When you’re committed to creating an environment that promotes happy pet care, there are a lot of areas where you need to think about how you can optimize your animal’s well-being and healthy lifestyle. From birds to hamsters to dogs to cats and everything in between, each animal and species as a whole has different considerations for what they need and want to be happy. When you make your pet happy, you’ll feel satisfied and accomplished. It’ll also give you a closer bond with your pet that’s unbreakable no matter what life throws at you.
If you’re dedicated to creating a plan for happy pet care, you’re bound to succeed. Some pet owners may be inspired to make their pets happy but they might not have the tools and skills they need to improve their pets’ quality of life. If your pet seems to be reasonably happy and well-adjusted, there’s no reason why you should go through the trouble of making major changes to your routine. For many pets, change can be distressing and trigger behavioral problems or illness. Still, you shouldn’t let that stop you from doing what’s best for your pet.
Regular Checkups
As any veterinarian will tell you, the first step to fostering happy pet care is ensuring that you tend to the healthcare needs of your pet. Every pet should see a veterinarian as recommended by the professionals. Some pets may need to go to a clinic at least once a year for a pet wellness exam while others with complicated chronic conditions may need to go to the vet more often. As long as you follow the recommendations of your vet, your pet should get the healthcare they need and deserve.
Going to the vet can be a costly endeavor. To help offset the costs of yearly vet trips, you can create a dedicated savings account for your pet’s veterinary bills. You can also look into pet insurance options if you know that you’ll spend less money if you have pet insurance coverage than you would if you paid for every vet visit and treatment out of pocket.
If you have a senior pet, you should know that he or she will almost certainly need to get a pet wellness exam more often than his or her younger counterparts. While this can feel like a chore, it’s a good thing. It helps your veterinary team to catch potential problems with your cat’s aging body before they develop into full-blown issues.
A Warm Home
One of the best things you can do when you want to make happy pet care a part of your routine is to ensure that your house is warm enough for your pet during the colder months. When it’s freezing outside, it can make your pets feel uncomfortable if the climate in the home is just as frigid as it is outside. Your pets rely on you to keep their environment comfortable and safe, so it’s your job to schedule any maintenance that’s necessary if your home isn’t heating itself appropriately.
When your boiler breaks, you won’t be able to heat your home properly. In this case, you’ll need to call a contractor to schedule boiler repair as soon as possible. In the summer, you might be able to get away with putting this repair off. Once fall and winter roll around, though, you won’t want to struggle to heat the house for your sake and the sake of any pets that live there.
Clean Water
Another important aspect of happy pet care and healthy human care is ensuring access to clean, safe water. After all, you use water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning. If you struggle to keep enough water for yourself and your pets at all times, you may want to schedule a bulk water delivery. This can take the pressure off of conserving water and allow you to properly hydrate yourself as well as your pets without running out of water.
Swimming Time
If you don’t have a large body of water and dock near you, you can try to find a pet-friendly pool. While this can be rare, it’s worth looking to see if it exists in your area. If you have a friend who is a homeowner with a pool, you may be able to take your pooch swimming in their pool. Before you throw your dog into the deep end, you need to make sure that he or she has the basic swimming skills to avoid drowning. While some dogs might take to the water easily and figure out how to swim on their own, others may become distressed if you put them in a pool or other body of water.
Although swimming can be fun for pets and good exercise, it’s not a necessary aspect of happy pet care for every type of animal. Some animals like cats are notorious for detesting being in water. Other animals may not be able to safely interact with water if they have a feature or health condition that prohibits them from getting into it. Before you teach your pet how to swim, you should speak with a veterinary professional who can evaluate the potential risks that may come with this summery fun activity.
Long Walks
If you like long walks on the beach, you’ll probably like them even more if you take your favorite pet with you! Part of happy pet care is ensuring that your pooch, feline, or even feathered family member gets enough exercise. Some pets may get this by running around in a contained area like a cage while others may need to be taken outside the home to exercise. In any case, your veterinary team will probably give you the best advice for what type of exercise or activity would be ideal to maintain strong physical health and a healthy weight for your pet.
Sometimes, humans and their pets can get bored with going to the same places for walks every day. To spice things up, you can walk to a new destination like a famous local monument that you’ve never seen before or a dog park you have yet to visit in your city. Your pet will enjoy the happy pet care of getting new sights and experiences while you get a break from the boring drudgery of going for a walk in the same area every day.
Car Rides
As any dog owner will know, your pet doesn’t need to see a parking sign or the car keys to get excited about a car ride. Frequently, dog owners need to find creative ways around their dog knowing that it’s time for a ride in the car. From spelling the word car to whispering it, it can become a trigger for your dog to display excited behavior if he or she thinks it’s time for a ride in the car. Thankfully, when you do take your pup or other pet for a car ride, they’ll be able to get out all of the excited energy that’s been built up around rides in the car or truck.
Healthy Teeth
As with humans, part of happy pet care is ensuring that your pet’s pearly whites stay healthy and strong. For animals, the gums and teeth are linked to other systems in their body in the same way that they are for humans. If your pet has poor dental health, you may notice that they have a higher risk of developing health concerns down the road. Thankfully, if your pet’s dental health isn’t ideal, there are ways to improve their teeth and gums to avoid future complications.
When your pet has plaque, cavities, abscesses, and other dental concerns, you’ll want to book an appointment with a veterinary dentist right away. If the veterinary dental professional can’t salvage the tooth, they may have to remove it. When your pet loses teeth, he or she can usually still eat a diet that supports the nutritional needs of that type of animal. If you have any concerns about dietary limitations after dental work for a pet, you can speak with their veterinarian.
To prevent dental issues in your pet, you can start by taking care of their teeth. Brushing their teeth and switching to a diet that promotes dental health can be wise. Additionally, pet parents should schedule cleanings for their pet’s teeth every year or as recommended by a veterinarian based on the condition of the pet’s teeth.
Road Trips
While going to RV shops and getting ready to cross the country in an RV might not sound necessary for taking care of your pet, it can greatly enrich your pet’s life to go on a road trip if he or she doesn’t have health issues or other concerns that would make it hard to take them out on the road. Road trips with a pet are all about expanding both of your horizons and having a good time. When you are invested in doing happy pet care, you’ll find that going on a road trip or adventure with your animal can bring you closer as a pet owner and pet duo.
Some pets might not love the idea of going on a road trip. For example, if you have a cat, it can be hard to make the cat comfortable when you’re traveling on the road. Cats can get nauseous or anxious during short car rides so a road trip can take their unpleasant symptoms to a whole other level.
If your pet has severe car or travel anxiety, a road trip can be their worst nightmare so you’ll want to exercise caution and common sense when you’re considering taking a road trip with your pet. If your pet has health issues that make them medically fragile or require them to have regular veterinary care, you should postpone the road trip until your pet is medically cleared to travel by a veterinarian. Otherwise, it’s simply not safe to take them on a trip even if it sounds fun or exciting to you. If you must take a trip while your pet is ill, make sure to get a pet sitter who knows how to deal with your pet’s medical needs and administer treatments.
Fun Toys
If you don’t want your pet to play with your valuables like a Crystal award, you need to supply fun, enriching toys for your pet to help them resist temptation. When your pet can play with toys that feel engaging and exciting to them, they may leave your precious items alone. With toys that require you to participate in play time, you can forge a deeper bond with your pet through fun experiences as a part of happy pet care.
A Pest-Free Home
To have happy pet care, you need to have a home that is safe and free from pests. If you have cockroaches, mice, rats, or other concerns with pests, you shouldn’t attempt to handle them yourself. A skilled exterminator will be able to use pet-friendly materials to remove the pests without harming your pets. If you try to use materials for pest removal that you found at a regular store, they might not be safe to use around pets.
Sometimes, your pet may seem unhappy on the surface. When you dig deeper with a skilled veterinary professional, you may find that your pet is either perfectly content or has an underlying health issue. Some pets may change their behavior as they age, recover from illness, or experience major life changes like moving from one owner to another or losing a friend/fellow pet. This is a common problem that almost every pet owner experiences at one point or another.
Only you know what your pet’s mood looks like, so you should be an advocate for your pet to live his or her best life. If your pet seems to be out of sorts, dig until you get to the bottom of the problem. When you know things that may cheer your pet up like gifting them with a specific toy or giving them their favorite meal, there’s nothing wrong with treating your pet in the same way that you probably also like to be treated to something nice every once in a while.