My dog is a 5 year old Shiba Inu. He is a part of my family and makes the place I live more like a home. His smell calms me.

I love him dearly. I call him my rescue dog, not because he came from a rescue, but because he rescued me. He was a last gift from my beloved late husband who gave him to me shortly before he died unexpectedly. While my friends and family were there for me, having a puppy was something that kept me going.

But I don't see it as part of my lifestyle. I see my dog as a part of my life.

By nature I'm a sedentary person; in a traditional tribal setting I'm pretty sure I'd be sitting in the shade all day chewing leather or weaving or something. Buster (a lab-dalmation mix) keeps me active. I walk him every day, and often go on long hikes with him on the weekend.

We also eat pretty much the same way, except I cook my meat, and seeing his health and well-being is a great spur and reminder to me when I feel like slacking. In fact, the only time he gets (slightly) porky is in the fall, when he gorges himself on the fallen plums in our backyard (he's even gotten a little inebriated occasionally as they ferment, so I have to really keep an eye on him when he's too quiet in the backyard). His coat is gorgeous, and his teeth are still sparkly white at almost four years old, an age when our friends' dogs' teeth have long since turned yellow and brown from kibble.

On the more woo side of things, I sometimes feel he teaches me about what's important in life. He's a pack animal and really doesn't like to be alone for too long, and I can be quite reclusive, so he shows me the importance of contact even when I don't feel like it. And he has the canine gift of living completely in the moment; he doesn't brood on past insults or engage in pointless arguments with invisible dogs in his head. But he's not completely clueless about planning; he buries bones to rottify, forestalling current gratification for later delectation. But he's not obsessive about it; sometimes he gnaws the bone right away.

Overall, I think he's got a pretty good handle on living life, and I hope someday I'll be as non-neurotic as he is.

And dogs bring in bacteria from their walks, helping diversify your gut flora!

Its good advice to get a dog that matches your personality and exercise needs. I hate seeing active dogs in fenced yards-never walked. I really wanted a high energy and loyal dog, one that I could take hiking and she would stay with me. So I got a red colored Kelpie. Lina is so incredibly smart. My husbands black lab will be barking her butt off at the front window (as she does all day every day). I will look at Lina and say, "go see" and she will go and check whats going on. If its a stranger on our porch she will start barking, if its anything else she will calmly come back down. She is my constant shadow and best friend. It's as natural as breathing to know that Lina is always around. I always have people comment on how well she listens and they are amazed that she almost seems to understand regular speech (vs dog talk like just sit, stay, etc). I definetly think that dogs are a natural part of being a human. Lina is fierce and would defend me if need be. One time a wild coyote came up to us in the mountains. I wasn't sure how she would react. We both just held very still and had a quite moment with a very big but non-threatening coyote. It was pretty cool. I feed her gluten free, but not totally grain free, but I include lot of extras like meat and eggs. (Honest Kitchen: Keen) When I put her on a paleo diet, she seemed really low energy and downtrodden. I have included a pic of her, hiding in my friends kitchen, through her dog door. She didn't want to come out and frolic with the pesky labs. She is very put off by the way most dogs play. She loved to wrestle with a red heeler we used to have though. Its a bit more noisy and teeth filled.

Interesting timing of this question as I was just writing a post about my dogs and had a similar discussion with Mr. Grain Free last night. I know from previous experience that I just don't function without a dog in my life. I now have two, and was discussing with Mr. Grain Free that when it's time for these two to cross the bridge, I know I would want two more - preferably with the calmness of my male dog, not the high energy of my female (unless of course my life changes drastically and I become a marathon runner or something). I love her to pieces, but she totally tricked me on her energy level. I adopted her because I thought she was calm. Turned out she was just scared to death of the shelter. Live and learn. At least she gets my butt off the couch :)

I lasted exactly 3 weeks between the time my last dog died to when I adopted the first of the two I have now. It was a rough three weeks. I just can't be dogless.

Funny, I just opened the computer after settling in our new dog - we have an ex-racing greyhound, Jolie, and foster for the local Greyhounds as Pets charity. Our latest foster is a beautiful grey and white girl called Abby, who was an epic fail as a racer because she wouldn't chase!

Yes, our dog(s) contribute to our paleo life - they remind us to play, can't tolerate whole days inside while we focus on the various square screens, and totally live in the moment. They'd also rather fast than eat non-food crap! (except for shoes, bedding etc, but that's not for nutrition it's for fun).

Dogs are Paleo but with all of the diseases I recommend cooking to a internal temperature of 175 for at least 5 minutes. Otherwise treat as any other meat.

I love this topic! My dog surely reminds me to live the way I was meant to. I was given a Dogo Argentino, which is a breed bred specifically from fighting stock to hunt pumas and wild hogs. He used to live with my brother up in the mountains about 20 miles of dirt road from "civilization" if that's what you can call it. Anyway those dogs were bred for their courage and he routinely protected the property from all manner of wild beasts and has the scars to prove it. He's retired and living with me, sadly restricted to chasing the racoons out of my yard now, but he simply couldn't handle the cold up there. Anyway, every time I take him for a walk I think about how he'd rather give it all up chasing a bear or cougar away than languishing in my backyard, and I have to bring him home some raw soup bones or ham-hocks to take the place of his horrid dog food. I'll share the bounty of raw meat covered bones from my deer carcasses with him but it isn't enough for the entire year. I definitely enjoy his companionship but seeing how much joy he recieves from doing what he was bred to do helps me to appreciate the enjoyment I recieve from participating in the activities, like harvesting game and salmon, that my family has done for millenia.

Once I had settled onto primal/paleo, I realized my 3 dogs and 2 cats should be too. I was very tired of trying to find grain-free food they liked and that agreed with their systems (the dogs are toy breeds.)

The cats hated the switch and it took about 3 weeks for them to surrender to no more commercial food, which really surprised me as they're only 12 months old. The dogs loved it from the first minute but my Chihuahua starting gaining weight and my Boston Terrier started losing weight--and then I noticed that the Chi was following the "first one done helps the others" rule. Now I stand and watch them and we're back on track.

One of our dogs got a cancer on her side 4 or 5 years ago and the vet had to cut it out. It was stage two. I then started looking up dog cancers and one of the first things that popped up was grains. I had already read Dangerous Grains and number of other like-minded books, and I was already uncomfortable with the ingredients in our dogs' food. What the hell are dogs doing eating grains anyway? So I immediately switched to a grain-free recipe, but it still had potatoes and I was worried about that being high glycemic, but there weren't as many choices then. It also had canola oil in it. That is starting to change now and I feed our dogs Wysong Epigen, grain and starch-free and vegetable oil-free, and Nutrisca, which is the same except for some low-glycemic chickpeas.

Our dogs love wilderness, hiking and walking and are true fans of eating. our Katie (The Katie Lady) was a shepherd/Keeshund mix who died just last January and we really miss her. She had walked over 4000 miles just in our neighborhood and had many more in mountains, canyons and deserts. She was a true wilderness spirit.

And this is Mindy with Katie on a desert hike. She's an American Eskimo (the Pesky Eskie) and is the one that had the cancer. It's been almost 5 years of no return of relapse. Mindy has more than 3000 miles on her.

Jenna, a shepherd/Nova Scotia Retriever mix who has taken Katie's place. We got her just last February so she's only up to about 200 miles so far but a true adventurer and this dog could catch a bird in flight if she wasn't on a leash. She almost caught one the other day.

I have two smallish dogs, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and a Boston Terrier. They help keep some of my more spontaneous active moments fun. Going out and about with them is an interesting mix of primal-companionship and parental.

With the undeveloped hills and trails near the house, this gives them a little pseudo hunting vibe, sprints when they spot a jackrabbit or squirrel, a little hide and seek with me, etc. I'll also take them to the local high school field for some more measured sprints (me vs the dogs). I also encourage them to challenge themselves by taking on jungle gyms and slides whenever we pass through playgrounds. That's when it feels especially more parental than primal!

What I love most is taking them on new unfamiliar trails. There is an implicit trust where they'll be careful to follow my lead (rare in other circumstances); and I can't help but deeply respect that trust.

and sometimes they do some MMA:

I have a three year old Lab mix named Lakota, a Sioux word for 'friend.' She has been feed raw food since a year of age, or the time when I realized that raw meat is what her body was designed to eat. Everywhere she goes people alway compliment her shiney, healthy coat. I don't notice it much myself, probably because I see it everyday.

She has always been a lover of the outdoors and absolutely loves to go hiking with me. I swear that sometimes I can practically see her grin ear to ear just to be outside and feeling the wind between her ears! She reminds me to take time for long walks in nature whenever possible.

I discovered "Paleo" proper this year. Before then, I ate a lot of nutrient dense foods- raw milk, grass fed meats, organic veggies, but still had a hefty sweet tooth. Once I learned about low carb Paleo, it instantly made sense to me for the same reasons its makes sense to feed Kota raw food. I started the next day!

Now as I walk through the woods in my barefoot shoes, with Kota at my side, I jokingly call her Cave Dog, since she had a hand in restoring my health & sanity.