The vegetarian dog

I recently read a chapter in Hermann Kaiser's book "Ein Hundeleben" (A Dog's Life) about dog nutrition in the past. Although the dog has all the physical characteristics of a predator and is proven to have descended from the land predator wolf, in the course of its domestication it has developed into a type of omnivorous domestic pig. But not only that: many social classes were even encouraged to practice vegetarianism for centuries. 

There is already evidence from Ancient Greece that the dogs kept at that time were fed cereal porridge and bread - because dogs fed exclusively with meat were observed by the ancient Greeks to be more "instinctive". 

Even later, dogs were not exactly fed tons of meat. The hunting dogs of the medieval emperors were still legally allowed to eat meat from healthy animals, but this only applied to dogs with high ancestry. This privilege was stripped away in later eras to the extent that those noble hunting dogs were still entitled to part of the innards of their prey after a successful hunt, but this only affected the portion of the innards that could not be used in the kitchen. So the trash. On all other days of the year, the noble dogs had to satisfy with grain products - just like the majority of the underlings and their dogs. 

From the 19th century onwards, the staple food rye was replaced by potatoes (thanks to Frederick the Great's "Kartoffelbefehl" - "Potato Order"), which led to a significant easing of many supply problems within the population. The dog menu was expanded with the appearance of the potato and more and more dogs found, for example, a portion of stew on their "Lickebrett" (a board on which dogs and cats were served food), but of course only the vegetable portion without any meat. Back then, sausage was reserved exclusively for humans! 

The changed conditions are also reflected in the feeding recommendations for dogs from the "Handbuch der gesamten Haustierzucht für Landwirthe" (Handbook of all pet breeding for farmers): "Dogs are generally easy to feed, which is why even some poor people can keep one or more dogs, since almost all of them are waste from the table or from the kitchen for his food. Others are fed with the meat of dead animals from the butcher's shops, others still receive bread, flour and meal, soup or mashed potatoes as food". [2]  And in a book about dog training (from 1906) it is expressly recommended that dogs should be fed bread, broth or milk and some meat. [3]