Tips to Share Veganuary with Your Dog
A Companion Animal Care Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM PlantPoweredDog.com
January 2021

Don’t think of Veganuary as just a month; think of it as the beginning of partnering with your dog to save all animals and our beautiful planet.

Veganuary 2021 is here! If you’re not already vegan, perhaps you’ve heard of Veganuary, which is a rapidly growing movement encouraging people around the world to go vegan for the month of January. The thought is that once we discover how easy, and fun, it is to go vegan, we’ll continue on long after January has passed. But did you know that your dog can also take part in Veganuary? That’s right! By going vegan for the month, both you and your dog can see how easy–and healthy–it is not only for us humans to skip the animal products, but for our canine friends as well.

With that in mind, I want to share my top tips on how you can share Veganuary with your dog.

Tip #1: Replace Animal-Based Treats with Plant-Based

This tip is a super-simple way to reduce your dog’s meat consumption. If your dog currently eats treats made of meat, simply swap them out for yummy plant-based goodies. You can find a variety of vegan dog treats on a website I love, Eco Dogs and Cats.

My plant-based boy, Moo, goes especially nuts for V-Dog’s Breathbones. He gets one every night as his “bedtime snack”. He loves them and they help make his breath smell minty fresh. Score!

But you don’t have to buy vegan dog treats if you don’t want to. I have a lot of yummy recipes you can whip up quickly right here on this site. For example, if your dog loves jerky, try your hand at my Tempeh Beggin’ Treats for Dogs instead. They’re super simple and dogs go crazy for them. Just be careful that you don’t eat them all first. They’re that good!

You can streamline things even more and simply slice up some dog-friendly fruit, such as an apple or pear, or offer your dog berries as treats (Just be sure to avoid grapes and raisins, which are toxic to dogs). It doesn’t get any easier, or healthier, than that!

Tip #2: Cut Back Meat by 20%

You don’t have to jump in 100% all at once in changing your dog’s diet from meat-based to plant-based. In fact, you want to transition your dog slowly because his gastrointestinal system will need time to adjust from a low-fiber to a higher-fiber diet.

I recommend gently introducing your canine companion to the joys of plant-based eating by subbing nutritious, dog-friendly high-protein plant foods such as lentils, chickpeas and beans for 20% of his current meat-based diet.

You can even supercharge his meal by topping it off with cancer-fighting foods such as kale, collards, broccoli or sprouts. And if you’re replacing just 20% of a “complete and balanced” commercial recipe, you don’t even need to worry about adding in extra supplements.

The goal here is to have fun and introduce your dog to a variety of nutritious plant-based foods. Just be sure to stick only to dog-safe foods (avoid toxic foods for dogs such as onions, scallions, leeks, grapes, raisins, macadamia nuts, nutmeg, xylitol and chocolate). And take it slow, introducing just one or two new foods at a time so that, once again, your dog’s digestive system has time to adjust.

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Tip #3: Commit to Learn

Knowledge truly is power and the best way to set you and your dog up for plant-based success is to learn as much as you can on the topic. I offer a ton of informative articles at my website, Plant-Powered Dog. And if you sign up for my email list, I’ll send you my top tips and resources straight to your inbox.

I’m super excited to announce that I’ve also got a brand-new book on plant-based dog nutrition in the works, which will be out in late 2021 or early 2022. Until then (and even then!), I highly recommend Dr. Richard Pitcairn’s wonderful book, Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats (4th ed.).

Be cautious about where you turn for knowledge, however. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation and blatantly false information on feeding your dog a vegan diet floating around online.

Tip #4: Support Plant-Based Brands

If preparing your dog’s plant-based foods yourself seems daunting, or cooking’s just not your thing, why not go commercial? There are several great vegan dog food brands on the market right now that you can have fun exploring with your canine companion. Here are a few of my favorites to choose from (listed in alphabetical order so as not to offend anyone!):

• Benevo
• Evolution
• Petcurean Gather
• V-Dog
• Wild Earth

When you support vegan dog food brands, you’re also making a statement about the types of products you want to see on the market and manufacturers will take notice. This means that the more you say “yes” to vegan dog food products, the more of these types of products that will be introduced to market.

Tip #5: Veganuary is Now, but Think Long-Term

The goal of Veganuary is to get people into the habit of eating and living crutely-free with the hope that once the month is over, they’ll carry that momentum forward forever. The same holds true when it comes to your canine companion.

The changes you make in your dog’s diet for Veganuary aren’t confined just to January; they can serve as a springboard for a healthier life for your dog based on kindness and compassion for all living beings.

In the midst of a world that seems out of control with a global pandemic and political unrest, Veganuary enables us to step into our personal power. In a world seemingly gone made, Veganuary gives us hope. And we could all use a lot of that right now.

So, don’t think of Veganuary as just a month; think of it as the beginning of partnering with your dog to save all animals and our beautiful planet.

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