User:VolhardDogNutrition

The Story of Volhard Dog Nutrition

Wendy Volhard gave up her career at the Wall Street Journal in the 1970’s and literally went to the dogs. Her beloved Landseer Newfoundland, Heidi, at the age of five, was diagnosed with severe liver and kidney disease and given a mere six months to live. Naturally, she was devastated.

Some time earlier she had come across a book written by the famous herbalist Juliette de Bairacli Levy, called “The Complete Herbal Book for the Dog”. According to Levy, feeding a dog an improper diet could cause untold damage. To get a dog well again, Levy advocated a 2-week fast, followed by her diet. “What,” Wendy thought, “did I have to lose?”

Wendy put Heidi on a fast with water and herbal teas, which flushed out her system. Every day Heidi didn’t eat her regular kibble diet, she got better. Following Levy’s diet, Wendy slowly introduced oats, buckwheat, honey, fresh meat, vegetables and herbs. Heidi never looked back and went on to live to the ripe old age of 12 ½.

When fellow dog lovers saw what Wendy was doing, they wanted to do the same thing for their dogs. She would hold “cooking classes” to teach them how to do it and show them where to buy ingredients.

With the help of my veterinarian, Wendy began a protocol of periodic blood tests to see if the diet was balanced for the dogs. For over twelve years, she took blood from as many dogs as she could, from different areas of the country, different breeds, and different ages. She had to tweak the formula to make sure the recipe was balanced. Satisfied, she finally published the recipe in 1984 under the title “Back to Basics.”

During these years Wendy became a breeder of Landseer Newfoundlands and by feeding her diet was able to eliminate hip and elbow dysplasia from her breeding program. Her Newfs lived up to 14 years, while the national average was 7 years. She participated in performance events, working and showing her dogs until they were at least 10, and only then were they retired under protest. They wanted to keep working!

Wendy also had other dogs, all of whom lived to ripe old ages – a rescue Springer Spaniel, a rescue German Shepherd, a Yorkshire Terrier, a Briard, Labrador Retrievers and Standard Wirehaired Dachshunds. All were trained and were shown in performance events. She was able to observe their dietary needs under stressful and high-energy output conditions over the course of many years.

More importantly, Wendy believed she was helping many dogs become well again. She began to lecture and give seminars throughout North America and Europe on the subjects of canine health and nutrition.

In the early 1990’s her work came to the attention of Howell Book House, a division of Wiley Publishing, and she was asked to write a book. Wendy accepted the invitation and, together with Kerry Brown, DVM, wrote “The Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog,” published in 1995. As a result of the book's initial success, she was asked to write a second edition, which was published in 2000 under the same title.

In 1999, Wendy formulated a dehydrated formula of her recipe. She teamed up with a dog food company to market her Natural Diet Foundation AM and Natural Diet Foundation PM. The product promotes good digestion, not only in healthy dogs, but also in dogs with delicate digestive systems, or chronically ill dogs. Most recently she developed NDF2, an all-in-one dehydrated food that offers owners an even simpler way to feed their dogs. She believes that her natural dog foods are without doubt the most clinically tested dog foods on the market. They were at the forefront of the natural, raw food wave that is now sweeping the country. Wendy is proud to have established VDN foods, tested over that many generations of dogs.

Wendy believes the foundation for a healthy and happy dog rests on sound, complete nutrition. It is the premise on which she has based her life.