The Nicholberry Lab

Welcome back to my analogy experiment, and a quick food follow up

Photo by Terry Vlisidis on Unsplash

Oh friends, I have another analogy for you today! I should just start these newsletters out by saying, “Welcome to the Nicholberry Lab”, as you are my guinea pigs for determining whether a concept makes sense.

But before we get to that, I wanted to say one more thing about feeding choices. It is my understanding that most (all?) therapy organizations will not allow dogs to serve who are fed a raw diet, as there is the risk of bacteria transmission to the people with whom they are interacting. Yet another consideration when making your food choices.

If anyone can add to this, please comment below. Harper and I are registered through Pet Partners and that is their policy, but if it differs elsewhere, please share. I really want this to be a space where we educate each other!

The Lab

So here’s what I’m chewing on today. What makes the difference in how puppies do once we send them home? Why do some thrive and others struggle? Why do some transition to potty training with no accidents, while others backslide in confusion? Why do some puppies continue with tootsie roll poops while others develop loose stool or diarrhea?

These are the questions that have driven Nicholberry Goldens, as I assess it all anew with every litter. So, in light of the fact that we sent a litter home last week, here I am again, assessing! And playing with a new analogy.

Let’s go back to high school chemistry. Who remembers the molecular structure of water? It’s a compound made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. They are bonded together and water is known as H20 (sorry - I don’t know how to make that little 2). 

So here’s the analogy. Let’s say that our goal is to create water. The puppy is the H2 and the environment into which puppy enters is the 0. For us, that means that the family is raising the puppy according to the Nicholberry bootcamp training (all of which is now contained in Puppy Brain). The basics of this are: