Category: Dog Tips

Who doesn’t love dogs? Or cats? I bet we all do. But who doesn’t get frustrated seeing the messy house? We don’t want to wake up and see gobs of hair around our floor, or when lounging in the sofa just to realize that your sofa just smells like a kennel.

Having a pet is always exciting but also involve a lot of work and commitment. The perks of having pets in your house is you need to clean it frequently.

But don’t let your concerns prevent you to have a clean house and friendly for pets.

They said prevention is better than cure. So, you need some preventive measures and some easy tricks to have a clean home.

Here are several tips for pet owners to clean around the house:

1. Groom your pet

Brush your pet daily – or at least twice a week, and do it outside your house.

Grooming helps to get rid of excess fur and your pet will love it.

This activity can also be a bonding time for you and your pet.

2. Bathe regularly

This depends on your pet breed, also depends on weather, conditions, and activities of your pet.

The trick is you cannot bathe them too often, as it will lose their natural oils in the skin – you pet will get sick or have a dry skin.

For a dog, a bath once a month is enough unless they start to play in the mud.

Use a pet shampoo to prevent fleas, choose a scent that you prefer.

3. Give them plenty of exercise.

This is especially for dog owners, since a bored dog tend to mess things around them than tired dog.

Take your pet for a walk, keep toys around and leave it accessible to your pet to play when you are busy playing with them.

4. Prevent them from digging plants

This is too for dog owners, since they love to dig around your yard.

Dogs are sensitive to citrus, so you can scatter some orange peels around your yard.

5. Vacuum your house

You may not know but having pet also increase the amount of dust in your home.

You need to invest in a good vacuum for your carpet and sofa.

Check which one of the vacuum cleaner models suited best for your needs.

Since there are many models out there, such as the robotic, hand vacuum, or regular vacuum cleaner model.

6. Do not forget to stock up on basic cleaning supplies

Different surface needs different cleaning tricks, so make sure you have a supply for your house.

For example, before vacuuming, it is better to dampen your carpet.

Or use a sweeper for a hardwood floors – a damp mop works well too.

A sweeper or damp mop will attract dust and pet hairs like a magnet.

Keep them handy in areas that you need it the most.

7. Use duck-tape or lint roller

A tape or lint roller will pick up stranded hair from almost any surface.

You can use them as finishing act after vacuuming or mopping, especially when emergency moments arise.

8. Stock up baking soda

You don’t want your bed or sofa to have the same smell as your pet, do you?

Baking soda will easily do the trick to remove the odor.

Wash your bed cover with detergents and add a cup of baking soda to it, baking soda will help to remove the odors.

You can also pour some on the carpet after vacuuming to neutralize the odors.

If you have a cat, you can also sprinkle some baking soda in their litter tray.

Just add the baking soda before the cat litter, this should trap the smells under control.

9. Clean your pet’s toys

Do not forget to clean these toys.

Just toss them in the dishwasher – this helps them germ-free.

You can also wash fabric toys using washing machine, just remember don’t use a detergent.

10. Keep their eating area clean

Place a mat underneath your pet’s bowls.

This serve as a precaution if they messed their food.

11. Use blanket or covers for your sofa

This is a simple thing to do to prevent your pet hair or muddy prints on your sofa.

It is easier to wash them from time to time than keeping your sofa clean.

12. Make an emergency stain remover

In an empty spray bottle, mix half a bottle of white vinegar and half a bottle of water.

Add four teaspoons of baking soda.

Use them when your pet suddenly thinks the carpet is their new litter tray.

For easier cleaning of your pet’s food bowl, you can spray a light mist of cooking oil into their feeding bowls.

This will make it easier to clean up.

13. Make your house odor free

You have a variety of choices for your house.

From scented candles, diffusers, to plug-in air fresheners.

The point is room deodorizers are necessary for a house with pets.

Before buying any room deodorizers, make sure your pet is not allergic to anything.

Also make sure to air out your home twice a week by opening all windows.

By circulating air around, you will have a fresh smell in your house.

14. Do not forget to wash your pet’s collar

Collars will get smelly pretty quick, so you need a deep soak to clean them.

Soak the collar in hot water with your pet shampoo for 15 minutes, and then rub it to rid of any dirt. Rinse and hang to dry.

15. Stop dirty prints at the door

Use a container and fill it with room temperature water and a towel by the door.

You can use this to wipe any mud or dirt from your pet’s paws before they enter the house.

Also, invest on mats.

Place them inside and outside of your doors and train your pet to wait on the mat.

While they are waiting, you can wipe those dirty paws.

We hope these tips can help you to tackle your pet messes quickly, so you still have time to do bonding activities with them. We all know having pets can be messy at times, however the benefit of having one surely surpass the mess. Pets can be your life companion, and they can teach your children compassion and responsibility. Never think twice to adopt a pet.

In the modern days of bigger is better, having a large family of pets in a small home may sound like it is not only impractical but unwise. If not well managed, the house may be covered in pet hair and can even smell like a barn. When this happens, one is never justified to blame the pets. This is because there are some steps that can be taken so as to ensure the owner together with all of his or her pets peacefully coexist. Below are some of the things that can be done so as to avoid one’s house being smelly:

Investing in a good vacuum

It is obvious that an apartment belonging to a pet is prone to either looking or feeling dirty.

Whether the pets are heavy shedders or not, when they are added, dirt and dust can quickly pile up.

A vacuum is a necessity if one would like to keep allergens at bay and to improve the quality of the air around.

A good vacuum does not have to be very expensive but rather just good.

There are quite a number of vacuum cleaners in the market that are an investment and they work like magic.

Having a puppy or a pet that is prone to accidents, one ought to look into the deep cleaning steam models.

This will not require much scrubbing and this is the reason why so many companies that produce vacuum cleaners make special animal hair versions so as to provide some extra help.

In the case where one does not want to pull out the full-sized vacuum, it is important to have helpers that can be programmed so as to run between cleanings in the pet hair department.

If the pets are heavy shedders, then a weekly cleaning routine has to be set up.

The only disclaimer with this is that it is quite costly.

Proper management

It is hard to maintain a multiple pet household without employing even the lowest level of management.

It is common that some other pets may prove to be very aggressive especially if they see the other pets playing with their toys.

For this reason, if the owner is not home, it is important the he or she keeps the toy out of reach so as to prevent possible fights.

Life can be of little stress in as far as the pets are concerned only and only if one gets to know what sets off the aggression and properly manages it.

Furthermore, however little the space might be, it is always wise to all the pets having their little heavens.

This not only keeps the pets happy but also makes the cleaning process easier.

These heavens can be cleaned either once or twice in a week so as to keep everything fresh.

Again, a good manager should learn to give all his or her pets a one-on-one time because this alleviates the fear and encourages resource guarding.

This should not however give the pets a chance to overpower the owner.

For the sake of his or her sanity, the owner should be sure to create time and space for just for him or herself.

It is impossible to keep the pets happy if the owner is not happy and healthy.

 Having a cat box

A cat box is basically used by the cats and one should ensure that he or she regularly cleans it.

An alternative to this cleaning exercise is investing in a self-cleaning box that will automatically scoop after the cat has used it.

Since space is minimal, a cat box should be stored in a space that can be used primarily for the purpose only.

In the case where there is no space for this at all, then a purifier should be place right next to the box.

However, deodorizers and air fresheners that do not absorb odor should never be used.

Bathing and feeding the pet with a diet of high quality

For a pet to be happy and to avoid being smelly, it has to be healthy.

This can only be achieved be regularly bathing the pet and ensuring that it is fed with a diet of high quality.

This kind of diet does so much for the pet’s skin, coat and also the digestive system which when it gets unhealthy it can produce the worst smell.

It is important to note that for one to keep unpleasant pet odors at bay, one has to do the cleaning on a more frequent basis and most importantly ensure that the pets do not have any smell.

Precaution to the new pet

In the case where a new pet comes into question, the most important consideration is to look for a breed that is right for the kind of space available.

A breed that does not shed could be the best option for a small space.

However, no matter the kind of breed, one should fist consider adopting.

When the pet has been acquired, it is important to make a designation for a spot just for that pet.

Conclusion

A small home is hard to live in. It takes a monumental shift in mindset.

One will need to cut everything down to basics.

This can prove even harder in the case where an individual is living with multiple pets.

At some point, living in a small home with multiple pets can be trying.

With proper management however, this trying task can at the same time bring joy into one’s life.

One very important thing with the pets however is to ensure that however small the place they live in could be, it should at all times be kept clean.

This will relieve the owner of unnecessary health problems related to dirt. At the same time, the home will be free of bad smell and this brings comfort.

With the above steps, one can be in a position to achieve the best out of a small home with multiple pets.

Every dog owner knows that dog fur sticking to everything, from your clothes, to the furniture, to the carpets is one of those minor inconveniences we all have to deal with. While some dogs shed more than others, shedding is for the most part, inescapable. Since you cannot prevent your dog from shedding, as a responsible dog owner, you ought to clean up well after your pooch. This ensures a clean and healthy home environment for you all, while prolonging the life of your carpets, furniture or even car interiors.

However, if we’re being totally honest, dog fur is not the easiest thing to clean up. Not only is it hard to spot, but it can also cling tight to the fibers of the furniture, carpet or clothing that you are trying to get it out of. For these reasons and more, you can’t always get it all. This task can be particularly frustrating and futile if you are trying to get it out without any strategy. It could really have you feeling like you are fighting a losing battle. To maintain your sanity, I am going to share with you some of the best, tried-and-tested methods that are guaranteed to get dog hair off your surfaces quickly and effectively.

Before we dive in, I just want to quickly point out some of the methods that could work, but not quite as well as you would like.

One of the most common ones is using adhesives like sticky tape. Dog owners wrap the tape around their hand with the sticky side out, and just kind of blot on a surface to pick up the hairs. This method is only practical for small jobs because it would be tedious and cumbersome to use on, say, a carpet. The downside of this method is that you run the risk of leaving that sticky residue from the tape on that surface, and then lo and behold, more dog hair.

Another one is spraying the carpet with diluted fabric softener or sprinkling some baking soda before you vacuum. For starters, these are chemicals and it is not a good idea to introduce them into your dog’s environment.

Another popular method is wet cleaning with a wet hand. This entails rubbing your wet hand on the carpet or furniture to collect the dog hair. Well, this could work. But depending on the material of the carpet or furniture, you could irritate your hand. Also, the inevitable end result is wet dog fur on your hand and it is not a very pretty picture. With wet cleaning, you are also rolling the dice on dampness and musty odors around the house.

This is not to say that these are entirely bad methods. If you have found a way to work around the disadvantage and they work for you, then why not?

Getting back on track, here are some of the best methods to remove dog hair.

How remove dog hair from furniture?

To remove dog fur from furniture, a viable option is using rubber gloves. The technique is rather simple, because you just use a sweeping motion to gather up the hairs with your hand then follow up with a vacuum.

The rubber does a lot to free the hair from the fibers of the furniture. If you want, you can use just a teeny-tiny bit of water on the glove.

You could also use fur remover brushes made specifically for upholstery. They have fine bristles, so as not to damage your furniture.

To clean up with these, just brush in short, quick strokes to loosen and remove the hairs.

How remove dog hair from carpet?

A winning appliance in this category is pet vacuum cleaners. Regular vacuum cleaners do so little in terms of cleaning up pet hairs. Pet vacuum cleaners are made specifically with this task in mind and boy, do they deliver!

If you have a lot of dogs or even one dog that sheds a lot, this vacuum might be a good investment for your household.

Carpet rakes are a great tool for cleaning too. They have plastic or metal bristles that really comb through the carpet fibers. The hair will loosen and collect within the bristles so you will need to stop and clean out the hair from the bristles them from time to time.

There are brushes designed to get fur off carpets too.

Typically, these have stiffer and sharper bristles unlike the brushes used on furniture.

Just like in furniture cleaning though, short, quick strokes will give the best results.

A simple hack is brushing in different directions to get as much hair as you can off your carpet.

An interesting tool for de-hairing a carpet is a squeegee.

I would be skeptical too, but it has been tried-and-tested and it gets the job done.

It is the rubber on the squeegee that attracts hairs off the carpet. Just use short strokes and voila!

How to remove dog hair from clothes?

Being a dog owner, chances are that you already own a lint roller.

If you don’t, it is a good idea to buy one to roll over your clothes before you leave home.

If it is a lot of hair that cannot be removed by a lint roller, throw the clothes in the dryer with a dry sheet for about 10 minutes.

A chemical free option is the use of dryer balls to lift the fabric, loosen the hairs and reduce static which otherwise causes the hairs to stick more.

This hair ends up in the lint trap.

From the Pets Themselves

Grooming your pet to remove loose hairs will drastically decrease the amount of fur that ends up on your carpet or furniture.

In the larger scheme of things, you will have less need for the other tools and appliances that I have mentioned.

There are so many pet grooming tools to choose from, which will remove loose fur before it gets a chance to be shed.

They stimulate the skin too, resulting in a healthy, shiny coat. Most pet parents agree that the holy grail of pet grooming tools is the FURminator.

The FURminator targets loose fur from the top coat and even the undercoat, making it a powerful de-shedding tool.

So, there you have it! Now cleaning time will be much easier and a lot more successful. Happy hair cleaning, pet parents.

If you want your dog to enjoy all the freedom and at the same time keep your dog within certain boundaries, a wireless dog fence is the best option. The dog will not need any leash and is not going to be restricted by any physical boundary. The dog can also be managed using the wireless fence even when the owner is not at home. If you decide to carry your pet on holiday but do not want the dog to disappear from view, a wireless dog fence will be of great help.

A wireless dog fence consists essentially of two parts – a transmitter and a receiver. The receiver is usually installed in the dog’s collar. Once the base station is powered by an 110 Volt system, and the collar receiver is activated with batteries, it is easy to set up the boundary within which you would like your pet to roam. By switching on the ‘program’ button on the base station, walking the collar up to the desired boundary, and then saving the program in the base station sets the boundary. The wireless dog fence is a great training aid and can be set up in just a few minutes. However, many attempts may be required to set up a proper boundary for your pet. Some wireless dog fence systems allow two dogs to be contained within the boundary. Under best conditions, the boundary set up can be as much as 200 feet in radius. It is a good idea to place the base station on non-metal surfaces and away from large appliances.

The base station continuously communicates with the pet’s collar and tracks their distance from the established boundary in the yard. The owner has access to critical information about the safety of the dog and is instantly alerted if the dog attempts to break out of the boundary. Any attempt by the dog to get out of line elicits a high- pitched tone that is continual till the dog is back into the boundary. Any loss of signal from the pet is also alerted through visible feedback signals at the base station.

It is a good idea to ensure that large metal objects such as cars, metal sheds, etc., do not pose obstructions. The radio signals may not pass through these objects or may get completely reflected. Also check the collar regularly to ensure that it is not damaged.

Though two base stations can be theoretically used to increase the size of the roaming boundary, sometimes there are signal interference issues that may not allow the fence to operate as required.

ADVANTAGES OF A WIRELESS DOG FENCE

The wireless fence works without the aid of computers or any other device. The dog fence system comes with an instruction manual and sometimes an accompanying DVD. The fence can be set up very quickly unlike wired systems or physical fences that take much longer to install. The collar receiver uses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. The battery can be charged by plugging onto the base station. The time took to charge the battery fully is about four to six hours. The battery can be recharged many times (a 3.6 Volt battery is capable of taking about 350 recharge cycles!) and lasts many years. The battery should be charged only when there is an alert from the base station. The rechargeable battery is inexpensive.The dog fence is completely portable. The dog feels more comfortable than when constantly tethered to a leash.

DISADVANTAGES OF A WIRELESS DOG FENCE

The fence’s effective range may sometimes be reduced if the base station loses sight of the dog’s collar when over a hilly terrain. The base station may be placed on a higher location in the house to overcome this problem. Based on the power requirements and the circuitry, the size of the collar receiver may be large. Some collar receivers are fit only for pets that are 25 pounds or larger.
Summarizing, the benefits of using a wireless dog fence far outweigh the disadvantages.

A wireless dog fence is ideal for a lot of dog owners and is relatively easy to install. You will most likely need a couple of hours or so to finish it. With the wireless fence system, your dogs can easily wander in your yard, but within the borderline that you have set.

TRANSMITTER INSTALLATION

Deciding where to place your transmitter is the first thing you need to decide. Consider the location on your yard where you want your dog to roam around freely. It is also usually placed at a central area where a power source is near. Your transmitter should be in a ventilated space and is about two to four ft off the ground. It should also be placed at about three feet away from any objects that are made of metal to get the maximum coverage space for your pet and also to enable the transmitter to have a power source.

COLLAR AND TRANSMITTER CONNECTION

The transmitter comes with a rechargeable collar which can be fully charged in 2 hours and will last around two or three weeks depending on how frequently your dog challenges the boundary. You should ensure that the unit is fully charged before you start testing the system.

The receiver collar has two contact points, long and short. If your pet has long fur the long contact points are used, on the other hand, shorter contact points are ideal for pets that have short fur. The units come with a wrench which you can use to install the contact points.

Just hold the mode button for about 5 seconds to turn the receiver collar on. There is a light that will turn on to indicate that it’s powered on. Just press the mode button again to turn it off.

Some collars don’t need to be synced or paired up with a particular fence. Everything you should know about how to sync your collar and fence and other important things you need to learn is included in the documentation that comes with the unit.

SETTING BOUNDARIES

The majority of wireless systems comes with a radius and diameter settings or a high and low setting and most systems either have a 90 ft. or a 120 ft. radius. Leave the system on its highest setting if you require the maximum full range. Modify accordingly to the provided documentation that comes with the fence system if you want a smaller range.

PUTTING THE RECEIVER COLLAR ON YOUR DOG

It is vital that the receiver collar fits perfectly on your dog to ensure its safety. Check that the collar is snug and its contact points are touching your pet’s skin. Do not tug the receiver collar and never put pressure on the probes alongside your dog’s neck.

HOW TO LOCATE THE FENCE’S EDGE

Receiver collars come with all fences and often is the easiest and in a few cases the way to locate where the fence boundary is. As you stroll around your compound or yard, hold the collar that is activated until you hear a beeping sound. It is a good idea to put a flag in this area. Do this and place flags at every five to ten feet to give your pet and yourself a visual edge to learn from.

When a dog joins a new home, it becomes a family member, and therefore should be trained to attain some emotional and behavioral balance. Unfortunately, some of us have unintentionally adopted some bad dog-training habits, and the worst of it is that we don’t even know that such habits are bad for pet training.
However, as a pet trainer, I usually see many dog lovers struggle to inculcate emotional and behavioral balance on their dogs while still making these same common errors, which usually leads to frustrating results and pitfalls. Hence, if you would like to train the best behaved, friendly and happy dog on the block, then you have to avoid these six most common mistakes when training your dogs on new behaviors and tricks.

Long Training Sessions

Dog training sessions should have some time modulation, which should, in turn, reflect some positive behavior or result in the dog, and once you have attained this result, you may need to reward the pet and quit the training. Puppies, adolescents and some breed of dogs have short attention span, and training them on and on for long sessions would make the training session uninteresting to the pet.
Therefore, a long training session is a common mistake you can make when training your dog, and it can also get to you by making you tired in the process, and thereby reducing your level of attention to how your dog is responding to the training.

Confusing commands

Dogs are better at reading body languages rather than interpreting words, so if you are giving your dog a long cue of commands while making the wrong body language like gesture, facial expression or hand signal, it may take too long for your dog to process the command. It is also important that all your family members use the same set of commands in communicating with the dog, and should avoid repeating cues of command over and over again because this could depict a lack of confidence or authority.

Transferring aggression

Transferring aggression on your pet usually result from engaging in dog training when you are in a bad mood, and this can lead to serious disaster. If your dog makes a little mistake, and suddenly you are taking out your frustrations out on the poor pet, then you are making this mistake. It has also been noted by modern dog trainers that punishing a dog in training sessions is not very effective. So, if you want to see better behavioral and emotional result from your dog, then cool off your temper before engaging in a dog training session.

Using corrections rather than positive reinforcement method

Using Correction based method (i.e. focusing on the negative) is not the ideal way of training a dog because using punishment (negative reinforcement) or correction based training usually materialize to problematic behaviors in the future. Hence, scientists believe that positive reinforcement is the most effective training method for dogs and other pets. The worst scenario comes to play when you mix these two correction methods together in your training sessions; it becomes disastrous because it confuses your dog on whether he is going to be rewarded or punished when he carries out a command, and would never agree to do anything.

Abusing the clicker

Clicker has become a popular and effective training tool for quite some time now, but some of us have come to abuse it because they never learned how to use it well in the first place. You should make your dog associate the click with a reward, and you should click once for every good behavior then reward the pet. However, if you click for many times, your dog would not know for what reason you are rewarding and would not take note of such behavior. Also, avoid clicking and not rewarding your pet, because the clicker would lose its value.

Not practicing enough

Training is a regular thing; it shouldn’t be done once and be done with because if you are not practicing regularly or you occasionally take few months off training sessions, your dog may become rusty, and it may affect it behaviorally and emotionally. Therefore, you should schedule to train your dog for 10 – 15 minutes for three days in a week. You can always bring up new things to teach you dog but make sure to occasionally visit those old commands that your dog have already mastered.
In all, it is pertinent to mention that consistent and error free dog training session is the key to getting good and positive results. It is also important to mention that there are other common mistakes you can make when training your dog other than the ones we have discussed, and some of them include excessive repetition of command, training in the same location, Using treats, inconsistent training sessions, etc.