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Pet First Aid Awareness and Healthy Life
There is nothing worse then trying to figure out what to do when our pets are injured or sick. What to do if they chewed a blood pressure pill? What to do if they fell down the stairs? Calling emergency to explain and wait for information takes away from time in stabilizing your pet. Taking Pet First Aid is one of the best things we can do as care takers of our pets.
Through Pet First Aid we learn what is “normal” and how to respond to various types of emergencies from a pet in shock, breathing or heart emergencies, cuts, choking and more.
Pet First Aid care is NOT a substitute for veterinary care, but it may save your pet’s life until it receives veterinary treatment. Please get to the nearest vet or vet hospital after administrating Pet First Aid.
Pet First Aid Kits and Emergency Numbers
When you purchase a Pet First Aid Kit, buy one that will meet your needs. If you have more than 2 pets and you go hiking, plus other activities, you might want to buy 2 – one for the car and one for home.
When putting together an Emergency Disaster Plan for your home a Pet First Aid Kit, Pet Identification need to be included on the checklist. There are on-line services that allow you to capture information about your pet that is a great backup to the printed documentation. Don’t forget about you and your family members’ identification, too.
Numbers to know before you need them:
- Animal Poison Control Center – 888-4ANI-HELP or 888-426-4435 (there may be a fee for this call).
- Veterinary Emergency Number in your area or go to Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society Website.
- Your Vets phone number, along with their emergency number.
Pet First Aid Awareness Month
With April being Pet First Aid Awareness Month, Pet Tech created Pet First Aid Pets & People Staying Healthy Together and talks about increasing the quality and quantity of pets’ lives.
I reviewed the Pet First Aid Pets & People Staying Healthy Together and found the information to very informative. As caretakers, if we incorporate healthy living with our entire family, which includes our pets, we are all happier and live longer. In reading Pet First Aid Pets & People Staying Healthy Together, I walked away with a lot of valuable information. Chester and I even kicked our getting healthy together! I never realized how out of shape I was until we started walking!
In this podcast with Thom Somes from Pet Tech we discussed:
- Why did you start Pet Tech?
- Why should they take the classes offered by Pet Tech instructors?
- With April being Pet First Aid Awareness Month, what message would you like to share with pet caretakers?
- What would you like our pet caretakers think about when caring for their pets?
- With spring and summer around the corner, a lot of people are traveling. When is it a good idea for a pet owner to travel with their pet and when you should a pet owner secure the services of a pet sitter?
Our pets ask very little from us and their love is unconditional. They deserve the best from us. Learning Pet First Aid and how to keep our pets healthy is the best we can do for them. By living a healthy life style with our pets, this will help keep them with us for a very long time! If they ever were hurt, we will have the tools to help, for we would have taken Pet First Aid.
Promotion for todays podcast:
- Receive 20% off Knowing Your Pets’ Heath by entering code PSG20 at Chesters Pet Shoppe. In this book Thom takes us throught the “Snout-To-Tail” assessment. I have read the book myself and I like it a lot, for it provides us with the needed information in a simple easy way!
- Live in New Hampshire or southern Maine? Pre-register for our June Pet Tech weekend classes and receive 15% off the class. Host a Pet First Aid Class at your home with some friends and there is no charge for the hostess. To register send me an email to chesterspetshoppe@gmail.com.
Have questions about Pet First Aid or the Snout-To_Tail assessment? Ask them in the comments section. Thom and I will answer them and provide more information in our next podcast.
The Chewber
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Adding to our dog tool box is always a great! It gives us more tools to us for training our dogs and keeping their brain challenged. During one of our many conversations, Teresa Lewin from Doggone Safe told me about the Chewber. I went investigating and spoke with Kathrine Persall, the president of Chewber Inc.
You can train your dog using the Chewber with the following games/exercises:
What about tug games?
In talking with Teresa, tug can be a dangerous game when there are no rules! Dogs are opportunist and given the opportunity they will win. It is exciting for them to pull and tug and dogs will re-grip over and over. A beginner can get bitten when the dog re-grips when adjusting his mouth to get the best leverage to hold the toy and pull. He can do this over and over. When a dog re-adjusts their grip that may cause you to lose your balance. By teaching your dog the rules of the game using “off” and “get it” will lay the foundation for a safe, fun and exciting game.
Puppy Training Classes
There are dog trainers incorporating the Chewber into their classes. They are incorporating it with the clicker. It enables them to add a variation on the “Sit”, “Stay” and other training exercises. Teresa will be adding the Chewber into her puppy training classes in Canada, so I am sure we will get feedback from the puppy owners. When using the Chewber as a training tool, the clicker can be incorporated, too. Her clients will just need to bring the Chewber to class and not a lot of equipment or training supplies.
When training your puppy teaching your dog games, makes training fun and exciting for your dog and you.
The video shows how to divert a barker before you open a door to let your guest in. You can lay the foundation for this neat trick as follows:
After your puppy knows how to “get it” you can take this game to the door. Practice knocking on the door, then produce the Chewber. Toss the Chewber, so that the puppy will chase after it. Practice with family members, then friends. The cue is knock on the door, have the puppy go get the Chewber. You can then tug with the puppy for a few seconds, then have them go to their crate or bed while you entertain your guest. Try and let us know how you did.
Let us know what games you are playing with your dog using the Chewber! We are offering 15% off the Chewber when you enter coupon code chewber when checking out.