Stop Looking For The Quick Fix

“I really needed help with a dog.  I’m sure you know what you’re talking about but you got a bit wordy.  I had to move on.”

A dog trainer friend shared this comment he received on his social media.  While I can relate because I can be a bit wordy at times, this is a sad reflection of the instant-gratification society we’ve become.  The pet health industry is not exempt from this quick-fix expectation.

As a fellow pet lover, I empathize with the challenges pet parents face when it comes to their furry friend’s health.  It’s not uncommon to see pet parents searching for a magic solution, a single answer that can instantly solve their pet’s health issues.  But the truth is, pet health is a complex matter that requires a comprehensive, holistic approach, not a quick fix.

An issue that develops over time may take equal time to solve—maybe even longer.  Pet parents must understand this from the beginning; otherwise, they will likely soon feel frustrated at the perceived lack of progress.

When it comes to health, whether it’s yours or your pet’s, it’s important to remember that it’s not just about one thing.  It’s about the combination of everything you do and the environment around you.  This is what we mean by a holistic approach.  It’s not just a trendy term but a key principle for maintaining a healthy lifestyle for both you and your furry friend.

Yes, diet is important and the foundation for everything you do with your pet.  However, you cannot feed a good diet only to continue exposing your dog to other toxins and believe those toxins are not a factor in your dog’s struggles.  I work with pet parents daily who start a raw diet and blame the food at the first sign of adversity.  What about real food scares pet parents and makes them believe that real food is the issue?

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Once a pet eats raw food, pet parents forget everything else that went into their pet.  After some prodding, they start to remember, and you’ll find out that the dog got a handful of cookies from the Home Depot employees.  “But it can’t be that because he has never had an issue with those treats,” or “There is no way a singular Milk Bone could cause this; he is really sick.  It has to be your food.”  If a single Milk-Bone, a processed piece of cardboard with 32 ingredients, can’t cause your dog some digestive upset, then REAL food containing only meat, bones, organs, and fat certainly can’t either.  After all, the latter is all part of your dog’s evolutionary diet and are things nature designed him to eat.  Nature did not design him to eat Pyridoxine Hydrochloride.  Despite not knowing what that is or how to pronounce it, pet parents give treats that contain it and don’t think twice about it.  I’d love to know how many pet parents who have called a raw food company to ask what the cows ate that morning have ever called J.M. Smuckers and asked about any of the 32 ingredients in a Milk Bone dog biscuit.

If diet is the foundational key, then the opposite is also true.  All the “best” supplements, medications, treatments, tips, and hacks will not be effective long-term if the diet is poor.  If you cannot change the diet, you must adjust your expectations.  Some will call this “shaming,” but when did reality and honesty become shaming?  

If a financial expert told me that my expectation of vast wealth should be low because I spend all my money as soon as I get it, would they be shaming me or just telling me the truth?  I did, after all, ask for their advice.  I can’t criticize it because I don’t like it.  It might be different if he randomly approached me in the store, looked in my cart, and said, “I know why you’re broke.” Is it fair to ask them to devise a way for me to continue making impulsive purchases while still having a lot of money in the bank?  No, I have to make changes.  At least a little, maybe a lot, but if I want different results, I must change something.  If that is “shaming,” the world has indeed passed me by.

We have all been brainwashed by deceptive marketing used by corporations whose goal is to change our perceptions of health.  Everything they produce, from food, technology, medicines, and even household cleaners, affects you and your pet’s health.  You will never hear that from them, though.  These despicable corporations will have you believe that nothing regarding you or your pet’s health is from anything except lousy genetics and bad luck.  Taking responsibility for your pet’s health is not blaming or insinuating that you are a bad pet parent.  Taking responsibility is the only way to fight against these corporations and their greed.  If we don’t, we will continue to buy their “quick fix cures,” which, in most cases, are worse than the illness.

Everything valuable to you is worth working for, including health.  There are no magic pills or quick fixes, and no single supplement will instantly fix whatever your pet may have going on.  Realizing this will help you have more realistic expectations and prevent the feelings of frustration that often steer pet parents right back over to conventional treatments and the products that got them into this mess in the first place.