To help puppies mature healthily!
Leaving the litter, moving into a new home, weaning, growing, training: there’s a lot to stress out puppies!
At Bestie Kitchen, we and our consulting integrative vet have created an immune-boosting and calming health jelly designed to support your puppy’s health as they grow.
Called The Chill-Pup, this health jelly has been based on our consulting vet's clinical experience (over 35 years), as well as a number of research studies.
In a nutshell, this is why:
Early life is stressful for a puppy - some affected more than others
The early developmental period lays the foundation for health later in life
Longer term behaviours may start here
The Chill-Pup helps reduce reactivity and the impact of stress
Why do puppies need health support?
A number of research studies has suggested that reactivity, or responsiveness to environmental stimuli, is a fundamental factor shaping personality and plays a role in various behaviour problems in dogs.
In theory, a reactive dog responds more quickly and intensely to environmental stimuli, which manifests in different behaviours like excitability, fear or aggression[1].
In addition, many studies across many species have established that stress during the formative periods of neural development, from the prenatal stage through adolescence, has a major influence on behavioural development. These effects are enduring and often lifelong.
A review of seven published studies and one anecdotal report[2] involving dogs born in high-volume commercial breeding establishments shows that the most consistent finding is an increase in aggression, commonly directed toward the dog's owners and family members but also to unfamiliar people, and other dogs.
Increased fear was also identified in response to unfamiliar people, children, other dogs, nonsocial stimuli, and when taken on walks. Undesirable behaviours related to separation and/or attention seeking and a heightened sensitivity to touch have been reported.
Chronology of developmental periods, living environment, and stressors in the United States. The age at which the puppies leave the breeding facility is often considerably earlier in other countries (and may also be earlier in the United States if there is not strict adherence to applicable law).
While many dogs in Australia may not have come from the same early environment, the underlying message is clear: being a puppy can be stressful and this early developmental period is critical for longer term health.
The Chill-Pup formulation reduces reactivity in the puppy and the impact of stress. It includes nutritional yeast, blueberry powder, magnesium glycinate, milk thistle, kale powder, reishi extract.
Magnificent magnesium – and it goes up and down!
Magnesium ions are one of the essential minerals necessary to maintain life. A lack of it causes deterioration in energy production, leading to fatigue, as well as poor concentration, chronic fatigue, loss of appetite, and cardiovascular abnormalities in humans.
A study involving 36 guide dogs found that serum levels of magnesium ions may be influenced by weather fluctuation such as air temperature, nervousness in unaccustomed situations, age, and physical stress induced by exercise. In fact, magnesium levels were lower in winter and higher in summer and lower after physical stress.
Studies
[1] Physiological stress reactivity and recovery related to behavioral traits in dogs (Canis familiaris) Rian C. M. M. Lensen, Christel P. H. Moons, Claire Diederich, Christopher D. Lynn.
[2] Behavioral and psychological outcomes for dogs sold as puppies through pet stores and/or born in commercial breeding establishments: Current knowledge and putative causes
3. Ando, Izumi & Karasawa, Kaoru & Yokota, Shinichi & Shioya, Takao & Matsuda, Hiroshi & Tanaka, Akane. (2018). Analysis of serum magnesium ions in dogs exposed to external stress: A pilot study. Open Veterinary Journal. 7. 367. 10.4314/ovj.v7i4.13.
