How to Make Your Dog Happy

If you are thinking about adopting or buying a dog, you need to think about the steps it takes to give a dog a good life. The loyalty and unconditional love dogs bring to their owners is extraordinary, and people need to provide them with the life they deserve. Providing a safe home and purchasing the items the dog needs to help it stay healthy are important steps in ensuring a good life for a dog as well as training it and creating a good bond between you and your pet.

Give Your Dog A Good Home

The first step to ensuring a good life for your dog is to give it a safe home. If you keep the dog outside, then begin with sheltering it, so that your pet has a secure, dry, warm place in case of bad weather. Then make sure your dog that stays outside is kept fenced in; that way, the dog does not do something awful like walking in front of a moving car or get lost. If the dog stays inside, which is what I recommend, you will first have to make sure nothing is on the ground that the dog could eat and choke on.

How To Make Your Dog Happy When Alone

When you must leave your dog home alone, putting your dog in a kennel is the safest option; you start with keeping the kennel clean and making sure it is an appropriate size in comparison to the dog so that it is comfortable. The dog needs to be able to stand up and move about freely. Fill the kennel with bedding for the dog to sleep on; this is for its comfortability as well. Dogs can tear up items and potty in the house--know that is definitely going to happen if you plan on getting a dog. Therefore, you then need to clean up after the dog, creating a clean home for both of you. 

 

Essential Dog Items

Once you decide where you are keeping the dog, you need to purchase all of its essential dog items. First, you need to get dog food, so that your dog is well-fed. Make sure your dog food is suitable for the type of dog you have--do not buy the latest “fad” dog food. Then, you have to buy bowls for a place to put the food and water. Stainless steel bowls are the best option because they stay the cleanest, are the most durable, and the least likely to get chewed up by your dog.

 Next, you will want to buy your pet a dog collar with a dog tag containing its name and the owner’s phone number so that if it were to get lost and someone found the dog, they would know who to contact. Break-away dog collars are recommended so that dogs do not accidentally hang themselves jumping over a fence, etc. The next item you need to purchase is a leash for when you want to take your dog on a walk or in public; you want your dog to stay by your side and not run away. Lastly, purchase dog bones and dog toys to keep your pet occupied, active, and happy. Make sure to do your research on the safest toys for your dog type.

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

How To Keep Your Dog Healthy

After you have purchased all of the items for the dog, you have to keep the dog healthy. To begin with, you need to take the dog to the vet and make sure it gets all of its shots and checkups that it needs. Wellness checks need to be done annually. Second, feed it the appropriate food and give it lots of freshwater daily.

Be sure not to let the dog eat any chocolate whatsoever because chocolate makes dogs sick. After you feed your dog, you need to exercise it so that it stays in shape. For example, taking the dog on walks or letting it go outside to run around and play are ways you can give the dog the exercise that it needs. Lastly, you have to get your dog regularly groomed so that it does not stink or get matted hair. Clipping toenails is also an important part of grooming your dog; long toenails can actually damage and cause a deformity in your dog’s paws.

Dog Training

Once you have made sure your dog has good health, you then need to train it. The first step, especially if it is an indoor dog, is to potty train it. Crate-training is the recommended way to potty train dogs. After feeding your dog, immediately take it outside. When your pet goes potty outside, you praise it so that the dog knows where it is okay to do its business.

Potty training takes patience and understanding, and even then, accidents will happen. Training the dog to be well behaved is second. In essence, consistently teach your dog not to jump on people, beg for food, get aggressive, etc. so that your dog does not harm people or annoy them. Calmly disciplining the dog when it does something wrong is okay, whereas abusing the dog is not okay and results in the dog not trusting you. Then, the final step is for you to teach the dog commands like sit, shake, lay down, and others so that if you are doing something important and the dog needs to stay put, you can command it to do so.

Things To Do With Your Dog

During and after the process of training, you need to create a good relationship with the dog. A good relationship starts with being there for the dog. To elaborate, you first need to spend quality time with your dog and make sure you are not always gone. Never being around will cause the dog to feel lonely. Dogs run in packs--you are part of its pack, and it needs you to be around.

 

How To Get Your Dog To Trust You

Next, you need to give the dog plenty of affection, like feeding it treats when it does something right--dogs LOVE treats. Every dog is different, so figure out what your dog loves, and spend time with it doing that. Lastly, you need to learn to stay calm and collected in front of the dog when a scary incident occurs so that the dog does not get anxious or spooked. Staying calm and collected will make the dog feel safe around you and create a more stable and good relationship.

To conclude, the key steps to giving a dog a good life is to give it a good home, purchase dog essentials, keep it healthy, train it, and create a good relationship with the dog. Therefore, if you have a dog or plan to get one, then follow these steps, and your dog is guaranteed a great life. This well-known quote says it all, “A dog may only be one part of your life, but you are his whole life.” Be sure to commit 100% to dog ownership and give your beloved dog the life they deserve.