Dogs, cats and other pets can get bored just like we do. I struggle around snacking and over-indulge in bad TV. Keeping our minds and bodies active is important for our health, and environmental enrichment elevates your dog’s physical and emotional health. Why not provide your dog with an eco friendly house?
When Shadow-Pup feels bored, he terrorizes Karma-Kat. Oh, they love to play together, but he overdoes things and can get too rough when he feels bored. He’ll also demand more attention from his humans. That takes the form of staring and barking at us (READ MY MIND!), or bringing toys to play, or even indulging in zoomies—racing around and around the house l
There are many ways you can add some stimulation into your pet’s world. That doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming. Check out these easy and go green pet-parent projects you can try this spring.
Make a dog bed or pillow out of your old clothes
Recycling your old clothes is a great way to give them a second life. Take an old sweater or something with a thicker material and turn it into a comfy pet bed or pillow. Here’s an easy tutorial to follow. If you’re like me, you’ve got lots of old pillow cases. Or, you can get an old sheet, stuff it full of clothing that’s not fit for donations, and stitch up the sides. You can get stick-on Velcro from sewing stores, too, if you’re not handing with a needle and thread. Your dog will love cozying up on a bed that smells like you! And BONUS…if the dog rips it apart, you aren’t out a bundle on a fancy high-dollar dog bed.
Tie up your clothes for tug toys!
This is great for those of you who don’t sew. Take your old socks–you know, gather up all the odd ones your washer didn’t eat–and stuff them inside each other. Tie them together for a longer tug toy. That works great for small to medium size dogs. For bigger dogs, an old pair of jeans or yoga pants offers more stretch-and-shake worthy sizes. And BUNUS…they smell like you! Oh, and there are RULES to follow in tug games, like teaching when it’s appropriate and how to keep the game going. My colleague Trish McMillan has a great resource here for tugging.
Pick eco-friendly companies that make dog toys
Many dog toy companies are paying close attention to their carbon paw print these days. Choosing safe dog toys is job one for pet parents. I love all the Planet Dog toys because they’re made with recycled materials—and you can even return chewed up toys to them to recycle. Shadow-Pup still plays with toys we got over a decade ago for Magical-Dawg. Checkout these other eco-friendly pet-toy companies listed on sustainablejungle.com.
For more help with your bored dog, get the QUICK TIPS book, below (click on the picture).
Take a walk! or a car ride!
A ramble through the park, or the woods, or a car ride to enrich your pup while de-stressing you both. Consider how else you might consume valuable resources while you de-stress. Shadow loves car rides, where he gets to sniff the breeze and see all the different sites. And we’re lucky to live on 13 acres to ramble.
Being eco-friendly in all areas of my life is something I try to do to stay healthy, and treat my world right. I still need to work on it, though. Which of these little projects are you going to try? Let me know by commenting below.
I love hearing from you, so please share comments and questions. Do you have an ASK AMY question you’d like answered? Do you have a new kitten and need answers? Stay up to date on all the latest just subscribe the blog, “like” me on Facebook, and sign up for Pet Peeves newsletter.
Stay up to date with the latest book giveaways and appearances related to my September Day pet-centric THRILLERS WITH BITE! Amy Shojai, CABC is a certified cat & dog behavior consultant, a consultant to the pet industry, and the award-winning author of 35+ pet-centric books and Thrillers with Bite! Oh, and she loves bling!
Do you know how do you find pet behavior help? As a certified animal behavior consultant for cats and dogs, I receive many requests for pet behavior help. Solving cat behavior problems and bad dog behavior can be a challenge. Some of these I address with articles explaining cat behavior (how to stop meowing, for example, or dealing with cat aggression), as well as puppy and dog behavior issues like noise phobias and separation behaviors.
Some pet behavior challenges have solutions through reading books and articles, others via phone call advice, and more serious issues (dog aggression, for example) need one-on-one help. But how do the behavior experts receive training?
Dog hot spots often happen during both the spring and fall shedding season and are the bane of many dogs’ existence. Some develop hot spots all year long, especially those with very thick, wooly coats. Have your dogs ever suffered from hot spots?
Fortunately, hot spots are not a problem for cats. Kitties, though, do have their own issues with shedding and hairballs. Bathing cats can help with that.
When dog hot spots are a chronic problem, it can be aggravating and frustrating for pet owners. And painful for the dog! While severe problems need veterinary attention, home remedies for dog hot spots often help enormously. Here’s what you need to know.
Memorial Day honors the American men and women who have lost their lives while serving in the military. It originally honored those who died in the Civil War, and now honors those who died in any war. It is also known as Decoration Day. This holiday differs from Veterans’ Day which honors all those who served in the military.
There is no Memorial Day for the brave military K9s who served and lost their lives, often heroically saving their human partners. I can’t imagine the bond that must exist between the soldier and his or her war dog—they share things and stand against danger to protect the rest of us against horrors we don’t want to think about. And because of them, we don’t have to worry about such things. Thank you.
I’m eternally grateful to those who sacrifice for our freedom. Losing a beloved animal companion anytime cuts deep. It must be horrific to lose a comrade-in-arms, including those with four feet and fur.
And since I focus on pet issues, I want to shine a light on the dogs of the military. There is a National K9s Veteran’s Day on March 13, too. But here’s an excerpt from my book DOG LIFE to shine a light on military dogs through the ages.
Have your pets ever choked on something they chew? Shadow-Pup loves to chew up inedible objects, no matter how much we supervise. Learn how to administer the pet Heimlich to save a life!
When Karma-Kat came to live with us, that put lots of cat toys within Magical-Dawg’s reach. Seren had never been too keen on such things and she was already nine years old when Magic came as a puppy. He loved to swipe Seren’s “sparkle-balls” and ended up with sparkly poop. Once Karma’s toys added to the kitty quotient, the big ol’ dog had a field day seeing how many cat toys he could stuff into his jaws.
Bravo played with rocks. And the new puppy Shadow loves to chew sticks. He’s already got one caught in the roof of his mouth. That’s the perfect opportunity for choking, and a need for the pet Heimlich. I hope that we’ll never need it, though. In case you do, read on!
Do you have a dog fence? Magical-Dawg used to take off after “critters” every so often, racing around the 13-acre spread (or beyond). We eventually trained him to stay with us, even when off-leash. It would have devastated me if Magic disappeared. He was microchipped, but folks would need to catch him first.
Bravo was a very different dog. He was so good off-leash during most morning rambles and didn’t want to go too far away from us. He’d chase and play with his “big-ball” in the field, and baptize every tree and grass tussock. And once he lost his leg, he couldn’t get out the back fenced area even if he’d wanted to.
Shadow-Pup, though, takes after Magical-Dawg. He’s so small, not even the fenced back area keeps him contained. He also likes to dig, so we needed to address possible escapes. A fence is a dog’s best friend!
How do you stop a cat fight? And how do you know if the cat fighting turns serious—rather than just kitten play? Shadow-Pup thinks it’s great fun to chase and wrestle with Karma-Kat. We supervise, of course, and interrupt the play should one or the other object.
There are many kinds of cat aggression, and many are perfectly normal behaviors. Certainly, it’s not fair to you or the cats to allow cats to fight. Learn how to recognize the potential and reasons behind cat aggression and fighting cats, and what you can do.
A dog vomits more easily than nearly any other creature. So why in the world would a pet parent want to make pets vomit? When dogs or cats eat the wrong thing that could cause harm, you can save your pets’ lives by inducing vomiting.
Pets vomit for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes it’s because of illness, while other times the dog vomiting or cat hairball upchuck is more innocuous. Some pets eat grass to induce vomiting, or they get into dangerous candy that makes them sick. However, sometimes making pets vomit means life or death. That means you need to know how to make pets vomit.
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