Dog owners listen up. Are you concerned about your pet’s health? Keep reading as what we are going to discuss here may interest you.
We’ll discuss essential tips to keep your dog healthy all through its life.
The tips include.
Feeding carefully
Gluttony is bad. For humans and for animals. So practice moderation when feeding your dog. Remember, pets are like children, and just like children they have no control over them. When they see their favorite food near them, they eat their heart out. The consequences of reckless eating are indigestion and upset tummy. No wonder pet owners always complain that insisting the pet to take food and medicine is a hassle.
Feed your dog carefully if you want it to be in good health. Vets and animal health experts recommend controlled feeding. In case you are wondering what that is, it is regulated feeding. Owners first check a dog’s weight and health condition. Based off of these, they determine the quantity of food that would be optimized for it.
If this sounds too extreme for you, try maintaining a weekly food chart. This would keep your furry friend happy and healthy.
Keep them active
Dogs are naturally agile and energetic. They love playing, running and chasing things a lot more than other animals, especially cats. As a dog owner, you must not allow them to sit idly for long hours and get accustomed to a sedentary lifestyle. Also, physical activities are a necessary part of training your dog, so you’ll be interested in the know-hows.
Here are some useful tips to keep dogs active.
Use the stairs:
Have your dog running up and down the stairs. We bet it’s something he’ll love and stay fit. Even for humans, climbing the stairs up and down is healthy.
Bring home the toys:
The similarities between dogs and toddlers are amazing. As far as our own and several other dog owner’s observation goes, dogs love playing with toys just as much as kids do. Bring home dog toys. If you never shopped for them before, a minute long Google search will get you a list of them.
Make it find things:
This is a fun-filled game not just for dogs but also for owners. Dogs have strong olfactory sense. Let it find something intentionally hidden just by the smell of it.
Take your dog outdoor:
Indoor activities are good in terms of fitness, but they are no replacement for outdoor activities. So take your dog outside and let it run, jump, chase frisbee and play doggie soccer. These outdoor activities are great in terms of keeping the dog active and energized.
Simply put, the more activities – both indoor and outdoor – your dog performs, the healthier it becomes.
Regular health checkup
Dogs cannot speak. They can’t verbalize their problems. It’s owner’s responsibility to find what’s bothering their pet dogs. Telltale signs that indicate deteriorating health are lack of activities, lack of sleep, apathy to food. These signs indicate something is wrong.
While owners are strongly recommended to look for these signs in their pets, they shouldn’t wait for them to show up. Instead, they should take their dogs to a nearby vet clinic every week or every month – depending upon their convenience.
Regular health checkup is good for all pets, not only dogs. Vets carefully check skin rashes, heart condition, weight and ask owners for their dog’s eating habits. They are trained to spot abnormalities. So if a disease is in a nascent stage, they will identify it.
Keep them clean
To keep your dog clean, regularly brush its teeth, bathe it and cut the nails that have grown too big. Why brushing teeth is so important? Because dogs are animals, their oral hygiene is poor. Also, canine teeth tend to undergo buildup of plaque. Unclean teeth is prone to bacterial overgrowth.
Dog owners agree that cutting nails is a hazard. Firstly, to keep toenails, the foot must be held steady. Dogs are not humans, unless adequately trained, they will move their foot making it difficult to clip the nail without hurting them. There are so many cases where the owner ended up injuring his dog.
Another goof-up made by dog owners is using harsh chemicals for cleaning their dogs. True, dogs have skin that are more resistant but they also have problems that humans rarely have and use of soaps or cleaning products made of corrosive chemicals might harm their skin.
As a dog owner, you should always buy healthy cleaning products. House or floor cleaning products have bleach or ammonia in them. Such products can be damaging for your dog. So never buy them.
Summing up
It’s time to wrap up. But before calling it a quit, here’s a quick rundown of all the points discussed thus far. Be careful of what you are feeding your dog and in what quantity, keep the dog active, take it to a vet every now and then and keep it thoroughly clean and for that matter, use safe cleaning products.