Our Barbet's Healthy Lifestyle

Part of our Barbet's healthy lifestyle consists of a fresh wholesome diet, clean water, appropriate exercise, lots of fresh air and sunshine all contribute to the daily wellness that we try to offer our dogs. 

We feel very strongly that by helping our dogs to have strong and healthy immune systems they will be in the best position to fight off illness and disease. We strive to achieve this by implementing Natural Rearing practices with our Barbet puppies such as feeding a natural raw diet, limiting vaccines,  limiting exposure to chemical toxins. 

The dogs in our home are fed a raw food diet. This consists of a variety of raw meaty bones, organ meats, a small amount of fruits and vegetables and some supplements. We believe that less processing and less additives means better nutrition for our dogs. We offer lots of guidance and support for our puppy buyers who would like to feed a raw diet to their dogs. We have been feeding this diet for more than 20 years and our dogs are thriving on it. 

We also follow a limited vaccine protocol. We believe that conventional veterinary practice of annual vaccine boosters is creating disease in our pets. We do not feel that animals should be given so many vaccinations. We titre and encourage our puppy homes to titre rather than simply revaccinating when their dog may already have immunity to certain diseases such as Parvo and Distemper. "Once immunity to a virus exists, it persists for years or life." - Dr Ronald D Schultz, head of pathobiology at Wisconsin University.  

We also run nomographs on our dams using the University of Wisconsin Madison CAVIDS laboratory.  These help us optimally time when our puppies should receive their vaccinations.

When our pets require health care we will often use alternative medicine to treat them. We have found homeopathic remedies to be very helpful in treating our animals and ourselves. That being said we also have a very good relationship with our veterinarians and work closely with them in caring for our dogs.

We try to limit the exposure that our animals and ourselves have to chemicals and toxins in our home and garden and we are careful to use chemical free cleaning and gardening products. 

As responsible Barbet breeders we are striving to produce Barbets that will live long and healthy lives.  We offer lots of encouragement and guidance to our puppy buyers and we are always available to answer questions.