All the Creatures

You’ve seen them, the ads for the dog nail trimmer. They show the dog calmly having its nails trimmed and enjoying it. I remember at the time thinking “what idiot would buy one of those things?” Well look no further because I am now one of those idiots. I happen to see one on sale at my local Grocery Outlet for only $5 so I said to myself, what the heck, and bought it.

Got my new find home and got my little min pin on my lap and turned it on. Of course dogs are sensitive to motor noises and he looked at it with a “get that thing away from me,” look. So being the tactful pet owner that I am, I spent about an hour getting him use to the object and it being turned on and off. I thought we were doing pretty good until I got the bright idea to actually put one of his nails in the opening to trim it. At that point he tries to bite the trimmer and growl at me. This went on for another 10 minutes until I went back to just getting him use to the trimmer. After about 2 hours of this both me and my dog gave up on it. I put it on a shelf where my husband found it several days later and asked me, “what’s this?”, at which point I told him that it was a training device that so far has not worked out.

If you have the time to train your dog or cat to use the trimmer then go for it, but be warned that it will take time. Puppies and kittens will be easier to train and handle so if you start them off early you will not have such a struggle as I did.

I am unsure if I will try to use it again or not. Right now it sits collecting dust on the shelf until I have another 2 hours of training time free.

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Always give your pet a hug, kind word or praise. After all they are around because you wanted them to be there.

- Jan S. at All the Creatures

Can you believe that Valentines Day is just 10 days away? So do you have anyone special that you are surprising this year? Are they pet owners? If they are, forget about roses and get them something they will cherish long after the roses had faded and been tossed in the trash can. Look into something like personalized gifts but not with their name on it but their pet’s name.

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Always give your pet a hug, kind word or praise. After all they are around because you wanted them to be there.

- Jan S. at All the Creatures

You don’t have to tell a pet owner that having a pet helps reduce stress but did you know that there is proof? According to a study presented at the 2008 meeting of the American Stroke Association, cats in the home reduce the chances of death from cardiovascular disease by 30%. They also found that having a cat was a non-drug alternate to cholesterol treatments. The same study did not find out anything about dogs in the home but that was only due to the fact that there was a lack of dog owners in the study.

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Always give your pet a hug, kind word or praise. After all they are around because you wanted them to be there.

- Jan S. at All the Creatures