tips on dog care

[wanda farrow]

Recently I sent you some tips on budgeting. 1. Trimming your dog's nails and grooming his fur at home also saves money spent on professional groomers. 2. Practice good dental hygiene. Daily brushing of your dog's teeth has significant returns. Even brushing for a short amount of time, particularly right against the gum line with an enzymatic, pet specific toothpaste decreases the risk of infection in a pet's mouth. Those infections often spread to the blood and into organs such as the kidney or into joints. 3. Don't skip vaccinations or flea and tick prevention . Vaccines protect pets from painful and tragic diseases such as rabies, and fleas and ticks carry harmful diseases such as the plague that may also be spread to people in contact with pets. The diseases are much more expensive to treat than the cost of vaccines administered to pets. 4. Buy fewer toys , and trick pets into thinking those toys are new, time and time again. Pets need toys to keep them active and to keep their mind engaged. However, many pet owners tend to buy too many toys, or pets tend to lose interest in toys over time. However, keeping a stash of five to 10 toys on hand and rotating a few of them allows pets to be stimulated by 'new' toys often. Provide two or three toys for play at a time and store the others. Replace the toys every two to three weeks with some of the toys that have been set aside, and pets will find them as stimulating as they were when they were new. 5. Be creative with ways to make toys more interactive. Consider buying Buster Cubes or Kong toys for dogs to give them more stimulation while they eat or enjoy treats. Move toys from room to room to provide a different venue for pets to play in. it would be nice if any one could add tips, to this discussion of any kind that may help on keeping good health or saving money would be helpful in these tough times.

[Diane]

Good tips. I especially like the idea about the toys. With some toys being $10 or more that makes a lot of sense.