Do you want Peak Wellness for your pets? We all want our pets to live a long, happy, healthy life. We want them to age with grace, to stay mobile, happy, and active. The best way to give your pets a good, long life is to keep them as vital and healthy as you can from the day they enter your home. Peak wellness should be your goal for your pets.

Of course, peak potential wellness varies from animal to animal, and it will also vary according to the age, and especially the genetic health of the animal in question. If you want to have the healthiest possible pet, you may need to consider what breed, or which lines within a breed are the best choice. Healthy, vital genetics are a key component of vital well-being.

You may not know this, but the genetic health of nearly all purebred dogs (and most purebred cats) is rubbish. There is a metric that measures how inbred animals are – the Coefficient of Inbreeding (COI). For healthy genetics, this should be less than 5% – but this is very rare in purebred dogs, the majority of pure breeds have a COI of greater than 25%. If you’re considering a purebred dog, check out the chart at the bottom of the article (from https://www.instituteofcaninebiology.org/blog/inbreeding-of-purebred-dogs-determined-from-dna ). If you want a purebred with healthy genetics, your choices are VERY limited. The only pure-breeds I would consider ‘genetically healthy’ are the Sloughi, Chihuahua, Spanish Water Dog, Jack Russell Terrier, and Tibetan terrier.

If you are wanting a pure-breed dog, then I’d suggest that you find a breeder who knows what a COI, and who calculates the COI over at least 20 generations (most calculate using 5 or 10 generations, and this is simply not good enough). You want a COI of less than 10% for healthy genetics. The average COI for many popular breeds is over 40%. This leads to fragile genetics, with animals who tend to have poor health and die young.

Genetics aside (and even if you have poor genetics), there is a heap you can do to give your dog the best possible chance at peak health, and a long, vital, happy and active life. Here’s what I recommend:

• Feed a fresh whole foods diet. About 75% meat and raw bone, about 25% veggies. Raw bone is especially important for growing puppies – chicken frames, wings, neck, soft bones. For the veggies, you may need to puree them up to get your dog to eat them. Leafy greens, squash, zucchini, carrots, peas, beans, tomatoes, capsicum, mushrooms, and smaller amounts of pumpkin and sweet potato are all good. I advise avoiding potatoes. You can do raw (probably a bit better) or home-cooked.
• Avoid processed foods altogether. Processed pet foods are slow poison, no matter how expensive they are. If you need a packet food for emergencies, go with a high-quality dehydrated food like Ziwipeak.
• Give healthy supplements. Anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, CBD, and so on can help slow the aging process significantly.
• Minimize vaccination. Disease protection is very important, and I do recommend core vaccinations in most cases (unless the animal is unwell in any way). BUT always titer test after the puppy vaccination series – never give any re-vaccination without checking to test if it’s actually needed. Re-vaccinating a pet with adequate antibody levels blindly is only an opportunity to injure your pet. It does not make their protection any stronger.
• Avoid toxic parasite prevention as much as you can. But be realistic about the risks, and use them if the risk justifies their use. I try not to use them at all, but sometimes they are needed. I certainly would never be throwing monthly flea treatments into my pets unless they have fleas, for example. Tick prevention, with paralysis ticks is a more difficult decision, as ticks often kill pets.
• Make sure your pup gets the right amount of healthy exercise. Dogs need to be walked regularly – not only for physical fitness but also for mental stimulation. Don’t overdo high impact, high arousal play (ball throwing is a prime culprit here) as this leads to a crazy dog with a lot of body pain if they get addicted and have too much.
• Make sure your home is toxin-free. There are a lot of things commonly used in homes that are toxic – remove all artificial fragrances and pesticides (use insect traps and baits if you need to).
• Give your dogs outside time. Just like us, dogs need access to raw, unfiltered sunlight and fresh air. Getting them out in nature regularly has immense benefits.
• Play with your dogs! Play is one of the healthiest activities you can enjoy with and for your pets.
• Make sure you have a great pet wellness team. Be proactive and have regular health checkups and dentals. The more proactive you are, the less likely it is that your pets will get seriously ill. It’s a great idea to have a holistic vet on your pet wellness team even if there is not one nearby, and you have to consult with them by phone or zoom. Formulate and stick to a holistic pet wellness plan.
• Look after yourself as well as you look after your pets. If you are stressed and unwell, this impacts seriously on your pets’ well-being. Eat well. Exercise. Deal with your anxieties and traumas. Have a regular relaxation/meditation practice. It will do your pets the world of good.
• Learn how to find and melt silent pain out of your pet’s body. Come and join the Whole Energy Body Balance Family – a huge group of devoted pet parents who are taking their pet’s wellbeing into their own two hands. Silent pain is commonly missed by pet owners, and by vets!

It takes a bit of effort, but it’s SO worth it. You pets are worth it. When you do all of this, you’re far more likely to have a happy, healthy, vital animal in peak health for their age, AND they are likely to live longer too.

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