5 Habits Of The Loving & Caring Dog Owner

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Owning a pet comes with responsibilities. A pet is not something to take for granted and left to him/herself. You likely know this if you have put thought into becoming a pet owner. Becoming a new pet owner does take a little time to adjust to however, so it can pay to keep a in mind some attitudes you will need to use to help your pet adjust to their new home.

In the effort to simply make sure your pet has enough to eat and is introduced to the home, you might forget some of the more complex things you need to consider. We’d recommend that the following are the most pressing and habits to develop to ensure you are properly caring for your new pet. Over time, you will find that you become a much better and competent pet owner, and that the advice given here becomes second nature.

Patience
Owning a puppy might have been on your mind for so long that you have a whole mental picture of how the puppy will act and be around you. It’s unlikely you’ve thought about the fact that they are incredibly cute, but also not trained in the least. It’s up to you to instill good habits in this animal, and to provide it with the best platform to learn. That also means you need to be patient. The puppy will do it's business on the floor from time to time without warning. It will bark incessantly at shapes moving past the window, and might take a little bit of time to acclimate to the social setup of your household.

If you’re willing to keep this in mind, you won’t lose patience with your pet even after weeks of training. This will also help you take things step by step. If your puppy cannot walk on leash as well as it might, it’s surely not going to learn how to roll over or to commit any complex tricks to memory just yet. Keep patient, and enjoy the pet right in front of you before you worry about making them commit further tasks to their memory.

Welcome
One of the first things to do is to make your pet feel at home in their surroundings. This means allowing them to explore it, and to slowly meet each individual in the household. It also means gently introducing new pets with your current pets, and allowing them to share mealtimes in proximity or beds near one another.

This feeling should never end. From your introduction into the family, the pet becomes one of its members. This means never prioritizing new pets over old pets, or playing favorites. Treat them as if they are each special and they will feel the welcome they deserve. Habit is a huge part of this, and will help form your entire relationship with the pet.

Respect
Respect your pet. This can give you a wonderful relationship, because it means you are aware of their needs and look out for them. For example, it’s extremely important to know that your pet might not want to be stroked and hugged by your children all day and night long. Allowing them a space to retire and relax will help them connect to your household more as time passes, and can even be useful to allow older pets to relax in your environment.

This also means giving the pet an area for them to stay alone in, a place that isn’t interrupted unless to clean. This might be an indoor dog cage, a bed, or simply part of a room you allow them to keep a form of small (but not total or aggressive) sense of dominion over. This respect you show your pet will help your interactions with them mature. It’s worth developing if you have any interest in the health of your animal at all.

Diligence
It’s important to stay diligent in your practical home care techniques. This means regularly washing their bed, or watching for signs of behavioural change. It means truly observing them when presenting them with a variation of diet, seeing how this affects their health. It also means conducting research into the health of your pet and manners to improve or maintain it. For example, a simple search of ‘is coconut oil good for dogs’ could yield you a potential lifelong understanding of the power of niche products to benefit your animal.

A pet is not something that you buy, enjoy and feed until the day they die. A pet is a companion, a friend, a family member. We’d suggest that all our family members are worth caring for, and if this involves a little diligent research into the best products, techniques and habits to implement, then that is absolutely fine. Even a fraction of the willingness to do this differentiates the good pet owner from those who probably should not own an animal.

Socialization
It’s important to give your dog the room to socialize and learn about the outside environment. This can be absolutely impossible if you have no other pets at home and you neglect heading to the local dog trainers. You might bring your pet to the park and meet other dogs that way, but often people enjoying a nice walk aren’t interested in networking for their pet (and for good, sane reasons.)

However, socialization is important for the health of dogs. We’d recommend heading out and bringing them around new family members, new households and potentially neighbors pets. This can help them become more aware of the variety of objects, places, pets and people around them, making them startle much less easily or act aggressively to things outside of their domain. This is something to be aware of as often long isolated dogs can pick up aggressive tendencies when faced with something relatively new.

With these tips, you can be sure that you are provided a stable environment for your pet, and that you are helping them to be a well balanced pet.  Thanks for stopping in today!