New Year’s Eve is a time for reflection and a time for change. It’s really easy to get caught up in our busy day to day lives and lose sight of what’s important, so as the year winds to an end it’s a good idea to take some time to re-evaluate how we spend our time.
Dog owners know how difficult it can be to balance your dog’s needs and everything else you do in a day. There are so many distractions and just not enough time to do everything you want to do, even if you started the week with the best intentions. Taking a moment to assess your lifestyle, and how your dog fits into your life, is a great way to put things into perspective. It allows you to make sure you’re planning your days, rather than simply reacting to them.
So now, with one decade ending and a new one about to begin, it’s a good idea to take a moment and pick your ‘pet-owner New Year’s resolution.’ Here are four suggestions in case you need some guidance.
Feed Better Dog Food
Eating properly is critical to a dog’s health. So it’s important that when you’re buying food for your dog, you’re not buying the cheap stuff. Cheap dog food usually means cheap ingredients and cheap ingredients don’t have the same nutritional value as healthier ingredients.
There are so many dog food options, so it can be difficult to tell the healthy from the unhealthy, but a good rule to follow is ‘spot the cornmeal.’ The higher cornmeal appears on the ingredients list, the worse the dog food. Cornmeal appears in many types of dog food and it has basically no nutritional value. It’s a filler ingredient that makes your dog feel full without actually providing them with any vitamins or energy.
So if cornmeal is one of the first ingredients in your dog’s food, it’s probably not a very healthy choice. Here are some healthy dog foods to try in the New Year.
Regular Trips to the Groomer
Keeping your dog’s fur clean and trimmed is a great way to show that you care, and it’s about much more than just aesthetics. If a dog’s fur is improperly cared for it can begin to tangle and mat, becoming very uncomfortable and even painful. Matting can be really difficult to reverse, even if you catch it early. So it’s always a good idea to take your dog to the groomer and brush them regularly to prevent matting from occurring at all.
Some dogs dread going to the groomer almost as much as the vet, but making regularly scheduled appointments at your local groomer should be an important part of 2020.
More Quality Time, Less Phone Time
Smartphones are a huge time sink. Even when you’re not paying attention to them they ring and buzz and try to monopolize your time at every turn. There are benefits to being so connected, but often being connected online means losing connections with the world around us.
How many times has your dog tried to get your attention while you were on your phone? While you’re at home on the couch scrolling through social media your dog is probably wondering why this shiny rectangle is all of a sudden more important than a nice belly scratch or ear rub. Dogs want to spend quality time with you and they don’t want to share your attention with an inanimate object. So in 2020 let’s put down our phones and spend more time with our dogs
More Dog Walks
The New Year is the perfect time to reassess your fitness goals, but it’s also the perfect time to reassess your dog’s fitness goals. Getting outside for at least one walk a day has a massive impact on your dog’s fitness and wellbeing. It can seriously increase their quality of life.
It’s really easy to start off 2020 with the best intentions, but following through with actions is a whole other story. We all get busy, so if you want your dog to live their best life in 2020 but you’re too busy to regularly take them on walks, hiring a dog walker is a great option. Show your dog you care by investing in their quality of life, and start 2020 off on the right paw.
