You either hate it or you love it, those New Year's resolutions. Well team resolutions here! I really like this time of the year to reflect to the past and see what to do better next year.
Since we adopted Fritz, we have been through a whole journey. Raising a puppy, training, feeding, walking and obviously giving lots of love and attention. Non-Dog owners will not agree, but I think raising a puppy is comparable (at least in the early stages) to raising a toddler.
Fritz is a little over a year now and his lifecycle is super important to us. Like most dog owners we want the best for our pup. I have been thinking about resolutions for 2022 and I like to share them with you.
Keep Training
One of the advantages of the pandemic puppy is that your have plenty of time to train your puppy from home. We watched tons of Rachel Fusaro, Upstate Canine Academy and Cesar Milan videos on YouTube to train Fritz and made our own version of what we think is important. Fritz is well behaved but since no dogs are perfect, we are aware that we need to train him continuously. Like working on his recall and random barking towards weird objects (any recommendations are welcome :)). Training is so important to keep the brain active and smart. Fritz really likes to work and we noticed that if we fail training him a couple of days, he is getting bored.
📸: Kabo
Switching to fresh food or raw food
This is an important one. Lately, I have been reading a few books about raw and fresh feeding and learned a lot about what is currently going on in the commercial pet food industry. Feeding Dogs from DR Conor Brady and The Forever Dog from DR Karen Becker opened my eyes and convinced us to start exploring fresh and or raw food. Since Fritz has a very sensitive stomach, we need to do the transition very slowly and figure out what works best to him. This week his first trial starts of the Farmers Dogs and I can’t wait to share our experiences soon.
Give more "Me-Time”
Have you ever realized how much time you watch or pet your dog a day? Well I guess since the pandemic it’s probably more than usual as most of us are working from home. Being home alone is one thing he will appreciate every day. And I need to stop watching and petting him every time I’m in a call, finishing my blog or getting an order. In a recently Dutch article, I read any type of eye contact is a type of non-verbal communication and connection with your dog. All that unnecessary eye contact is just not needed.
Swap enrichment games or Being Creative with brain works.
Frits loves sniffle games and doing enrichment brain works. Last year, I bought 2 puzzles. Although those games take a lot spaces in our tiny NY apartment, I also feel he may get bored with the same game all the time. So I asked my friend how owns a very smart cat and also do enrichment games with him to swap games. It’s sustainable, (buy less), “something new” and cheap! I have also recently joined a dogs enrichment facebook group to get inspiration for home made ideas from old toilet paper roles or egg trays.
📸: thatgirlwithcamera
Less Dog Park, More Walks
Fritz loves the dog park and he is always getting so excited when he knows the dog park is nearby. Although the dogpark seems to be an easy way to get Fritz satisfied and tired out, our long walks in the morning or late afternoon are also so much fun and healthy to both of us :) We don’t need to go the park every day, plus the time we spend to the park we can also spend on just walking with the two of us.