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| Mark and I found our passion for this breed in 1995 with Big Louie, our first IG, and we instantly fell in love. Our family of IGs has grown over the years and we have everything from rescues that we have apdopted, coursing dogs, obedience dogs, to Nationally Top Ranked conformation dogs. One thing that is the same for all of them, is that they are our family members and best friends first and foremost. Their sports and titles and rankings are secondary in their/our lives. Our IGs are true sighthounds and here at Equus, we let them thrive in whatever sport, hobby, competition they excel at and enjoy. Some are couch potatoes who love to stay home and guard the couch, while others can't wait for the weekends to head out and do their thing... |
| Our dogs are kept as members of the family. They are raised in the family, sleep in bed with us and take up most of the couch in the evenings. Along with the IGs, we have cats, a few rescue birds, and a Boston Terrier, Rosie "CH Luckystars Twist Of Fate". Mark and I are very involved with IG rescue. Anyone considering adding an IG to their family may want to consider adopting a rescue dog. More information can be found here. Our gang is fed a raw diet and are raised as naturally as possible with plenty of fresh air, natural foods and outdoor time with us. There are wonderful resources about raw diets out there. A great place to learn about the diet and to start your research is BARF FAQs. |
| I can tell you from experience, our dogs have never been so healthy and looked so incredible. Their teeth stay white and healthy (less dentals for the IGs), their coats are like silk, their muscle tone is gorgeous, and their stamina and energy level is at its peak. A nice way for people to get used to feeding a raw diet without worrying about balancing and proper nutrition is to start with a food called Aunt Jeni's It is a raw, preground, 100% balanced frozen food. You can either find a retailer on her website or order directly. We started on the raw diet after a lot of research and soul searching, when our boy Spider started having monthly seizures. We did not want to start him on medications if we could find another way. We researched and changed to a raw diet and he went from every month having intense seizures to being able to go 6, 7 (now 11) months seizure free. You can read Spiders story here. We change all of our foster dogs over to raw food as soon as they come in and each one has taken to it immediately and shown wonderful results. |
| All of our IGs, whether pets or in our breeding program, have their eyes tested anually for PRA. We feel this is an important enough concern that we keep tabs on all of our dogs eyes. Our dogs that may be used in our breeding program are CERF'd clear and are also free from other health problems. IGs do have their share of health concerns that you should be aware of...PRA, Epilepsy, Luxating Patellas... a wonderful source of info on IG health issues is at the IGCA website. Click here to learn more. Enjoy your time here at Equus and feel free to contact us for puppy information, any questions, comments or just to chat about IGs. |
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