DEVELOPMENT OF VOCAL COMMUNICATION

  From birth on, both wolves and dogs are very vocal. Newborn pups moan, squel, and scream as they wiggle around and compete for the mother's nipples.

Early Vocal Signals
( Squeal / Scream / Yelp / Yawn ) 

Pups squeal and scream during their first few weeks of life, but rarely by 5-6 weeks of age. These sounds are short, harmonic, and high-pitched. Screams are generally higher-pitched, much louder and less frequent. Squeals are not associated with any particular pup or adult behaviour, and adults appear to ignore them. When pups scream, their mother grooms them or repositions them, often eliciting more screams. Scream serve as a mild distress calls.
Pups yelp when stepped on or being carried, and their mother responds promtly by attending to them.Yelps are rare, brief, loud sounds.
Yawns are sounds produced during yawning and have no apparent social role.

Early Adultlike Vocal Sounds
 ( Moan / Whine / Growl / Bark )

Moans are most common pup sound.Moans, like squeals, screams, and whines are most common during first two weeks of life when pups are deaf. Pups moan while nursing, asleep, or resting; their moans do not elicit any overt response response from the mother. Pups also moan when huddled together, providing a possible tactile signal to the littermates. 
Pups also whine from birth on. Whines are higher-pitched than moans. Pups whine and moan in the same contexts, so the two vocalizations may carry similar information.
Pups growl as early as a day, but not frequently until their fourth week. During the first 3 weeks, pups may growl when huddled. Older pups growl during active interactions with litermates. Pups also bark in response to sounds outside.



Late Adultlike Vocal Signals
( Woof / Squeak ) 

Pups woof from their third week on, most often during their mother's absence. Woofs are associated with both hesitancy, and aproach and reflect uncertainty. 
Pups do not squeak until day 15, by by the week 4, squeaks become the most common sound in the pups repertoire.  
In weeks 3 and 4, pups squeak while in contact with one another but not interacting. During the next 2 weeks, they squeak mostly during interactions with littermates or with their mother. 

The Neonatal Vocal Repertoire 

The vocal repertoire of newborn pups begins to give way to an adult - structured repertoire shortly after the pups can see, hear and move about. Four most common sounds of newborns ( moans, whines, squeals, screams ) are made repeatedly during first 2 weeks of life, then decline rapidly or disappear entirely. Together with the yelp, these four sounds provide a stepped series that permits the mother to monitor the status of her litter. The decline of these early sounds indicate that pups rapidly outgrow the need for distress signal system. By 3-4 weeks of age, pups can avoid situations that may have been life - threatening earlier. Loss of squeals and screams still leaves moans, yelps and whines to indicate low, moderate or high level of distress. 
At 1-3 weeks, before the development of social behaviour, pup signals primaly serve to indicate distress. After 3 weeks of age, these vocal signals assume their adultlike roles. These are mainly used by wolves in a form of howls. 

Making the switch to raw diet

There are probably as many ways to do this as there are people and their pets. The following general guidelines and specific ideas should get you thinking in the right direction and help you make decision as to how you will go about the switch with your pet. The switch can be rapid, straightforward and trouble free. An important factor to consider is the diet you are switching your pet from. Where a pet has some experience of eating a variety of home produced foods, both cooked and raw, there is usually more acceptance and less likelihood of gastrointestinal upset on the part of the pet. With kibble fed pets, the change is much more dramatic for their system.
There are two ways to switch. The first being cold turkey. This method seems to work best for healthy adult dogs. You can fast them for a day or so if you wish before you switch, but the way I would recommend is to throw away your kibble, and start feeding raw. It's that simple! Keep everything very simple for the first couple of weeks, I would suggest chicken necks/backs ONLY for the first 3 or 4 days. Make sure the dog is digesting everything properly (no diarrhea or vomiting) before you add another type of food to the meals. Hold off on all supplements for several weeks. I would also wait several weeks before adding richer foods like liver, eggs or canned mackerel.

The second method is the gradual switch. Basically you add a bit of raw food to the dog's meals each day, in increasing amounts while decreasing the kibble. This may work for some dogs, but it takes longer for the dog to adjust and there are more frequent bouts of loose stools. I would recommend cold turkey for most adult dogs and some puppies.

If you decide you will be feeding veggies, wait until the dog is eating a variety of RMBS and different meats before you add them to the diet. Remember, veggies need to be thoroughly cooked or pulped in order for dogs to digest them at all.

BARF DIET

kkiiiiGetting down to ingredient specifics 

BONES

Bones are living tissue composed of living cells. Because bones are living tissue, just like any other part of the body, they are a complex source of a wide variety of nutrients. Bones contain minerals which are embedded in protein. They also contain fat. If the bone is from chicken or pork, then the fat will be very high in the essential fatty acids. Along with the fat are fat soluble vitamins. The central parts of most bones contain marrow which is a highly nutritious mix of blood forming elements, including iron. Raw bones also provide natural antioxidant/anti-ageing factors including enzymes.

Bones are nature's storehouse of minerals for your dog. If meat is added to bone, then methionine and most of B vitamins are supplied. Puppies and adult dogs fed bone rarely if ever suffer from indigestion or diarrhea. Bones play a similar role to fiber, that is, a role of bulking out the food, thereby removing toxins and promoting general bowel health. Bone fed dogs are long lived and healthy. Their whole system is designed for and in fact needs a bone to function properly.

Lamb ribs bones

MEAT

Many people assume that a dog's natural diet is a meat only diet. Unfortunately this is untrue as a meat only diet is highly unnatural and unbalanced. Meat should form only a part of the over-all diet, which should include bones, fruits and vegetables as well. For example, the muscle meat eaten by wild wolves forms a small part of the diet that consist of a wide variety of other foods, including bone.

Meat supplies protein. That is its major role in nutrinion. It also supplies varying amounts of fat, water and some vitamins and some vitamins and minerals. Because it supplies fat and protein, it also supplies energy. Meat is first class protein. It contains all the essential amino acids necesarry for dogs of all ages, including growing dogs, pregnant dogs, female dogs feeding puppies and of course pet dogs too. Many belive that only working dogs should be fed meat. That's not true, all dogs of all breeds should be fed meat.

There are no carbohydrates in meat. That is no starch, sugar or fiber. With rising level of fat content in the meat ir rises the energy supply for your dog. Chicken have the highest level and beef and lamb are both low. Raw meat is low in sodium and high in potassium. That is good for dogs with heart problems. The meat with the lowest sodium is beef. Chicken having the lowest potassium level. Beef, lamb and chicken meat are very low in calcium and moderately low in magnesium. This lack of minerals requires bone material in your dog's diet.

Frozen minced lamb, chicken and beef

To be continued...................................................................................