Gone are the days when boarding kennels were the only places that you could safely leave your pet while you’re away, or friends and family were the only people you could find to look after your dog in your absence. Nowadays, professional pet sitters have grown in popularity and there are many of them offering their services all over the country.
It’s not always easy to leave your beloved furry best friend with a dog sitter, even if it’s just for a day or two and finding one that you trust and can rely upon, is often even harder. To help you in your search, here is a list of traits that every pet sitter should possess if they’re going to do a good job of caring your fur-kid:
Training, when carried out in the right way, can help to keep your pet well-behaved, mentally and physically healthy and stimulated and can even encourage bonding between dog and owner. However, it is possible to over train your dog, and this can lead to all sorts of harmful consequences for both you and your beloved pooch.
Whether you’ve just adopted a senior dog, or your own pooch is getting old, they will have different care requirements than those of a younger canine. However, it might not always be obvious when a dog should be classed as being a senior, and it generally depends upon the individual dog.
For some pet owners the line between a humane training tool, and an inhumane one, can be a bit blurry, and some feel that provided the tool gives the pet owner the desired result, then they can be used without fear of recrimination from others in the pet community.
Dogs often behave in an aggressive manner, which can be dangerous and worrying for their owners, and many people are forced to seek professional help to deal with the problem. Aggression in dogs can refer to many different types of behaviour, some of which are listed below:
Does your beloved pooch howl the house down, soil all over the place or destroy your furniture and/or belongings, when left home alone? If so, then there’s a strong chance little Fido suffers from separation anxiety. This is not uncommon in pet dogs, and is something that can be overcome with time, dedication and patience, but it may not be the only cause of your dogs’ unwelcome behaviour. Before figuring out if your pet dog suffers from separation anxiety, you should rule out these other common causes first:
Scientists have recently completed research that shows the similarities between canine brains, and human ones. Man’s best friend, the dog, has been proven to use similar brain mechanisms to humans, when processing social information. So, there is substance to the enduring relationship between humans and dogs, and here is a little more information about the finer details of the studies:
The food that we give our pets is vital for keeping them fit and healthy, and when we feed them good, nutritious food, we are helping them maintain a strong muscular-skeletal structure, helping to keep their organs healthy and providing them with everything they need for a healthy immune system.
There are more than 150 breeds of dog, and while many dog lovers simply love anything that woofs and has 4 legs and a tail, some of you out there may want to give a bit more consideration to the type of pet dog you choose to make a part of your family. Some dogs may adapt to any circumstances that they find themselves in, and will quickly endear themselves to anyone who shows them a little love, but some breeds are naturally more predisposed to certain types of behaviour and you may want to consider the following points before getting your new pooch.
While you may not always know what happened to your rescued pet before you adopted them, there are things that you can do to help them put their best paw forwards towards a new, happy and stress-free life.
For most of us pet owners, our dogs are like family members, and so naturally we want to do our best to keep them safe and healthy. There are many things you can do as a responsible pet parent to ensure that your pooch is fighting fit and happy, and here are just a few tips and pointers:
It can be a real pain trying to make sure that our pets are well cared for when we go on vacation, and for some, they never go away simply because they feel they don’t have any viable options for pet care in their absence.
It can be hard sometimes to accept that our darling furry friend is not like a human, and many pet owners treat their pooches as if they are children. However, this is a big mistake and does not allow you to fully appreciate and respond to the needs of your pet. What you believe your pet might enjoy, is often inaccurate and comes from the expectation that your pet has the same responses as a human.
Most dogs – Labradors perhaps excluded – despise being given a bath, and as a dog owner you may be inclined to keep baths at a minimum, simply because of the stress it can cause for everyone involved: it can quickly get messy and can take up a whole lot of time.
Most of us like to think that we have a good relationship with our furry friends, even if we’ve had to work hard to achieve it. Some dogs require a little more work than others before you can gain their trust, while others will trust you and nobody else. But what if your relationship with your pet dog could be even better?
When your pet means everything to you, the thought of leaving them in boarding kennels while you’re out of town, can be an upsetting one. Irrespective of how well the kennels are run and maintained, you may not be able to bear the thought of them being left in unfamiliar surroundings.
If you’re thinking about bringing a cat or a dog into your home for the first time, and are not quite sure what to expect or what you might need to think about doing in preparation, the points listed below should give you some guidance:
For many good pet parents, walking their pet dog is something that they do automatically, come rain or shine, and most appreciate the importance of such an activity for the dog.
There can be several triggers for a dogs’ anxiety, and with the growing awareness of the problem among pet owners and pet professionals alike, dogs with such a disorder nowadays are far less likely to be rejected by their owners.
While you may not think to check your dogs mouth regularly, it’s something that can help you to judge the overall health of your furry best friend. Gums can be a particularly effective indicator of whether something is going on with your dog, and you can tell a lot by their colour.
Puppies are adorable and the thought of having one as a new member of the family, is an exciting prospect for many. However, all young animals can be hard work, and if you’re serious about adding a pup to your family, you should give it some serious consideration and ask yourself these five questions:
Pooches who pee indoors can pose a real problem for pet owners, and many are simply at their wits end, with no clue as to why their pet is behaving in such a manner or how they can prevent it from happening. This issue can occur with any dog, irrespective of their age, and the reasons behind it may vary. Tackling the problem need not be complicated or time consuming, but you will need a lot of patience:
One simple way of enriching the lives of our furry best friends, is to give them plenty of exercise and access to the great outdoors. Not only does this stimulate their senses and helps to keep them entertained and stimulated, it can also help to keep them at a healthy weight. However, while some dogs require a lot of exercise and have bags of energy, others may not need quite so much physical exertion. Here’s a little advice and guidance about exercising your best friend:
While having an excitable pooch can be entertaining, and some pet owners encourage the behaviour, it can get out of control and cause conflicts between other pet owners and even friends and family. Here are some tips for helping to calm an excitable pooch:
If you’re sick and tired of your furniture getting all chewed up, finding scratch marks all over the doors, your belongings being destroyed and constant barking, then it could be that your furry friend needs some mental stimulation. Here are some top tips for keeping your pet’s mind busy with minimum effort on your part:
If you’re a pet owner, no doubt you cherish your little furry friend(s) and hate to leave them in the care of someone else. However, with work, family and social constrictions, you may not always have a choice in the matter, especially since leaving your precious poppet(s) unattended for hours on end, is not a viable or compassionate option.
Having a pet is a big responsibility, and if you work full time or need to go away on vacation without your pet, it can be a big worry as to what will happen to them. Do you have a friend or neighbor who can keep an eye on your pet while you’re at work, or do you cancel your vacation because you don’t have anyone willing to help take care of them in your absence?
For many of us, we have no choice but to leave our pets home alone while we head out to work – and most of us don’t exactly enjoy saying goodbye to them every morning – and without cameras to record their activity while we’re away, we have no clue how they cope in our absence.
Having a puppy scampering about the place can bring joy and happiness to many a home, but it can also bring plenty of little accidents, mainly in the form of piles of poop and puddles of pee! Potty training can be tiresome for many, and some even avoid having a puppy simply because they can’t bring themselves to face potty training, but it doesn’t have to be like that. Here are some tips for potty training your cherished puppy:
There are many events or occurrences in life that cause us to freak out, upset us or even induce panic attacks, and many more of us suffer from debilitating mental illnesses. While some of us know how to help heal ourselves in the event of a tragedy, stressful event, or when we’re feeling mentally drained, others simply do not know where to turn, or who to turn to.
While most dog owners would like to say that they have no need for a pet sitter – perhaps because they believe that their pet won’t be happy in someone else’s company or that they are not being responsible pet parents – the reality is that most dogs don’t suffer at the hands of experienced and qualified pet sitters, and when done well, the entire process should be painless for both parties: