Top Five Healthy New Year Resolutions For Your Pet

The time has come to ring in the new year – and your pet is undoubtedly ready to get in on the action. As you make your own goals to eat better, exercise more and have fun each and every day, you may want to start thinking about the same for your pet. Excellent New Year’s resolutions can help your pet achieve exceptional health and wellness through the coming year and beyond. With a little planning, you can easily set and follow through with a couple of resolutions to the great benefit of your pet. Utilize the following ideas to get started in finding the New Year’s resolutions for your pet that will make 2019 the best year yet.

1. Make Preventative Vet Care a Priority

Preventative vet care will always remain your first line of defense against health problems that could impact your pet’s quality of life. Making this type of vet care a priority for the new year can help protect your pet from a wide variety of illnesses and complications.

Common types of preventative vet care include:

Wellness check and examination
Annual vaccinations
Dental cleanings
Routine lab work
Dietary counseling
Internal and external parasite prevention

At each routine wellness check, your vet can help determine the best types of preventative care and optimal timing for each service. You can follow your trusted vet’s recommended preventative care schedule with confidence that you are doing right by your pet. When diligently followed, preventative care schedules help minimize the risk of health problems developing and worsening between visits to the vet.

2. Practice Great Oral Health Routines

Although regular dental cleanings are an integral part of great preventative health care, you can go one step further by committing to completing excellent at-home dental care routines as well. For this New Year’s resolution for your pet, you can simply strive to integrate excellent toothbrushing routines into your lives.

To maintain great tooth and gum health, pets typically need their teeth and gums thoroughly brushed at least once a day. You can maximize the effectiveness of your efforts by utilizing high-quality toothbrush and toothpaste for pets. Utilize a powerful toothpaste product with Calprox, like Petsmile, to dissolve the biofilm or protein pellicle, that otherwise harbors bacteria and allows for the rapid growth of plaque deposits.

The brushing technique you use also matters, as the mechanical scrubbing of the brush helps to break up and remove biofilm, plaque and other deposits on the teeth. While brushing your pet’s teeth, you should apply gentle pressure and move the brush in light circular motions to help eliminate plaque at and below the gumline. With regular at-home care and routine cleanings by a skilled vet, your pet can maintain their healthy, happy smile for years to come.

3. Establish Healthy Dietary Practices

Excellent nutrition lies at the heart of great health for humans and their beloved pets. You can give your pet the gift of great nutrition by working with a vet to establish beneficial dietary practices. Experienced veterinary professionals can provide helpful information about the best type and amount of food for your pet’s weight, breed and activity levels. Your vet can also help you choose between kibble and raw food diets if you are interested in going that route.

How and when you feed your pet matters just as much as the type and amount of food you give. Your vet can also help you determine the best feeding schedule to follow for the health of your pet. Depending on your pet’s needs, your vet may suggest splitting the day’s rations across two to three meals, for example. Although this may seem involved, once you have a great feeding schedule and approach down, it will all come naturally.

4. Take Regular Outings Together

Daily exercise not only serves the physical needs of your pet but also helps make their happiness levels soar. For your pet’s New Year’s resolution, you can strive to take more regular outings together to achieve this goal. As you explore the world side by side, your bond with your pet will grow by leaps and bounds. Your pet will get more exercise than before by accompanying you to different places day after day. And perhaps most importantly, happiness levels will increase as your pet can stay by your side and receive attention throughout the day.

With gentle exposure to a variety of people, things, and situations, you can help your pet grow more comfortable, confident and happy by the day. Consider mixing up your outings with trips to the park, lakeside, forest, city square, shopping centers, and friends’ homes to keep your pet growing and learning. With time, you will be able to take outings nearly anywhere animals are allowed to keep your pet active and engage with the world around them.

5. Teach Your Pet A New Skill

In the new year, consider going beyond positive reinforcement to transform training into fun games for you and your pet. When your training sessions center around having a blast together, your pet will learn faster than ever and stay engaged throughout each session.

For example, if your pet needs to learn how to allow their teeth to be brushed, then you can teach this skill using an award game. To play this type of game, simply hold an open tube of Petsmile in your outstretched palm.  Let your pet give a good a smell of the toothpaste.  Tell your pet to do a trick. As a reward put some Petsmile on your finger and put a little on their teeth.  Your pet will LOVE the taste and swish it around their mouth. With time, your pet will learn to allow to let their teeth be brushed regularly.

No matter what games you choose to play, remember to always keep your training sessions upbeat, positive and fun to quickly build up your pet’s successful trick list. As the bond between you and your pet increases, you may even find it easier and easier to train even the most complex tricks.

Getting Started in Creating Your Pet’s New Year’s Resolutions

Your pet will greatly benefit from the time you take to establish and follow a few beneficial New Year’s resolutions. You do not need to overdo it, however, as even the smallest changes can add up and make a positive impact on your pet’s health and happiness. If you cannot decide where to start, consider focusing on improving your pet’s dental care in the new year with help from Petsmile toothpaste for pets. Along with your commitment to improving your pet's dental health, this toothpaste can help you achieve all the dental health goals you have already set for your pet.