Taking Pride in Pet Skills

Are you hosting one or more domesticated animals (pet) horse, dog, cat, hamster, bird, reptile, fish? Or perhaps you have a more exotic creature(s) you care for? No matter how big or small our pet is, we are responsible for keeping them Alive and Well! Pet ownership comes with responsibilities. It takes skills to be the best pet owner we can be. If you are a parent, pets are great for teaching young people skills. Bottom line, WE LOVE OUR PETS!

Note/Mission should you choose to accept: In one of the 5 links above there’s a fun, short video about Mickey. He’s not a pet but an important icon in our history of pets. Let me know if you find and enjoy it. It was really fun for me.

It’s easy to see how our own skills might need some improvement when we look at some common pet challenges, our pet challenges are only challenges if we are struggling with something ourselves:

1. Financial Checklist – keeping pet expenses in our budget, so good financial management skills are critical. There are the regular monthly expenses but adding a line item for additional, non-planned, variables like vet, grooming, medications, speciality and replacement items is a skill us pet parents must account for.
2. Health and Well-Being – My first business was about people’s health and well-being. Without Health in Mind and body as a priority for ourselves it’s very likely that our pets’ struggles mirror ours. Pet Health struggles may be exactly the same (weight, anxiety, depression, etc.) or similar to our own but with different pet challenges (skin rashes, obsessive licking, acting inappropriately, ets.). Remember, if your pet is exposed to people with challenges, family members and others around us, they are very sensitive to changes and are more likely to know, sometimes way before we do, that there’s a problem. 
3. Happy and Harmonious Home – We unexpectedly added a puppy to our home. A rescue that needed us, our 2 cats and our other dog were in chaos for quite awhile.  Even as we got her to stop chewing furniture, trying to eat the cats and their food and waste, we realized having 2 big dogs, and worst of all a puppy that was terrified of children, was not going to work for us. So we began dog training, completing all levels at Petsmart was good for our lab, but the puppy was still like an adorable demon. So we searched for Canine Good Citizen near us and found a place to teach us all the behavior we really needed. Our only option within reasonable distance is VIP Dog Sports. It’s like the teacher of my parenting class said, “if we called it Parenting Training” no one would show up. The best, and sometimes the only way to take our skills to where we want them to be is with a new teacher. If the teacher isn’t helping to solve the actual problem we must look at our own resistance to change first and then perhaps we need a new teacher. 

Animals are one of my true joys in all of life and I am certain anyone reading this has a similar passion, love, and probably more than a few friends inside their home.

I am testing something and I hope you will participate with me. I purchase from Amazon, have many things, especially for pets on Subscribe and Save, and with all of the many recommendations I make to people I want to be able to share things I love. Thank you Lacie at Freebird Hair Salon for all of your support, this Blog Post is for you and our puppies.

Some of our favorite dog products…

Feeding: Snuffle Mat on the floor (slows them down) below an Automatic Feeder (scheduled for multiple smaller feedings during the day) on the counter. It needs small food and one of my dogs has stomach problems so I use Gut Health food. You need at least 2 snuffle mats since they should be washed weekly.

Supplements: Multivitamin and Digestive Support, I’m still trying to find one product to get puppy poop firmer and big dog to clear anal glands.

Training Treats: Throughout all of our training (for our dogs) treats are used to motivate and reward. New behavior requires patience and consistency. I keep a small plastic bin and both of our training pouches stocked with treats. We LOVE these pouches, they hold poop bags too. All the BilJac treats are very moist and popular. Even though I have big dogs I like small treats, we use pounds of these every week, the more training we do the less food I give them to make sure they don’t over eat. Pet Botanics are a good value. I buy several different kinds and mix them up so there’s always lots of variety. The dry treats are hard for the dogs to eat in training so I stick to the soft ones.

Beds: I have probably 8 of these. In the end waterproof with a washable cover is best, works well in the car for traveling too.

Toys: I have a ball dog. My favorite indoor balls are light, indestructible, and affordable. Our most used outdoor set is a folding chuck it, I tested lots of balls and discovered a bucket of chuck it! Our puppy prefers hunting and chewing, gotta figure out what your dog really loves. Of course a favorite game between dogs or dogs with their human is tug, no multi dog house should be without some.  Around holidays and when I first get a dog I like a good toy variety pack because we must know what our puppy loves best.

Rescue: I am about to order bright, dog collars that may be visible from outer space. Because, we recently had a dog in our yard. I was so grateful I was able to coax him over with some food but even more grateful his name and number was clearly visible on his collar. We called the owner and reunited them with each other.

Find: Apple wins if you want to find your dog. Get Air Tags and a holder for their collar. Those of us without iPhones await something better than what’s currently on the market. If you find something please add it to the list.

Health & Vet Prevention

Teeth Health: We like to give our dogs something to chew when we leave (this has helped save out furniture from puppy teeth destruction). For longer outings all natural dental chews shorter outings or for a quick teeth cleaning they love Zesty Paws.

Ears: I learned that the puppy licking ears can cause ear infections, so give the puppy something to chew or play with. But these have been a game changer for my lab who is prone to ear infections. I have prevented a couple in the puppy’s ears too. Wipes that go on your fingers to clean their ears, these are AWESOME! Thin fingers help to clean deeper. Be gentle.