Tail Wagging Taste Why Puppies Love the Flavor of Holistic Pet Food

By Isabella Storyclaire

last updated September 16, 2024

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Dog Tail Signs: What That Wagging Means

You can understand a lot about your canine companion from his dog tail signs. That wagging or thumping on the carpet? You know your pup is feeling great. That feeling of dread when you walk through the front door and that same tail is tucked low? That tail tells you something has been destroyed by a bored pup while you were away. Whether you consider yourself fluent in wag or you're still learning how to decode dog tail language, read on to learn more about how your pet communicates.

Spotting the Signs: A Guide to Dog Tail Language

A dog's tail originally evolved to help him stay balanced, like a tightrope walker's pole. It serves as a counterweight to the front part of his body when he's making a high-speed turn while hunting and helps keep him from falling off narrow walkways.

Now that a dog hunt generally involves finding the last piece of kibble that fell behind the bowl, that wagging tail is largely thought of as a communication device. Here are five key things the placement of a dog's tail can tell you, according to the Center for Shelter Dogs at Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

Circular swish: A dog whose tail is swishing back and forth or in a circular motion is one happy and relaxed pup.
Lowered or tucked tail: A dog who is frightened or feeling submissive will often lower or tuck his tail between his hind legs.
Tail wagging stiffly: A dog who is excited may wag his tail stiffly while jumping, spinning or sticking his rump in the air. His excitement may be from a positive source like an upcoming walk or a negative source like an intimidating stranger.
Tail held horizontally: A tail held straight out indicates a dog who is attentive and alert or perhaps curious about something nearby. Traditional hunting dog breeds like pointers or setters also hold their tails out straight when they point at an animal or object.
Sudden tail raise: When a dog moves his tail from a down position to a vertical or raised position, it could indicate he is feeling aggressive.

Reading Wag Speed

The speed of a dog's wagging tail might also give you an indication of his mood, Psychology Today reports.

Quick wag: A short wag usually happens during greetings when a dog is feeling tentative.
Big, broad wag: This indicates a friendly dog who is not threatening anyone.
Slow, reluctant wag: This might indicate a dog who is feeling anxious. Other signs of anxiety include avoiding eye contact, refusing food or ignoring what's happening around him.
Tiny, high-speed wag: A tail that moves in short, vibrating bursts can be a sign a dog is about to run or fight. Be careful!

Dog Tail Language Barriers

Some dogs wag with long, expressive tails, but what about dogs with small, stumpy tails or no tails at all? A truncated tail may make it more difficult for dogs to communicate with their pet parents and with other dogs, writes Psychology Today. An observational study of more than 400 dogs greeting each other off-leash in a dog park showed a higher number of aggressive incidents involving dogs with short tails. This doesn't mean that your corgi will inherently pick more fights than your shepherd mix, but it could be something to watch out for. Overall, the study found that only 12 percent of dog park incidents resulted in any kind of aggression. That's a sign that dog communication has a pretty high success rate.

The tale of the tail? Dog tail signs help pups communicate not only with us, but also with other dogs. Knowing the meaning of how a dog is using his tail can go a long way to showing you how your pet is feeling.

Contributor Bio

Kara Murphy

Kara Murphy is a freelance writer and pet parent who lives in Erie, Pa. She has a goldendoodle named Maddie.

10 Simple Raw Food Recipes for Dogs

Keep the Tail Wagging is supported by pet parents. I occasionally earn a commission (at no additional cost to you) when you click through an affiliate link to one of my favorite products. Thank you for your support. Read More

Lately, I've been getting a lot of emails from people who want a simple raw food recipe for their dog and I usually share a simple recipe that I use and direct them to contact a meal formulator for recipes that are tailored to their individual dog. But, the other day, I received a message from someone asking for simple raw food recipes and I cannot find the message to reply so if you sent me that message, I'm sorry for not responding. This blog post is for you.

Why create simple recipes when someone can buy them from Planet Paws or work with a meal formulator?

Not everyone has the funds for a meal formulator or to buy recipes online no judgment, this is a uncertain time for many of us. I hope that this blog post will help those folks get started on raw feeding.

10 Simple Raw Dog Food Recipes

What You Should Know About These Recipes

I'm not a veterinarian or an animal nutritionist. I've been feeding raw since 2013 to six dogs (over that time) and I'm self taught.
Each recipe is based on what I feed to my dogs and this is just the food; not the whole food supplements like eggs, sardines, veggie mix, etc. You're more than welcome to adjust each recipe to meet your dog's needs.
There isn't much of a difference between each recipe beyond the main protein because each recipe calls for a base mix from Dr. Harvey's (I'm not an affiliate) these are simple recipes, remember?
Each of these recipes calls for bulk meal prep and they can be fed to any dog of any size; these recipes can all be fed to puppies with a few tweaks (noted below).
I alternate between an organ blend created by GreenTripe.com and organs sourced from local farms (which are usually heart, liver, and kidneys).

Balance Over Time

I believe that my dogs' raw food diet reaches balance over time. This isn't the only way to feed a nutritious raw diet and there are great resources if you would like to balance by macro and micronutrients, using meal formulator software or the NRC guide to reach balance.

There are people who disagree with this manner of feeding raw and I completely understand. Sadly, there just isn't enough information out there to tell us EXACTLY how to feed our dogs a raw food diet if we're choosing DIY. So, each of us figures out what works best for our individual dogs Feed the Dog In Front of You.

Creating an Organ Blend for My Dogs

When I don't have access to GreenTripe.com's organ blend, I mix up my own with either pork or beef organs and there are times when it's a blend of pork and beef. My organ blend is a mixture of heart and liver. And, when I can get it, I'll also add pork kidneys as well. This is the only blend that I make; I don't buy poultry organs for my blend because they aren't as easy to source for me.

You may be tempted to ask me how much of each organ is added to my blend and I'm going to disappoint you by saying that I grind and mix up everything I receive. If four pigs were butchered, then my blend may have four hearts, four livers, and eight kidneys. I transfer my blend to freezer-safe containers and use it when needed.

1 Grass Fed Beef * Raw Dog Food Recipe

Does it have to be grass-fed beef? No. This is just what I feed to my dogs (on occasion) because I'm fortunate enough to have an affordable local source. The reason people push for grass-fed proteins is that it's believed that how the animals are fed contributes to the nutrient levels, with grass-fed equating to higher nutrient levels than grain-fed.

Ingredients

The following is split between three 8-quart, stainless steel mixing bowls.

20 lbs Grass-fed beef (ground or in chunks)
6 lbs of organ blend (yes, this is a lot, but this is also an excellent source of nutrients)
3 lbs of duck wings (or green tripe)
3 cups of Dr. Harvey's Paradigm (dehydrated)
3 cans of boiled oysters (optional)

2 Duck * Raw Dog Food Recipe

I source my duck through a local raw food co-op. Duck can also be sourced in bulk from restaurant meat suppliers.

Ingredients

The following is split between three 8-quart, stainless steel mixing bowls. I prefer to grind the drummette of the duck wings (or the entire duck wing). Sometimes, I buy a case of the wing without the drummette and I leave those whole when feeding the dogs.

10 lbs duck wings
5 lbs duck necks
5 lbs duck gizzards
6 lbs of organ blend (yes, this is a lot, but this is also an excellent source of nutrients)
3 cups of Dr. Harvey's Paradigm (dehydrated)
3 cans of boiled oysters (optional)

3 Rabbit * Raw Dog Food

I source my rabbit through a local raw food co-op. I only have three sources of rabbit and, at the moment, none have inventory as supply lines slow down.

Ingredients

The following is split between three 8-quart, stainless steel mixing bowls.

20 lbs whole rabbit (ground or in chunks)
3 cups of Dr. Harvey's Paradigm (dehydrated)
3 cans of boiled oysters (optional)

4 Lamb * Raw Dog Food

I source my lamb through a local raw food co-op. Lamb can also be sourced in bulk from restaurant meat suppliers but it's crazy expensive where I live.

Ingredients

The following is split between three 8-quart, stainless steel mixing bowls.

20 lbs lamb (ground or in chunks)
6 lbs of organ blend (yes, this is a lot, but this is also an excellent source of nutrients)
3 lbs of duck wings (or green tripe)
3 cups of Dr. Harvey's Paradigm (dehydrated)
3 cans of boiled oysters (optional)

5 Pork * Raw Dog Food

I source my pork through a local raw food co-op. Pork can also be sourced in bulk from restaurant meat suppliers and local farms. I usually order pork cushion meat and pork loin meat.

Ingredients

The following is split between three 8-quart, stainless steel mixing bowls.

20 lbs pork (ground or in chunks)
6 lbs of organ blend (yes, this is a lot, but this is also an excellent source of nutrients)
3 lbs of duck wings (or green tripe)
3 cups of Dr. Harvey's Paradigm (dehydrated)
3 cans of boiled oysters (optional)

6 Venison * Raw Dog Food

I source my venison through a local raw food co-op. Venison can also be sourced from hunters; a friend of mine scores big time each year with bags of venison and moose. I only scored once on this protein.

Ingredients

The following is split between three 8-quart, stainless steel mixing bowls.

20 lbs venison (ground or in chunks)
6 lbs of organ blend (yes, this is a lot, but this is also an excellent source of nutrients)
3 lbs of duck wings (or green tripe)
3 cups of Dr. Harvey's Paradigm (dehydrated)
3 cans of boiled oysters (optional)

7 Wild Goose * Raw Dog Food

I source my goose through a friend who hunts. This is a very nutritious protein, I feed it as red meat (it's crazy dark), and it's been a bonus for my dog that has food sensitivities (he does great on it).

Ingredients

The following is split between three 8-quart, stainless steel mixing bowls.

20 lbs wild goose (ground or in chunks)
6 lbs of organ blend (yes, this is a lot, but this is also an excellent source of nutrients)
3 lbs of duck wings (or green tripe)
3 cups of Dr. Harvey's Paradigm (dehydrated)
3 cans of boiled oysters (optional)

8 Emu * Raw Dog Food

I source my emu through a local raw food co-op. Emu isn't something I feed that often. I used to place an order for a couple of hundred pounds once a year but then restaurants clued in on this nutritious, lean protein and the price skyrocketed. And, now, the supplies are low due to the pandemic.

Ingredients

The following is split between three 8-quart, stainless steel mixing bowls.

20 lbs emu (ground or in chunks)
6 lbs of organ blend (yes, this is a lot, but this is also an excellent source of nutrients)
3 lbs of duck wings (or green tripe)
3 cups of Dr. Harvey's Paradigm (dehydrated)
3 cans of boiled oysters (optional)

9 Goat * Raw Dog Food

I no longer have a source for goat; but when it pops up in our raw food co-op, then I'll pick up a bit. Another great source of goat, besides local farms, is Raw Paws Pet Food.

Ingredients

The following is split between three 8-quart, stainless steel mixing bowls.

20 lbs goat (ground or in chunks)
6 lbs of organ blend (yes, this is a lot, but this is also an excellent source of nutrients)
3 lbs of duck wings (or green tripe)
3 cups of Dr. Harvey's Paradigm (dehydrated)
3 cans of boiled oysters (optional)

10 Turkey * Raw Dog Food

I don't often feed turkey because Rodrigo struggles with this protein. But when I do order it (he can eat minimal amounts), I pick it up from a local farm, through a raw food co-op. It's a blend of ground turkey necks with turkey liver, heart, and gizzards.

Ingredients

The following is split between four 8-quart, stainless steel mixing bowls.

20 lbs turkey blend (ground or in chunks)
2 cups of Dr. Harvey's Paradigm (dehydrated)
2 cans of boiled oysters (optional)

Duck Wings vs. Green Tripe

You may have noticed that I added green tripe as an alternative to duck wings in my simple recipes above. When I'm out of duck wings, which I use as my bone source (they're 60% meat, 40% bone), I use green tripe, which is a good source of calcium.

I don't make a habit of this, but I have learned that it's always a good idea to have a backup plan.

Additional Foods Added to Raw Dog Food

I do add supplements to each dog's dish that are specific to each dog, along with whole foods:

raw egg (or cooked for Rodrigo) for choline and other important nutrients
canned sardines (or ground) for Omega 3 fatty acids
additional vegetables for fiber

When it comes to supplements, as I said, I give supplements based on each individual dog's needs. The following is a list of what I'm supporting through supplementation for each dog.

Rodrigo: joint health/arthritis, aging, cognitive care, allergies, gut health, exocrine pancreatic insufficiency
Scout: cancer survivor, joint health, gut health
Zoey: joint health, gut health, glandular support (for female dogs)
Apollo: joint health, gut health

What About Fasting Day?

I fast my dogs once or twice a week depending on how the week is going. One fast is a raw goat's milk (or kefir) fast and the second one is a true fast (for about 20 hours). I recently wrote about our fasting routine. It's pretty easy to follow and not a requirement for all dogs. And definitely NOT something you should do with puppies.

While fasting offers many benefits, I fast my dogs to give my dogs' gut a break, while boosting gut health and their immune system.

DIY Raw Feeding for Puppies

I haven't fed a puppy in a couple of years; the last one being Apollo. When it comes to feeding puppies, I prefer to feed commercial raw because, despite my feelings on balance, I understand that puppies need a balanced diet because they're growing so quickly.

However, commercial raw is expensive and mixed breed puppies (we usually adopt) are fed three times daily at 10% of their body weight. So, I transtioned Scout and Zoey to DIY raw when they were around four or five months of age. And when Apollo came around, I transitioned him to DIY (cold turkey), feeding him the same as I feed the adult dogs with a few exceptions:

I added more calcium to the diet to support growing bones.
I prefer adding green tripe because it's a 50/50 balance of calcium and phosphorus.
I make sure there are Omega 3 fatty acids in the bowl to support brain development.
I go easy on the organs, building up over time (for younger puppies) because organs are rich.
I limit the supplements I add to a puppy's meal, sticking to whole foods (sardines, eggs) and digestive enzymes, on occasion if needed.

This is a good start, but it's important to educate yourself, which is why I'm not sharing amounts every dog (and puppy) is different and the numbers would change based on the size of your puppy. It's also important to keep in mind that some breeds may require adjustments to their diet. Also, if you have a puppy (or dog) with health issues, that adds something more to consider when formulating their diet.

Nutritional Blueprint Testing for Raw Fed Dogs

You might wonder how I can share these basic recipes and feel confident that they work. Well, they work for my dogs. I've fed five dogs this way for years, successfully. I know this because I have them nutrient tested with ParsleyPet to confirm that they are receiving all of their nutrients. So far, so good.

Keep Educating Yourself

Raw feeding is a marathon, not a spring (unless you stick with commercial raw). Many things that I learned when I started feeding raw have been proven false. It can be tempting to panic, thinking that we're harming our dogs, but my dogs haven't been harmed as I taught myself about their nutritional needs. I believe that as long as you're committed to educating yourself, raw feeding can be easy to manage.