February is Accountable Pet Proprietor Month and Nationwide Spay/Neuter Consciousness Month! With two nice (and associated) subjects being highlighted in February, we thought we’d recap a few of our favourite methods to be a accountable canine proprietor for the furry love of your life.
1. Correct grooming
It’s essential to maintain up with common grooming to your canine to maintain them snug, hygienic, and wholesome. Some key common grooming duties and intervals are:
Tub – Each 4 weeks
Fur trim (you probably have a canine with an extended coat) – Each 4 to 6 weeks
Brushing – In case your canine has an extended coat, brush day by day. Brushing weekly is okay in case your canine has a brief coat.
Nail trim – Each 3 to 4 weeks
Anal glands – does your canine ever excrete a powerful fishy odor from down there? Yeah, that’s their anal glands. Have them expressed a couple of times a yr to maintain them snug and smelling contemporary.
Tooth brushing – 3 occasions every week is the vet-recommended minimal. We all know it may be a troublesome activity, and it’s undoubtedly one thing your canine might want to get used to, however common brushing removes plaque and prevents tartar accumulation.
2. Canine identification
Each canine proprietor’s worst nightmare is shedding their pet. Maybe they slip out of their leash on a stroll, or escape from a fence gate left open. It occurs! Be sure you’re ready by placing identification in your canine. It’s essential to have an ID together with your canine’s title and a telephone quantity you might be contacted at.
We all know some homeowners prefer to have their canine’s collars off to cut back that annoying jingling of their tags. However what would you do in case your canine took off with none method to establish them?
dogIDs makes collars with a signature ScruffTag that’s linked fairly than dangling from it, which ensures that your canine will all the time have figuring out info, akin to his or her title, your telephone quantity, and some other essential info you need your canine to all the time have on them. A dogIDs authentic design, the ScruffTag sits proper on the again of the neck, so it’s simple for anybody to see and browse with out having to deal with your canine.
You’ll be able to add as much as 4 traces of textual content and customise the font while you order a dogIDs collar. The chances for creativity are infinite!
3. Spay/neuter
Do as Bob Barker stated! Spaying or neutering your canine is among the most essential methods you could be a accountable pet proprietor. Not solely does it assist management the pet inhabitants, however it affords a myriad of behavioral and well being advantages to your pet.
Spaying feminine canine helps stop uterine infections and breast tumors, that are “malignant or cancerous in about 50% of canine,” in keeping with the ASPCA. Neutering your male canine additionally prevents testicular most cancers and numerous prostate points. Moreover, neutered male canine will likely be much less prone to run away from dwelling in an try and discover a mate. They might even be higher behaved and have much less aggression issues if neutered early in life.
4. Yearly appointments and preventative medicine
Taking your canine to the vet for his or her annual appointment is essential to take care of their well being and verify for any regarding points. Your vet may also prescribe heartworm and flea & tick preventative drugs. Give these to your canine as prescribed to keep away from harmful and dear well being points.
5. Train
Preserve your canine bodily and mentally wholesome by offering common train! Walks, runs, swims, fetch – you title it! The extent of train wanted relies on the breed of canine you’ve gotten, however there are many methods to train them, even when the climate is chilly and you’ll’t get outdoors. Learn our weblog on DIY Enrichment for Your Pup to offer them psychological train indoors.
