15 top tips for dog owners to make canine care a little easier

Dogs are fairly high-maintenance pets, which require a lot of time, effort and input from their owners! With our busy work lives and family lives, anything that we can do to make the care of our dogs a little easier without cutting corners is valuable, and other dog owners can often provide tips and advice on the little tricks that they use with their own dogs to make their care and daily routine easier.

To get you started, read on for our fifteen top tips to simplify some of the regular care needs of our dogs!

1. If your dog wolfs down his food, this can lead to problems with digestion and not gaining the full nutritional value of what he eats. Place a large, hard ball or other obstacle in your dog’s food bowl that he will have to eat around in order to slow him down!
2. If your dog has a mild case of the runs or is having problems keeping his solid food down, offer him a bowl of warm chicken stock (the low salt variety) in order to help him to gain some nutrients and strength until he starts to feel better. Remember that if your dog has sickness or diarrhoea for over 24 hours, he will need a trip to the vet.
3. If you bathe your dogs, it can be challenging to rinse shampoo from their heads without getting it into their eyes! Use a piece of curved plastic (such as an open buster collar) to hold over their eyes so that the soapy water runs off down their backs, and use a teapot or other vessel with a spout to direct the water more accurately.
4. If dog hair is getting woven within the fabric of your furniture and will not come off with brushing or vacuuming, use a rubber-bristled brush to rub over your furniture and draw out the hair. You can also try using a rubber glove with textured palms new from the pack, while it still retains it’s slightly tacky rubber qualities!
5. If you understand the importance of taking care of your dog’s teeth but simply cannot get them to accept having their teeth brushed, try using an enzymatic toothpaste on a textured rubber toy, which they can chew to provide a brushing effect while distributing the toothpaste across their teeth and gums.
6. Entertain your dog in the summer by filling a large bowl with clean drinking water, and dropping some of their favourite hard toys into it, as well as a few cubes of cheese for a treat. Then, freeze the bowl, and turn out the contents in the garden to produce a giant frozen “cake” that your dog can work on to keep cool and reveal his treats!
7. Remove ticks from your dog’s coat if you do not have a tick twister by dropping a little bit of a spot-on flea treatment agent (such as Advantix, Frontline or Fipronil) onto a cotton bud and swabbing it over the tick. This should cause the tick to drop off naturally within a short space of time.
8. Use a window cleaner’s squeegee or a horse sweat-scraper tool to pull pet hair that has woven itself into the carpet out for easier hovering!
9. Make sure that you never forget or run out of dog pooh disposal bags by buying a clip-on bag dispenser that can be attached to your dog’s lead.
10. If your dog is prone to nasty breath but his teeth and gums are otherwise healthy, offer him fresh parsley as a treat or sprinkle some onto his food to help to sweeten his breath!
11. Glue a piece of rough sandpaper to a piece of wood and attach a toy on a rope that your dog enjoys to it, to encourage your dog to keep his own front nails at a reasonable length by filing them himself!
12. Make cheap and always available dog treats for your pooch by buying sausage meat and cutting it into squares and then freezing them for later usage.
13. If you take your dog shopping with you and can’t always find handy places to tie them up to rings and hooks, carry a carabineer with you to attach your dog’s lead securely to railings or fences.
14. If your dog is prone to sore eyes or tearstains, try wiping their eyes off gently with cold chamomile tea to soothe them and help to lift stains.
15. Keep your dog entertained when your attention is elsewhere or you are trying to work by setting up a small mirror ball or other object that will reflect light onto other surfaces, giving your dog something to watch and chase! In the garden, you can set up a swing ball set to achieve the same affect, although your dog will probably get bored quickly if you don’t give it a whack now and again yourself!