About Me

How I Discovered Flint River Ranch

In May 1999, I met Linda, a new friend, at a fun match put on by my German Shepherd Dog Club. I mentioned that I wasn't happy with the food that Liberty, my 10-year-old German Shepherd, had been eating (Innova), so I had switched back to Nutro Natural Choice while I looked for something I liked better. Linda had just put her dogs on Flint River Ranch dog food and raved about it. When she told me it tasted good, I was intrigued and just had to borrow some food from her to see for myself. 

I researched the food and the company and immediately became a believer. Flint River Ranch uses all natural, human-grade ingredients, such as hormone-free chicken, range-fed lamb and whole grains. I never thought I would believe enough in a dog food company to represent it (read about cancer, below), but I signed up as an Independent Distributor just 24 days later!  Since then, I have tasted all of the FRR dog foods... they do taste healthy, but bland. Linda said that she wouldn't feed her dogs anything she couldn't eat – I completely agree with her. 

Flint River Ranch is so concentrated that you feed 1/4 to 1/3 less than the food you feed now. With Liberty, I switched her to FRR from Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice. She was getting 2 cups of Nutro twice a day. When I switched her over to FRR, I gave her 1-1/2 cups twice a day. That's 1/4 less food (3 cups instead of 4 cups). In 6 weeks, she was 5 pounds overweight! After I took off the extra weight, I gave her 1-1/4 cup in the morning and 1 cup in the evening for the rest of her life. That's almost 1/2 less food!

Spreading the Word about Flint River Ranch 

I lived in Northern California for four years after Flint River Ranch began making dog and cat food in 1993. How could such a remarkable food exist without me having any knowledge of it? If I didn't know about FRR, then there were probably a lot of other people that didn't know about it. 

I decided to return to the dog show world... this time as a vendor promoting Flint River Ranch. Liberty went to the shows with me as a living testimonial to the food. Our first shows were in San Antonio Texas in August 1999. The first chance I got to take a picture of our booth was on the fourth day. I did not realize that Liberty was peeking over the table when I took the above picture. 

Over the next 7 months, I promoted FRR at 23 dog shows, a Health Fair in Houston Texas, and the Whole Life Expo in Austin Texas. My customers told me some remarkable and sometimes humorous stories about their experiences with FRR. 

It was an evening in April 2000 that Liberty took her last breath while she was sleeping near me. She was 11-1/2 years old. I did find some consolation in knowing that I fed her the best food available. Devastated, I stopped going to dog shows and turned my attention away from FRR until January 2002. I then decided it was time to build the Web site I had been talking about for so long. This Web site was launched in April 2002.

In February 2002, one of our TV stations had an expose about pet food: FDA Investigates Dog Food Mystery. I had forgotten that I had known most of it for years (see The Truth About Commercial Pet Food).

Cancer Leads to Education in Canine Nutrition 

When your pet gets cancer, who do you think is responsible? It is an incredibly painful experience that I hope you never have to go through. I did... here is my story:

I got my first German Shepherd Dog in 1979 just after moving to Houston, TX. In 1980, Gretchen and I moved to San Jose, CA. Financed by a lucrative job in mainframe computers, I spent most of my free time for the next 17 years raising, showing, training, and occasionally breeding GSDs. I even started a rescue foundation and placed 50 GSDs into homes in two years. I also created Canine Camp of the Redwoods, a dog lover's dream vacation. I directed a 5-day residence camp for dogs and their owners, held in the mountains near Santa Cruz, CA in August 1995 and August 1996.

In 1984, exactly three weeks after her second litter was born, Gretchen was euthanized at the emergency vet – she was bleeding to death internally from liver cancer. She was only 5 years old. I never even suspected she had cancer! The vet thought she had a ruptured uterus until she opened her up. When it happened, I was in San Diego on a business trip. I will NEVER forget that final phone call at 3 in the morning in my hotel room. Since I was an instant mother, I became an expert on dog nutrition as quickly as I could to answer one question for myself – What did I do to give Gretchen cancer?

If you were in dogs in the '80s, you might remember this...
It soon became apparent that Gretchen and countless other dogs were dying from liver cancer caused by ethoxyquin (used to cure rubber, but advertised as a natural preservative) in the dog foods. Employees in the tire factories were getting sick and it was thought that ethoxyquin was to blame. The manufacturer found a use for its ethoxyquin as a "natural" preservative in dog food. According to the conclusions from the case studies, dogs didn't live long enough for ethoxyquin to make a difference. The conclusions were wrong.

At the shows, we all talked about the progress of the class-action suit, which never went to trial. What we all wanted was healthy food with real natural preservatives. Nutro was first to respond to the allegations by introducing Natural Choice (preserved naturally with Vitamin E). Then, when no one noticed, Nutro removed the ethoxyquin from NutroMax. If Nutro would have removed ethoxyquin under pressure, it would be an admission of guilt.

Even though Gretchen was on another Nutro food when she died, I put all my dogs on Natural Choice when it came out. I changed foods whenever something better came along, and then changed back when I no longer believed in the new food. One company after another would introduce a natural dog food with great ingredients that would evolve into a natural dog food with mediocre ingredients. And, the entire time, the company would keep insisting that they were not making any changes to the food. Because of the laws in product labeling, this was easy for the companies to do. Flint River Ranch has been in business since 1993 and the food just keeps getting better. 

Liberty's Parting Advice 

John Edward connects people with their loved ones who have "crossed over". He has the TV show "Crossing Over" as well as a book by the same name. For many years, Animal Communicators (see Links Page) have been connecting people with their departed pets. Two days after she crossed over, Liberty gave me this advice through our friend, Animal Communicator Raphaela Pope:  

Take time for reflection and meditation.
Be orderly and methodical.

What are your goals?
2 months, 3 months, 1 year, and beyond

 Tell Carol...
Try not to be impulsive
Be steady and consistent...
once you decide what to do.

Liberty Pitlock as told to Raphaela Pope
Thursday 4PM April 22, 2000

I guess what I decided to do was to return to the dog world and resume promoting Flint River Ranch products. Since I was without a dog for the first time in over 30 years, this was very difficult for me.

The Rest of the Story 

In December 2002, I saw an ad at PETsMART looking for a dog trainer. Having shown in AKC obedience trials since 1976, I easily became certified as a Pet Training Instructor. Fifteen classes later, I left PETsMART to start training privately. In October 2003, in order to reach the general public, I also began teaching classes at PETCO.

What dog training did was heal me, so that I could get another dog. In July 2003, I bought my next German Shepherd, 7-1/2 week old Cassie. This girl is smart. I decided to hang two small cowbells from the knob of the back door, so that she would learn to ring the bells to be let outside. Less than a week after I got her, I watched Cassie take the strap of one bell in her mouth and hit it against the other bell... that was scary. Good thing her owner is a dog trainer!

Cassie is the love of my life... she makes me so happy! I had forgotten how much my dogs made me laugh. They also have a way of making you live in the present moment. No wonder dogs are so good for our health.

In Conclusion 

Each of us is a sum total of our life's experiences. I believe there are no accidents. It is no accident that my path has put me right here, right now. And, it is no accident that you are reading this. Please consider changing over to Flint River Ranch food for your pet's sake.

Please share your FRR stories with me and I will put them on my Web site. You can write me, e-mail me, or call me.

I am also the Webmaster for this Web site. For any Web site or technical issues, e-mail me at Webmaster below.

Last Updated: 06-14-04