It is that time again, glasses chinking, a New Year’s kiss and the inevitable morning after…. Around this time we start deciding what will change for us in the New Year, yep, the New Year’s resolutions come out thick and fast!
Everything from, I will never drink again to I’ll travel the world this year but how many of us involve our fur babies in our resolutions? For those now considering it, here are some sound ideas for a great start to the New Year for you and your pets.
Quality Time
During the holiday break we don’t always spend as much time with our pets as we should, it’s understandably a busy time and in a lot of cases the only time during the year when people go on holiday. This generally results in our pets being cared for by others while we are away. Of course when we get back the holiday hang over kicks in, then back to work and school and normal life and rushing around and…. In the meantime we have managed to inadvertently forget about the fur baby’s needs. Resolve to consistently spend quality time with your animals, especially after the holiday break when they have missed you the most.
Proper Exercise
Another common resolution is to exercise more. Incorporating your pet into that regime can be a great way to motivate you to make your exercise a regular part of your daily routine. Apart from the exercise, you couldn’t ask for better company on your walk or jog. The interaction is magical and a great way to reconnect with your little mate. Maybe even add a little boot camp into the mix and make your local walk track or leash free park into an obstacle course for the both of you to run, you can even time it and use the time as a bench mark to beat.
Dietary Review
Most of us over indulge during the holidays and spend most of January resolved to detoxing and getting back to healthy eating and lifestyle, this should be the WHOLE family, including pets! The amount of rich food and treats our pets consume tends to run in line with what we consume so it’s only natural that they may need to detox and get back into a routine as well. Look at your pet’s requirements, age and level of exercise and determine their diet based on those factors. And review again after a few months to make sure they are getting what they need for optimum health.
Grooming
Maintaining your personal hygiene is uppermost on the list for most people. Good grooming helps to promote a healthy lifestyle and it should be the same for our pets! Maintaining claws, bathing rituals, trims and brushing teeth and coats should be as much a part of pet’s routine as bathing, brushing hair and teeth or getting a haircut is for us. Resolve to bath your pet, even in winter, mobile grooming services are very easy to find and for a healthy lifestyle, your pet deserves, at least, a good regular bath and flea treatment.
Vet Checks
For most people a regular health check up with our GP is standard procedure every year or so. Maintenance is important, preventative checks and vaccines are part of our normal lives so why wouldn’t it be for pets… A surprising number of people don’t realise that vaccines and worming should be a part of an animal’s standard up keep, no different from we humans getting a flu shot or a work health check. Resolve to ensure your pets vaccinations and worming is all up to date!
Registration, Micro Chipping and Contact Details.
The process of moving can be the most tedious experience, there is so much to consider and to do and the move follows you for months afterwards. Redirecting mail, disconnecting and reconnecting services, changing your contact details on bank accounts and subscriptions… It’s all very tiresome and not a pleasant part of the process. Moving can be a very frightening time for your pets too, the upheaval of a new environment that doesn’t smell or look like their own can cause our animals to become disoriented and go on the hunt for somewhere that smells and looks like home. If your contact details are not up to date when your animal’s microchip is scanned, you run the risk of not being able to find your pet which for most of us would be devastating. Resolve to start the New Year with a review of the contact information and registration of your pets; this gives you a better chance of finding your fur babies if anything were to happen and takes some of the stress out of process.
So there you have it, some simple ideas for making your pets part of your New Year’s resolutions; they are after all part of the family!
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