The food arrives frozen, in sealed trays. The daily routine is small. Move tomorrow's food from the freezer to the fridge the day before. The next morning, serve the amount your dog needs. Wash your hands and the bowl. That is the whole routine.
Most people expect the kitchen side to be the hard bit. It is not. Storing and handling raw dog food is the same as handling any raw meat at home. If you can keep raw chicken in your fridge for a Sunday roast, you can manage this. By the second week, it becomes part of the day.
In the freezer
Trays go straight from the box into the freezer. A standard domestic freezer at -18°C or lower is the right temperature. The trays are flat and stack neatly, so most customers can fit them into a normal domestic freezer without reorganising the kitchen.
In the fridge
Move tomorrow's food to the fridge the day before. Allow about 24 hours to defrost fully.
For many dogs, that means one sealed tray. For smaller dogs, it may mean part of a tray, defrosted in the fridge until it is just soft enough to cut, then portioned out before refreezing the rest. The calculator tells you the amount. Only refreeze food that has thawed in the fridge. Anything left out at room temperature should not go back in the freezer.
Keep the tray sealed while it defrosts. Place it on the lowest shelf, away from food that is ready to eat. A typical fridge runs between 0 and 5°C, and a sealed tray needs roughly a day to defrost at that temperature. Smaller trays thaw faster, so check it rather than assuming the full day.
Once defrosted, keep the tray sealed in the fridge and use within 48 hours. If you open a tray and use part of it, cover it, keep it refrigerated, and still use it within that same 48 hours.
Serving
Tip or spoon the food from the tray into your dog's bowl. The amount per meal is whatever your calculator result said for your dog's weight and activity. At first you might want to weigh it out. Within a week or two, most people are doing it by eye. Only serve what your dog needs for that meal.
Once served, wash your hands with warm water and soap. Wash the bowl with hot water and washing-up liquid. Clean the surface where you opened the tray, and disinfect it if the food touched it directly. A dedicated spoon or fork for serving is a sensible habit, washed thoroughly after each use.
If food is left in the bowl after the meal, throw it away.
That is the whole routine. From taking the tray out of the fridge to washing the bowl, it is two or three minutes.
Households with children, other pets, or vulnerable adults
Young children should not handle the trays, the bowl, or the utensils used for serving. Feed the dog somewhere small children are not crawling or putting their hands. Wash the bowl as soon as the meal is finished, before another animal or child investigates it.
Where a household includes a young child, someone over 65, or someone pregnant, follow the same hygiene you would when preparing raw chicken for the family. That is the standard, and it is worth being consistent about. Because Protocol Raw Complete is uncooked, it is not recommended where your dog, or someone in your household, is immunocompromised: during chemotherapy, on immunosuppressant medication, or after a transplant. If that applies to you, check with your vet or doctor first. Someone else in the household can store, defrost, and serve the food.
If you have other dogs or cats, feed them separately. The portion is calculated for your dog, and bowl-sharing is not advised regardless of what is in it.
After the first week
The first few days, the routine feels visible. By the second week, you stop noticing it. By the end of the month, the question of what the dog eats tonight has the same answer it did yesterday, and the answer takes about three minutes.
That is the point. One recipe, one routine, repeated daily.