About Dr. Conor Brady of Pure Vet
Dog First was established to give dog owners a home for natural canine nutrition and health.
Advice, training and support from dog nutrition specialist, Dr. Conor Brady who delivers his teaching based on no-nonsense, well-researched and factual information so that dog owners can gain a greater understanding of their dogs, their dog’s nutritional needs and the natural health of their pets.
It's clear there is today a terrible amount of bad information out there, much of it a result of the unregulated influx of corporate cash into our veterinary sector. We'll do our best to protect you from the worst of it but for now trust absolutely nothing in a packet with a picture of a dog on it.
As well as being a dog nut, Dr. Conor Brady is a Dog Nutritionist, Writer, Research, Speaker and Consult on all things canine nutrition and health. His blog, which has become a trusted and valuable resource for all dog owners, is now read by more than 200,000 people per month. He established Dogs First to give dog owners a better understanding of what’s right and wrong when it comes to feeding and maintaining the health of their dogs.
Dr, Conor Brady has a PhD studying the effects of nutrion on the behaviour of mammals. After some time in Guide Dogs as a trainer and supervisor, success with his products on Dragons Den in 2013 and more recently with his best-selling manual on canine nutrition, Feeding Dogs, launched Dogs First onto the intertional stage. With daily articles,his focus is now entirely upon the reduction of processed food and chemical usage in pets.
- Doctorate in nutrition, behaviour & gut morphology of mammals
- Guide dog trainer and supervisor
- Award-winning pet food manufacturer
- International speaker on canine nutrition & natural health
- Consultant to top pet food companies
2011 The birth of Dogs First
While training dogs in Australia I was inspired by the work of Guide Dogs Queensland (who changed 200 dogs from dry to raw, to near miraculous results, if just in terms of vet bills) as well as raw pioneer vets such as Billinghurst and Lonsdale who were both Australian vets.
After some brief trials with troubled dogs I was working with (and following some strong kick back from some vets who didn’t believe the results!) I soon made the pursuit and advocacy of fresh feeding dogs my full time career. I threw myself back into research and soon after the Natural Dog Seminar was born.
What began as a 3hr lecture on canine nutrition has since expanded to cover many aspects of canine health, teaming up with many experts, a gig that in years to come would have me flown around the world – from Scandinavia to Switzerland, Bejing to Taiwan. My love of dogs, love of research and love of talking, all perfectly combined. I needed a place to house my thoughts and research and dogsfirst.ie was born.
2012 Gráw Dog Food
In the middle of starting these seminars (and in the midst of a terrible recession!) I was encouraged to return home to form Ireland’s first raw dog food company – Gráw Dog Food (a take on the Irish word for love, grá, pronounced graw). It was really good quality food, I think the best stuff available anywhere at the time (though I would say that!). That was very hard work and in hindsight the Irish market was nowhere near ready but through it I learned so much – from the manufacturing of pet food to the industry itself.
I have to admit that I was pretty appalled how much of it worked. Talk about mutton dressed as lamb! It’s a bit of a magic show and I was instantly struggling to get paid for the quality of ingredients I insisted on putting in.
I started writing online about my ventures – detailing what pet food manufacturers (dry and raw) were putting out. That made me a lot of friends on the outside though, while they weren’t named, a few enemies on the inside too!
2013 Success on Dragons Den
After success on Dragons Den in 2013 the company thankfully took off. However, I soon learned a few costly business lessons. The two most memorable are 1) don’t sell good stuff cheap and 2) watch your cashflow!
I couldn’t believe that more sales could ruin a business but my poor, much loved and now busy business started drowning. Unable to hire more staff I was often up all night trying to fill the machines to stand in a football field in the rain trying to hand out tubes of half-defrosted minced salmon to apalled dog show enthusiasts!
I was utterly miserable and soon moved Gráw Dog Food on to people better able at that sort of thing. Truth be told, I hated being seen as a pet food manufacturer. It lessened the impact of my writings.
And that was my last real job…!!
2015 Consultancy begins
Since 2015, in between speaking gigs, I have operated as a pet nutrition consultant, a gun for hire. It enabled me financially to return to research in. the background and ultimately dedicate more hours to my new book Feeding Dogs.
I began helping owners with their dogs, first folk just new to raw but rapidly branching out to health conditions also. This part of my business has really taken off and I have added some new nutritionists to the team to help shoulder some of the load.
During that time I developed many flagship ranges of pet food for various companies worldwide including the UK’s favourite raw dog food Paleo Plus – this is what good, pre-made raw dog food looks like!
I also developed my own range of seaweed-based nutritional supplements of which I’m particularly proud.
I also worked on blog which incredibly has over 300,000 people reading it each month.
2020 Feeding Dogs is released
Just in case my wife ever reads this I have to say the birth of my daughters was the greatest thing to happen me but a very, very, very close second is when I gave birth to my book Feeding Dogs in 2020. Let me tell you, it was surely as painful. Never, ever again. Releasing a book, particularly a factual one that a number of people on the “other side” are dying to pull apart publicly, is like stripping naked and walking down the main street in your town. On Saturday. Lunchtime. And it’s really cold. Seems to be going down well though, thank God.
- Honours degree in Zoology
- Doctorate studying the effects of nutrition on the behaviour & gut morphology of mammals
- Author of Feeding Dogs, the top rated manual on canine nutrition on Amazon
- Guide dog trainer and pup supervisor
- Award-winning pet food manufacturer
- Winner of Dragons Den 2013
- International speaker on canine nutrition & health
- Consultant to top pet companies
- Blog read by 300k people per month
- Mediocre footballer (above average cook)
Seaweed-Based Nutritional Supplements by Dr. Conor Brady
Sea algae are the next frontier. Seaweed has been a popular food supplement of ours for more than 8,000 years and yet still we know so little about them. For example, people use the word “kelp” (Laminaria), the stuff that grows in underwater forests, as if there was only one kind of seaweed out there where there are actually 10,000 of them out there under the waves. In fact, there are more seaweeds in the ocean than edible herbs on the planet!
What’s more, they are absolutely packed with vitamins and minerals, which is why raw dog food producers choose to include it in their mixes (though qualities and indeed quantities of seaweed used therein can vary wildly). More than simple nutrition, seaweed is also full of all sorts of antioxidants. They have to be. They live in very harsh environments, with diurnal changes in salinity, temperature, oxygen exposure and munching sea creatures, not to mention the mechanical battering they take from waves on a daily basis. Moreover, many of these antioxidants are entirely unique to these plants.
Here are the range:
I needed a product to help gut issues in dogs. BF8 is a blend of 3 seaweeds and a seaweed extract, chosen for their anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties. To these we added organic marshmallow, chamomile and chia seeds, all known to promote gut membrane and overall gut health. We also added in a pinch of StoolRite for fibre and prebiotics.
StoolRite contains a unique combination of soluble and insoluble dietary fibres that will help stool quality in dogs. It can be used as both a stool former and stool softener, depending on the need, somewhat unbelievably. It can help with anal gland issues in dogs. Furthermore, natural complex carbohydrates and dietary saccharides in StoolRite may act as a natural prebiotic to restore microbiota balance and boosting gut health in dogs.
OP was brought out to reduce the inflammation that results in weepy eyes. There are a lot of reasons for weepy eyes in dogs but if it is environmental (and not a facial morphology issues) OP will help. It seems to be highly anti-inflammatory, working systemically (from the inside, out) and is around 70% effective which, without antibiotics, is saying something. OP has a money-back guarantee, if it doesn’t work for your dog you get your money back, no questions).
I think this is the finest, organic, sustainably harvested (not off the beach or intertidal zone where anti-oxidant content is significantly less) Atlantic brown kelp out there for dogs today. Laminaria is packed full of powerful antioxidants such as fucoidans that are unique to seaweeds as well as iodine both of which promote health in your dog. Favoured by breeders worldwide. Often used to promote coat condition.
We selected four seaweeds from this list of studies and bring you a product we call AC4, which we hope will assist your pet to live with cancer (it’s not so much about fighting it but managing and preventing further growth. Anything after that is a plus).
Canident is a blend of sustainably-harvested brown seaweeds that are farmed out in the cool waters of the Atlantic off West Ireland. The plants selected contain unique polysaccharides that studies show soften and reduce the tartar on your dog's teeth over time. We take great care how we dry our product, preserving these good bits. We are so confident Canident will do the job, we offer a money-back guarantee it will do the job.
Kanex comprises of 50% Dulse and 50% crushed, organic Stryian pumpkin seeds. It is expected to be an effective worm preventative. Kanex comes with a money-back guarantee. If your dog registers positive for any gut worm whilst on their correct dose of Kanex (verified by proof of purchase) via ANY FAECAL WORM EGG COUNT PROVIDER, we will instantly and without quibble refund the cost of your Kanex purchase to cover the cost of your failed worm count. That's how confident we are.
DeNeem is a unique, entirely natural and 100% effective non-toxic alternative to pesticides that kills bugs mechanically. Kills fleas, ticks, mites, ants, bed bugs, lice and red mite as well as gut worms (adults and larva). Contains Codex (Food Grade) Diatomaceous Earth and Organic Neem, a natural flea repellant. It's so effective that if it doesn't work to kill a critter on the list above, you get your money back. No quibble.