The education of the pet owner is something we strongly advocate for at BellenPaws.com. We’ll be trying to add to this pet education environment ourselves by sharing our experiences with our pets and how we dealt with (or are dealing with) the issues that WILL come from time to time. We continue to come across pet owners that don’t know fundamental things about their own pets. Priority knowledge like what human food your pet can eat, to less urgent things like what to look for when their pet may start to see changes related to their senior years.
There’s Always More to Learn
The last thing you want is to be left not knowing what to do for your pet. We’ve been blind sided so many times. We would consider ourselves educated pet owners. Yet we research every single issue that comes along and we learn something new every single time. To put it simply, There is always more to learn about your pet.
There’s common issues for all cats and dogs. You could even argue there’s common issues for particular breeds of both. However, there’s just as many, if not more, uncommon issues you’ve never heard of that may be specific to your breed or even just specific to your pet because “who knows why?”. Paws is a cat that falls into this group and sometimes defies logic medically and with his personality. He never ceases to surprise or amaze us so in a sense we’re still learning about him as well.
Learning More About Your Pet
There are some very common things you should know about your cat or dog. Cats and dogs are very different from each other and shouldn’t be treated the same in terms of care or nutrition. Start with:
- What should your pet be eating. What are the pros and cons of dry and wet food? Does it make a difference? Yes.
- Outdoor pets are treated differently than indoor pets. Their care and monitoring will be different. Learn how to accommodate and watch your pet so issues don’t arise unexpectedly.
- Most breeds and animals will have issues related specific to just their breed or just because they’re a cat or dog. Learn about yours!
- All pets are subject to issues as they get older and become senior pets. Know what to look for and when you might start seeing these issues.
Where to Start Learning About Your Pet
What do you want to learn? General care for your cat? dog? Specific issues you may come across common to your breed? Has your pet come down with a condition or issues and you want to research it?
- Informative videos about your cat or dog is an obvious place to start. There are tons of videos on YouTube generally for pets, or specific to breeds. Explore with your pets keywords (ie: “domestic short hair cat care” or “labrador retriever care”)
- If you’re having a specific issue then using your favorite search engine (Google or Bing) using those specific keywords should bring about results specific to your issue (ie: “diabetes in cats”, or “separation anxiety in dogs”). Begin reading what is relevant to your pet.
- Internet Pet Blogs – You’re at one now. We cater to senior pets but there are pet blogs that focus on Great Danes, Siamese Cats, or just do an internet search for “cat blogs” or “dog blogs” for more generalized information.
- Books. Could it be simpler. Look for books wherever you shop specific to your pet or your pet’s issue or condition. The more you know about what to expect or how to handle the issue, the better the both of you will be.
