogs, they seem to be thriving. And it supports, the research supports in the research around the dog aging project, it shows that feeding once a day is advantageous for detoxification pathways, longevity pathways.

28:00so that's what I'm following and I noticed a huge difference. I think I already mentioned but the water I told you what same water I drink I give to my dogs but also washing their bowls. I make a habit of as soon as it's empty I pick it up I wash it out I fill it up again in terms of the water and this is something I don't want bacteria or saliva to breed anything else so that they're re-ingesting things. So, you know, it's extremely important. Sometimes I've made my own food for the dogs and I applaud all of you that do that. I am limited space here, limited refrigerator. So I've chosen Viva Raw as some of the meats that I use.

28:47And like I said, Bramble. And then I add in this cycle of whatever I'm, if it's raw veggies or sprouts or broccoli sprouts or berries. These kind of, Chaga loves watermelon. So I'll give them that diversity as well because that microbiome really thrives in that. So I don't think of it as perfection. I think of progress. I listen to the vets. I get everything tested. I've spent a lot of money on my dogs in terms of making sure that their life and their health is top priority. That's just a choice. I made. So I spend the money on food every month. And that's just the way it is. So if I, my budget is tight, I go to work and try to make more money so I can keep doing it.

29:38That's, that's how I approach. I've got a lot of show notes here. So make sure if you want to dive into some of these things that you can dive in. Again, there is so much. And by the way, dogs are also mammals. So everything with the spine, they also, the endocannabinoid system, like I mentioned before, is incredibly important. It's something I'm leaning into more and more with the incredible scientist and naturopath, Danny Fontaine. So this is incredibly beneficial and learning for me with my dogs, with myself. But I think all of you will understand that healthy food, good exercise, getting outside, diversification of that food, and then trauma release of yourself.

30:32I've done, by the way, there's so much I haven't mentioned. I've done psychic dog readings to try to understand what's going on with chaga. I've done emotional freedom technique release stuff on chaga i've done remote healing work for from a variety of different people that i've used on chaga and ella so this is the lengths i go like there's a whole other just part of reason why i'm creating my patreon my super life kind of group is so i can give you resources that sometimes i can't give full-on publicly but there's a lot of i always stay open so common sense leads the way in testing and science.

31:18I'm kind of crossed between I go with my gut as well as I go with science when we need it to get answers that I may not have. I always go back to the basics. Water, food, exercise, sleep, and trauma release of my dogs as well as myself because we are a tight-knit family here in the woods and the mountains of Malibu. Okay, hopefully that's helpful for you. I'm grateful that you've tuned in. Again, check out Forever Dog and the other books that Rodney Habib and Dr. Cameron Becker have written. And Rodney is giving tons of advice all over Instagram, YouTube, probably TikTok too. Follow them. Explore what they're doing.

32:08Just be a great steward for your pets. Essentially, we don't own them. They're free beings. They're bonded to us. And that relationship is so powerful. And that's what I believe. I want to be the best steward for my animals. And anyone that has animals, you understand it. Anyone that has kids, you understand that. Okay? Peace. Big thumbs up to all your dogs out there. I love you and may you be the best steward for your dogs possible.