Because we’re equals…

Your best friend, even when it’s raining cats and dogs! Loyal, trustworthy and unconditionally loving. These are the traits we most admire in our canine chums. Logical then, that we should show them the same respect, treat them as would expect to be treated ourselves. This especially applies to food. Dogs need high quality protein, natural immune-boosting antioxidants, as well as real vitamins and minerals. That’s the only way to guarantee a happier, healthier and longer life. Unfortunately most tinned and bagged pet foods are full of fillers and use artificial colours, flavours and additives. And will in many cases lead to sickness and a shorter life.

The only way to guarantee the quality of your dog’s food is to use natural and local ingredients that you have selected yourself. Even buying and boiling chicken breast with carrots is better for your pal than almost any pet food you can buy. Would you like to know more about preparing fresh food for your dog? Go to www.equals.dog or send me a mail: kirill@equals.dog.

Eat as equals…

Many of us eat fast food. We know it’s not good for our body, but now and again it won’t do too much harm. However, most of us feed our best buddy with the dog equivalent of fast food twice a day. That’s because most pet foods include fillers, artificial colours, flavours and additives. Imagine what this is doing to their bodies. These days more and more dogs are suffering from obesity, chronic degenerative diseases, allergies, and kidney and liver issues. And sadly, live shorter lives.

How can we ensure that our dogs get the highest quality protein and fresh ingredients that they need? It’s simpler than you think. The answer is to buy the same healthy local products that you eat yourself. For example, boiled chicken breast meat and carrots is better than almost any pet food you can buy. Of course, you need to learn which ingredients to buy to make sure they get all the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants they need. We like to think of that as a labour of love. For more inspiration about recipes and cooking for your furry friend, go to www.equals.dog or ask me personally, by sending a email or whatsapp message.

Some dogs are more equal than others…

Is your dog loved like a family member? Do you think about your dog’s physical and mental well-being? Do you believe that it’s important that your dog eats as well as you do? If the answer is yes to all these questions, then you seriously need to consider what your dog is eating right now. For example, just because a certain pet food is well-known and has a large shelf-space it doesn’t mean that it’s good for your dog. In fact, the opposite. Most pet foods are not good for your dog. Most big brands choose fillers and artificial colours, flavours and additives to increase their profits. While, at the same time increasing the chances of obesity,
chronic degenerative diseases, allergies, and kidney and liver issues. Leading to shorter, unhappier lives.

What can you do? A lot! It all starts with making conscious and sustainable choices. Choosing local natural ingredients, with high quality protein and all the natural vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants they need. It’s not as complicated as it sounds. Just boiling a piece of chicken breast with carrots is already better than almost all pet food brands. Of course your dog needs a more varied diet than that and we can help. For more recipe inspiration go to www.equals.dog. If you have any specific questions just ask me: kirill@equals.dog.

What food is best for your best friend?

It’s so difficult to choose. Enter any supermarket or pet store and you’re confronted by so many different brands. Smart packaging, images of happy and healthy dogs and what seems like the “perfect” ingredients. But are they? There’s a lot of dishonesty in the pet food business. Too many companies, especially the big brands, put profits before the health and well-being of your dog. Including cheap ingredients that are actually bad for their health and will shorten their lives. We think you’ll agree, it’s totally unacceptable.

That’s why we’ve created FOOD WATCH, a small guide to help you make the best choice for your dog. It includes what you should look for in tins, bags or packets of food. And what you should 100% avoid. If you have any specific questions that aren’t answered by our booklet, please don’t hesitate to contact me: kirill@equals.dog

Age Equivalents

It is often thought that one year of a dogs life equals seven in a human life. In reality, however, by the time a dog is a year old she has surpassed a 7 year old child’s development. Once the dog reaches adulthood and middle age, her aging over one year equals the aging that takes place in a human over five years.

The aging process is even more difficult to pinpoint because different breeds age at the different rates. Large dogs, for example, age quickly. Toy breeds, on the other hand, age slowly.

Therefore, the lifespan of a large dog such as Saint Bernard is fairly short. A Saint Bernard may be considered elderly by the age of six. A Golden Retriever, meanwhile, starts to hit her golden age years at the age of eight. The smaller Yorkshire terrier may not be considered a senior citizen until she has reached her thirteenth year.

Older dogs have special dietary needs that must be met in order to keep up with the rapid changes taking place in the dogs maturing body. As a general rule, gradually change the amount of food and the number of times that you feed your dog. Giving your dog smaller amounts of food at more frequent intervals during the day can help to stimulate poor appetite and ease digestion.

Changes in exercise and in appetite may cause your dog to either gain or lose weight during old age. Be certain to monitor your dogs weight weekly. If you notice any excessive weight fluctuations, be sure to adjust your dogs diet.

Why vets should recommend home-made dog food

Many vets recommend well-known brand names, but are these really the best food for a dog? In many cases, the answer is simply no. This is especially true when it concerns kibbles. Honestly, how do kibbles fit in with anything that a dog would naturally eat? Whether you look at this from a historical or biological point of view. Their digestive system is just not made for swallowing dry food.

On top of that, think about the process of how kibbles are made. Kibbles are cooked at very high temperatures (250-300 degrees centigrade) which destroys all the natural nutrition value of the food. Then artificial flavouring and colouring, synthetic nutrition and preservatives are added, for a long shelf life. There is even growing scientific evidence, supported by many vets, that kibbles are responsible for the continuing rise in cancer, allergies and other disorders in dogs.

If that wasn’t enough, there’s the sustainability angle. Tinned and bagged pet foods generally travel many thousands of kilometres to reach a dog’s dish. That could be solved at a stroke, by people buying local ingredients from local producers. Which is also beneficial to the local community, rather than giant multinational pet food makers and their shareholders.

Cooking and making fresh food is the most sustainable way to feed a dog, but it’s so much more than that. Recipes can be perfectly balanced and tailored to each dog’s nutritional needs. Adding vitamins, joint or kidney supplements as necessary, depending on the dog’s condition. As well as special ingredients that are particularly good for senior dogs.
There are those that have raised concerns that home-made recipes can’t give a dog everything they need. However, there are literally thousands of websites with fresh home-made recipes which prove this to be obviously untrue.

This article is written by EQUALS. We offer a platform to help dog owners cook tailor-made recipes at home. As well as multivitamins and supplements to ensure that every dog gets the ingredients they need to live a longer and more fulfilling life.

The number of dogs eating kibbles grows every year. The number of dogs with cancer grows every year.

Unfortunately, it’s not a coincidence. And there are more diet-related health visuals because of kibbles. Of course, you will read other articles online telling you the opposite. However, here are some unarguable facts. Firstly, kibbles are cooked at very high temperatures (250-350 degrees) which destroys the natural nutritional value of the food. Flavour enhancers, synthetic nutrients and artificial colouring are then added to the kibbles. Secondly, all kibbles contain preservatives to give them a long shelf life. Thirdly, there are several potential carcinogens in each kibble, including heterocyclic amines. They occur in the cooking process we’ve already mentioned. They are linked to mutations in animal cells, which can ultimately lead to cancer.

The last point, which is an obvious one. Kibbles are not something a dog would naturally eat. Their body is not made to digest this kind of synthetic dry food. They need a diet that is closer to that of their ancestors, with more fresh, moist and natural ingredients.

If you’d like to know more about fresh food and cooking for your best friend, consult our holistic nutritionist or simply order a tailor-made recipe for your dog and see what difference it makes.

Food enzymes

Enzymes are an important addition to the diet especially if you suspect your dog is not digesting her food thoroughly, check her stool for color and consistency. If abnormal, contact your holistic veterinarian or vet nutritionist. Also, freezing and refrigeration, even of the fresh food diet, may cost us some enzymes loss. Since enzymes are destroyed by cooking, commercial pet foods are missing these vital substances, yet another reason to switch to the freshly made food.

Dr. Tatang Cahyono, MSTCVM, reports that the routine use of food enzymes is beneficial to dogs suffering from asthma, allergies, diarrhea, constipation, gastritis, colities, obesity, poor weight gain (especially senior dogs), arthritis, liver and bladder problems, excessive shedding, an oily or dry coats, to name but a few ailments.

Before going for commercially prepared enzymes, as a preventive measure for above mentioned issues, you can consider adding from time to time kefir or plain yogurt in moderate amounts, which is probably the most generous source of enzymes both for dogs and humans.

The Veterinarian story

“The doctor of the future will not give medicine, but will draw the patient’s attention to the body, diet, finding causes and how to treat them.” Thomas Edison

What it takes to be a veterinarian? People choose this profession out of thousands of others. Is a person who has been trained in the science of animal medicine, whose job is to treat animals who are sick or injured. Basically it’s a doctor whose patients don’t talk or don’t express themselves in a ‘human’ ways, afraid of them and at the end never say thank you.

Sounds not very welcoming, but most of veterinarians can confirm the fact that it’s a absolutely rewarding experience of being helped to save animals life, or improve the pets condition, and see a happy face of the owner.

Vets are mostly women and it takes 6-10 years in total to become a veterinarian depends on the country. Though the pet industry shows phenomenal growth strike, vets as professionals are on decline with roughly 5% a year (newcomers versus those who leave the job). Some of the fact that baby boomers are leaving, but it also has to do a lot with compassion fatigue and burnout. Another sad truth a few people can even image, but vets are in extremely high risk group of suicides (roughly 10% of those who leave the job end up suicides in USA only). More and more groups emerging to help people overcome difficult moments, such as Not One More Vet and Veterinary Confessional Project.

Among the health issue with pets, vets try to influence the pet owners in different ways. Its obvious they want to see more responsible pet owners and more happy pets, which is in fact not so hard to do, but they cannot make it alone and that’s why Equals is on a mission to help them deliver the message.

So starting from your new puppy or kitten, embrace the fact that it’s a living creature that needs to be educated and raised in very similar way as human kids raised, with dignity and mutual respect. Buying insurance or starting a savings account for your animal is a smart thing to do. Because that little animal will grow up, will get older, get sick from time to time, and there will be discussions around him or her what is medically possible to do about and what you can financially afford and what your lifestyle actually allows you to do in terms of management of chronic disease in your pet.

The best thing you can do from the beginning is of course offer the appropriate nutrition. Vets are doctors and most of the time the nutrition background they have is from those sales agents from the pet food companies who supply functional diets. So stay alert and judgemental about their choice, especially when they recommend straight away commercial pet food or a limited functional diet, because every limitation cause a shortage of nutrients and most importantly pet get mentally tired of eating same food every day (no matter how balanced it is).

Another good idea is not to give pets as gifts (even to your children). Because dogs and cats are not only our financial commitment, but one of time. Pets need love, they need socialization, they need training, they need exercise and mental stimulation on a daily basis. And in vet practice its more and more frequent case when people bringing their pets and asking for sedation or tranquilisers or anti-anxiety medication because their young animal bouncing off the walls and they just cant handle it at home, when really this animal needs a training class and more exercise.

But the biggest thing you can do is to partner with your vet to be a proactive member in the health of your pet. No matter how healthy is your pet, its highly suggested to show him or her to your vet once a year for examination. The prevention of disease is both financially and health wise more beneficial. Diseases not only way more treatable but sometimes even reversible, and far more options available to vets when they got it in the early stage.

Afghan Hound. An astounding hound.

If you ever happen to be examining Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, see if you can spot anything that looks like an Afghan Hound. That’s how far back this breed goes, according to many experts. That’s not the only astounding thing about this amazing dog. Did you know that they can run as fast as a racehorse? Well over 60 km/h. This speed was useful when they lived with hunters in the deserts and mountains of Afghanistan. These hounds would chase down animals (even leopards) and corner them till the hunters caught up. This cleverness sets Afghan Hounds apart, being able to hunt and think independently. However, it’s this smartness and independent streak that makes this dog complicated and very difficult to train.
Dramatic, stubborn, aloof and moody are all words easily associated with this regal breed.

Of course, something must be said about the magnificent long and lustrous fur. To look this great requires a serious amount of grooming time. Daily grooming and weekly washing with shampoo, conditioner and even blow drying are a necessity to keep your Afghan Hound looking their best. While looking absolutely perfect lying on a très chic designer sofa, this is actually a breed that needs a lot of exercise. Though you have to be careful when they’re outside and off the lead. That lightning speed means they can be gone in the blink of an eye and miles away before you know it.

The Afghan Hound’s looks made it a favourite for some of the world’s most famous artists, actors and singers. Including Picasso, Salvador Dali, Mae West, Gary Cooper, Marianne Faithfull and Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac), to name but a few.