Tag Archives: dog tips

Picture of the back half of a small white dog digging to illustrate make dog life easier.

3 ideas to make dog life easier

There are lots of ways that dogs are inconvenient. They dictate your schedule from the time you wake up to how long you can be away. There’s no such thing as spur-of-the-moment get-aways. But if you’re here, you probably agree with us that dogs are totally worth the time, bother, and effort. Even so, ideas to make dog life easier are always welcome. These are three of the things that we’ve found to reduce the joyful chaos and entertaining mayhem of living with our four hooligans.

Idea #1

Get a scratch board. We never even heard of them until a few months ago, so we’re betting that many people are in the same boat. It’s a way to get your dogs to help out with keeping their nails short. Most have a slanted board with a sandpapery top. Your dog just scratches on the board to keep their nails short and smooth. Some of them even have a compartment to hold treats, giving your dog motivation to scratch at it. 

Picture of the back half of a small white dog digging to illustrate make dog life easier.

If your dog has a tendency to dig and use their paws, you won’t even have to do much training to get them to use a scratch board. We’ve always had to use an emery board after clipping our dogs nails because we didn’t like how sharp they were after trimming. With the scratch board, that step isn’t necessary. 

There are lots of different shapes and sizes of scratch boards, at many different prices. We don’t have a specific recommendation for you, aside from checking them out.

Idea #2

Keep a package of baby wipes by the door your dogs go in and out. From eating dirt (Booker), to scratching in the mud (Simon), to not-quite-finished with business (depends on the day), they’re worth it. We choose a hypo-allergenic, unscented variety, but there are many choices available.

If you have a fuzzy dog, the wet wipes may not be your best choice. A useful hint we learned from a friend with Keeshonden is to keep a shaker can of cornstarch around. And a slicker brush. That way if anything gets stuck to your dog’s fur, you can dry it quickly and brush it out.

Both baby wipes and the cornstarch make it easy to clean up after your dogs go out. It’s certainly made taking the dogs out in the rain a less-dreaded chore.

Idea #3

Attach some hooks near the door for your dog’s collar or harness and leash. They don’t stick out too much if the space is tight, and you can easily grab the right dog’s stuff if you have a separate hook for each dog. 

Our crew doesn’t have the habit of chewing on leashes. Not even leather ones. But if your dog does, either loop the leash so your dog can’t reach it. Or use a shelf instead of a hook, if you have somewhere to put it. 

If you’re not handy, or don’t want to mar your walls, you can get an over-the-door hanger to keep your dog’s harness and leash. You can find them in any closet department. 

We hope you and your dogs have a happy, healthy, and less-hassled 2024. Happy New Year from all of us at Golly Gear. 

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Tips to help dogs deal with winter

Some dogs were designed for winter weather. Ours are not among them. Over the years we’ve found these tips help dogs deal with winter weather. 

A dear friend of ours has Keeshonden – a Nordic breed that’s extremely fluffy and designed to deal with snow and cold. After our six-inch snowfall yesterday, she posted pictures of her dog’s delight, romping through her yard.

We’re lucky if we can get our dogs out the door.

Divide and conquer

The first tip is hardest on the humans, but gets the best results for getting the dogs to “do their business” outside. Take them one at a time. As small-dog people, we’ll even carry them to their “potty spot.” This gives the most time on the ground before they’re convinced their paws are frozen, they can’t possibly take another step, and are being tortured. 

It’s actually pretty funny to see their accusatory looks – as if we could actually do something about the weather. We love their faith, if not their logic. But they’re dogs.

Make a path

You know you’re a small-dog person when, after the sidewalks are shoveled you start on the yard.

Make a path through snow to help dogs deal with winter
Torque (front) and Tango on one of their paths through the backyard snow.

Paths all around the perimeter to the dogs’ favorite necessary areas. This has the added advantage of building side walls for a barrier against wind. 

If the weather cooperates, you’ll get enough new snow over time so you don’t have to pick up, or cover up, the task-appropriate “used” path parts. If not, at least your clean-up task has limits. Because there’s no way the 10-inch-high dogs are forging their own paths through 14-inch-high snow.

Inside tips

If you’re like us and don’t have a fireplace, you still know where to find your dogs in the winter time. Stacked up like logs against the heat vents. 

Because we love our dogs, of course we put dog beds in front of all the best vents in the house. This ensures that the dogs get maximum benefit, while hogging all the warm air. Since they tend to vent-hug while we’re busy and moving around, it works.

Best tip ever

When it’s time to relax for the evening, we can count on the dogs to keep us company on the couch. It’s not that they adore us. They may, but their motive is more selfish. 

We use heated throws. It’s like an electric blanket, but smaller, and goes with the decor. It’s amazing how quickly the dogs figured those out.

How do your dogs deal with winter?

We’d love to hear about any tips you have to keep your small dogs comfortable in the winter time. Anybody use the dog litter boxes? Did it take long for your dog to learn to use it? Let us know!

Cheap dog tips

There’s no doubt that life with dogs is more complicated, messier, and more expensive than without. But it would also be less happy, include fewer smiles, and much less cuddly! Here are some ways we’ve discovered to simplify life with dogs without spending a lot of money:

5 Cheap Dog Tips:

#1 – Have hooks by the door for leashes. One for each dog. And, since it’s always safer for dogs to be naked in the house, keep the leash attached to the dog’s collar or harness. It’s faster to get out the door if you only have to attach one thing.

#2 – Stock up on cheap bath towels. There’s a big box retailer who sells bath towels for about $4 each. If you have a mud room, just keep a stack there to wipe muddy paws and faces. If not (like us), get an over-the-door hanger to keep a couple handy in wet weather.

Cheap dog tip - use yoga mats to save your floors

#3 – Especially if you have an older dog, use yoga mats on hard floors for traction (and to protect your floors!). There’s a retail chain that sells everything for $5 or less and cheap yoga mats do the job just fine. They’re also great to use for your dog’s go-to place!

#4 – Store dog food in a (new) garbage can. With four dogs, we buy large bags of dog food and dump it in a garbage can in the basement. A good scooper lives in the can full time. Up in the kitchen cabinet, we keep a plastic cereal container with the food. Refills are easy and not heavy to carry. 

#5 – Get a set (or two) of measuring cups at your local dollar store. Leave the correct measure in the container of dog food to make sure you’re not over-feeding your dog. Even with years of experience, it’s easy to overestimate the amount you’re feeding unless you measure. If you have more than one dog and they eat different amounts – leave both cups in the container.

We never want to skimp on anything for our dogs, but these are things that are easy to do, make life easier, and don’t have to cost a lot. 

Mythbusters Canine Editions – Part 1

There’s lots of stuff “everybody knows” about dogs. Some of it’s true. These are not:

A cold, wet nose is the sign of a healthy dog

French Bulldog nose

Healthy dogs’ noses can be warm or cold, wet or dry.

Healthy dogs’ noses vary. If they’re sleeping or just waking up, their noses may be warm.  If they’re running around, active, panting, their noses may be warm. Temperature also goes up and down through the day – just as ours do. When we’re active our noses are warmer than when we’re sedentary. Similarly, the moisture of a dog’s nose varies throughout the day. A dog with a dry nose may be perfectly healthy, just as one with a wet nose may actually have a respiratory infection or other disease process going on. Noses just aren’t a very good indicator of a dog’s health. It’s much better to rely on better indicators; is the dog eating, drinking, pooping, active, etc. In other words, if your dog is acting normally, don’t worry about the temperature or dampness of his/her nose.

Dogs age 7 years to every human year

old dog

Seven to one isn’t really a good ratio for comparing dogs’ ages to humans’.

Not really. A one-year-old dog is probably more mature than a seven-year-old child. And athree-year-old dog may or may not be fully adult. It also depends on the dog’s size. Smaller dogs tend to have longer life spans than larger ones. It’s not unusual for a Chihuahua to live into its late teens or early 20s. A Great Dane may be geriatric at eight. Dogs also tend to mature at different rates. While most are as long and as tall as they’re going to get by about eight months, dogs will still “fill out” and mature for about another year and a half. Dogs aren’t really “adults” at one year old, even though they may have reached their adult size.

Dogs eat grass to settle their stomachs

French bulldog sniffing dandelion

Dogs don’t need to graze on your lawn. It’s not good for either one.

No. Domestic dogs don’t really know how to self-medicate if they don’t feel well. Eating grass is normal dog behavior, according to experts. But it doesn’t mean they don’t feel well, need to vomit, or are lacking fiber or other nutrition in their diets. It’s pretty much just something dogs do. Most of ours promptly throw up after eating grass and we’ve looked at them and said “We told you so!” more than once while cleaning up the mess. Not all dogs throw up after grass eating and there doesn’t seem to be any adverse effect for most.

However – it’s not a good idea, especially if you don’t know exactly what sort of chemicals (weed-killers, fertilizers) have been used on the grass your dog is munching. Not to mention the various illnesses/parasites that can be spread through contact with wild animals’ (rabbits, squirrels, skunks, possums, deer, raccoons, birds, etc.) droppings.