How One Easy Task Can Help Your Dog Stay Healthy

As a fellow pet owner I know that you only want the best things possible for your dog. You want it to be as happy, loving and healthy as possible for as long as possible. Being a dog owner today can be a real challenge and especially if you don’t know where to start. Maybe you have just had your first pet dog or you used to live in a place with wide open spaces and now you live in a big city apartment.

Dog owners face challenges daily and it is not possible to cover every aspect in this article but I will provide you with one easy task that you can do on a daily basis to help, not only your dog stay healthy, but you will benefit from it as well.

You might have heard that doing regular (preferably daily) exercise is recommended by doctors (including VETs) and health specialist all over the world. This is not a coincidence. Moving the body for a minimum of 30 minutes per day will not only help the blood run more freely but it’ll also strengthen the muscles.

Making sure that your dogs muscles are in a good strong shape is vitally important in helping your dog stay healthy. There are many positive effects of this but some of the more vital ones are:

• Strong muscles helps dogs burn calories and fat
• Being in shape helps reduce injuries
• Helps the blood run freely providing the body’s cells with nutrients

All of the three points mentioned above are extremely important in order for a dog (or a person for that matter) to stay as healthy as possible. You can’t always be prepared for everything and bad luck might strike but having a fit dog in a great shape will help it recover from any illnesses or accidents that it might encounter. As a pet owner you want a speedy recovery of your pet.

The first very important point is making sure that your dog gets the right nutritional foods. Requirements differ from dog breed to dog breed and larger dog will need more and different kinds of food that small dog will. My strongest recommendation is to ask your VET what she recommends that you feed your dog. Please follow their advice and do not start feeding your dog leftovers. Human food is not designed for dogs (and sometimes not even for humans but that is another issue) and you will risk hurting them more than helping them.

It doesn’t matter whether your dog like the human food or not! Following your VETs advice will help you pet stay healthy and vital longer and even though the dog food might be a little more expensive than you want it to be; remember that quality costs and that it’ll be better to spend that money than to pay VET and hospital bills afterwards.

But besides the good food, what can you do? Exercise your pet dog. Bigger dogs will need more exercise to maintain the muscle mass and a minimum of 30 minutes twice a day will be required. For smaller dogs you can take them for a walk once or twice a day for 15 minutes each. I recommend that you also talk to your VET about the amount of exercise that is right for your dog. Be sure not to only go for the minimum recommendations. Ask your VET what the optimal amount of exercise will be and do your very best to get it done DAILY.

One of the big benefits of forcing yourself to exercise your dog is that you’ll get some exercise as well and that will help you live longer and stay healthier as well. Nice extra bonus, right?

So here is your action plan:

• Call your VET (ask about food and exercise)
• Create a daily routine for exercising your dog
• Tell a friend or family member of your plan and have them hold you accountable

If you keep up with this plan for more than 3 weeks you will have made it into a routine and you will find it much easier to keep doing it. So stick it out for 3 weeks and you’ll be on the road to providing your pet with a healthier life.

If you don't follow this plan, make sure that you have a good pet health insurance plan.