5 Easy New Year’s Resolutions for Dogs and Cats
The New Year is here and it’s time to not only improve ourselves, but also the lives of our furry family members. We have five easy, simple ways you can improve your pets’ quality of life. Enjoy these simple New Year’s Resolutions for your dogs and cats!
1. Work out more!
It’s the New Year, so we have to start with the most classic of New Year’s resolutions: get fit and healthy! Unfortunately, much like their parents, dogs and cats are becoming fatter. In 2015, an estimated 53.8% of US dogs were overweight or obese. An estimated 58.2% of US cats were overweight or obese, and it’s on the rise according to Prevent Obesity Prevention.
While we think our pudgy pets look cute with a few rolls, being overweight adversely affects their joints, makes your susceptible to certain kinds of cancer, can hurt the spinal cord, causes cardiovascular issues, insulin resistance, and generally diminishes your pets’ quality of life, not to mention affecting your finances.
It’s time to start a walking or running routine for your dog, and help your cat find more ways to scamper around your house! We’re happy to help get your dog into shape with daily or weekly walks and playtime. We’ve written a blog with 15 fun activities for healthy dogs. Worried about your dogs exercising in our hot climate? Read more about how we beat the heat and keep dogs healthy in our post.
Don’t leave your kitty out of the fun! Cats are blessed with great metabolisms, but they should exercise at least 10 minutes a few times a day. Kittens and young cats are easy to engage and play with; you’ll have to get creative with older, overweight, and more sedentary kitties, keeping scratching posts and cat trees to make them use their muscles to climb. Laser light pointers can be fun, but avoid shining them directly into your kitty’s eyes.
And as always, feel free to hire us to walk your pups or come in and play with your kitties!
2. Eat great, fresh pet food!
Fresh New Year’s resolutions mean a commitment to fresh, nutritious food! There is a new movement in town, and it’s made up of amazing people making food for cats and dogs from scratch right in Miami, with local ingredients and lots of love. Our friends at Pet Wants Miami, Dishes for Dogs, and Animal Crackers are all ready to help change your pets’ lives with the best kibble and from-scratch, fresh, whole food resulting in a shiny coat, healthier teeth and skin, and smaller stool (hey, if that means less poop to scoop, we’re sold!).
- Wynwood Dog Food is a client favorite, with delicious fresh, from-scratch food for both cat and dogs. Each recipe is formulated to meet or exceed National Research Council (NRC) and AAFCO standards, and all of their ingredients are certified by the USDA for human consumption. Each meal is 100% free of preservatives, additives, artificial flavors, fillers or animal by-product. They offer shipping and also local delivery!
- Pet Wants Miami makes fresh, slow-cooked kibble for cats and dogs in frequent batches, superior to mass-produced over-cooked kibble that can languish in warehouses for months before getting to your pet, losing nutrition. They deliver locally!
- Animal Crackers carries Farm Fresh Pet foods, which uses only healthy, fresh, Grade A meats, and all our recipes include a minimum of 80% fresh meat as the basis of the diet. The delicately cooked meats are supported by wholesome fresh veggies which supply fiber, vitamins, and phytonutrients.
3. Self Improvement: Work on your manners and intellect!
Is your five second rule moot because of a two-second dog? Teach him some new tricks to help train his brain and keep him safe,! Your dogs and kitties are curious and want to interact and play with you. It’s a great way to keep their minds occupied and also keep them healthy, avoiding their picking up any toxic substance that falls to the floor, or stopping them from running into oncoming traffic. If you’re behind on training, we highly recommend Applause Your Paws to help make your dog the best canine citizen he or she can be through positive reinforcement training in their amazing facility. They also come to your home and best of all, they train you to be a better dog parent.
Did you know cats are trainable? You can even get them to perform in cat agility tournaments. It takes time and patience, but you can help coax a cat into being even more special than she is. It’s vital to remember that cats only respond well to positive reinforcement training, never reinforce with a negative action. Learn more about how to teach a cat tricks and help them unlock an original New Year’s resolution!
4. Change your look!
We all feel better when we get a fresh haircut. There are several excellent groomers in Miami, but our good friends Best in Show Pet Spa, MyDog, and the Dog from Ipanema take the treat! Best in Show Pet Spa is a professional mobile groomer who comes to your pup on set schedules. If you are more a brick and mortar type, head over to MyDog and the Dog from Ipanema to get your pups’ nails trimmed and their fur beautified and smelling delicious. A Country Cat House grooms kitties, too! How’s that for yummy New Year’s Resolutions for your dogs and cats?
5. Quality Time: Stop and smell the roses
A life well-lived means different things to different people and species. So, when you’re out on a walk with your dog, make sure to give him quality time he needs. Let him sniff once in a while. Let him follow a scent into a bush (with your full supervision, of course!) When you get home, bond with your pup by spending a few minutes working on a new command, or brushing her fur and teeth. Give your cat a new box, play with that new string you bought him, set up a cat channel on YouTube and cuddle together. Remember, it’s the little things and the small moments of joy that make a happy life worth living.
Have a beautiful 2021 and remember to follow through with your New Year’s resolutions for dogs and cats! To learn more about how we can help you with your pets’ new goals, check
out our pet sitting service page, contact us directly, or call us at 305-794-3733.
A founding member of the Equipaws family, Frankie can mostly be found working behind the scenes, helping co-create online branding, managing several social media accounts, designing brand collateral, writing copy, and managing events. She also fills in for pet sitters and dog walkers when needed in Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest, and South Miami. Her own small pack consists of Boots the Shih Tzu mix and Nutmeg the Chiweenie.
