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On the JJ Barnes Blog, I take a look at a new Christmas Gift Box for pets offering owners the chance to include their dogs in the big day with a present of sustainable and nutritious treats.
If you follow my social media, you’ll know how important my pets are to me. Whether it’s my judgemental and haughty by day, clingy and neurotic by night, cat, Batman, or my ridiculously dopey and loving spaniel, Molly, my fluffy ones are an essential part of family life. So, at Christmas, this remains true!
Christmas Gift Box
It’s not just me who is crazy about their furry companion. The general opinion amongst dog owners is that there’s no way they can leave pets off the gifting list, they’re part of the family! Yet, many pet gift options are made with unsustainable materials and come wrapped in excess packaging so you get less for your money than expected, and the pet treats are often poor-quality and of low nutritional value.
The new Christmas Gift Box (£9.95) from Irish pet nutrition company Blue Pet Co. is affordable, sustainable, and nutritrious, plus it comes with an expert guide on how to make sure your dog stays safe and calm during the busy festive season.
GoShine Chews
Each Blue Pet Co. Christmas Gift Box includes a taster pack of the brand’s best-selling GoShine Chews. A well as being a tasty treat, these chews help support skin and coat condition, and improve mobility, joint and muscle health, plus GoSmile Sticks for healthy teeth and gums. The Blue Pet Co. range is enriched with unique, highly nutritious marine extracts sustainably sourced from indigenous Irish seaweeds to support a dog’s skin, joint and oral health
The secret behind the Blue Pet Co. range is its unique proprietary ingredients, PhyCoidanTM , PhytoMaraTM and PhytoDentTM. These bioactive ingredients are extracted from seaweed hand harvested off the Irish coastline, ensuring the delicate seabed goes undisturbed and biodiversity and supply are protected. The seaweed-derived molecules are combined to create Blue Pet Co.’s range of functional nutrition supplements that target critical areas of health concern in dogs – joints and muscles, skin and hair, teeth and gums.
The supplements come in fully recyclable pouches and an outer gift box – with space for a Christmas message, so your fluffy friend knows you chose it with love. After all… they can definitely read…
Pet Stress At Christmas
The Christmas season can be stressful for people, but it can also be a confusing, overwhelming and over-exciting time for pets. Blue Pet Co’s resident dog behaviourist, Roz Pooley, is on hand to offer some advice for how to make it as smooth an experience as possible.
1. Give your dog a safe place
Ensure your dog has a safe place to retreat to where it can rest undisturbed. For open-plan homes, an area may need to be created using a large puppy pen with blankets as visual barriers. Your dog may need to learn to associate this place with calm and enjoyable things.
Prepare this place in good time and give your dog stimulating activities to do in there, such as a yummy chew, Kong, Lickimat or food puzzle etc. You can hide sticks and chews in a cardboard box with scrunched-up paper. Cutting up Blue Pet Co. supplements into small pieces can provide foraging fun.
A barrier can help children enthusiastically engage in their new toys without the dog’s involvement. Rather than tell a dog off for stealing things, set them up not to do this in the first place.
2. Give your dog something to do
Don’t want your dog underfoot while you cook? Don’t want them to scrounge at the table? Don’t want them to get in the way during the present opening time? Give them something to do! A long-lasting chew (given under supervision) or a frozen Kong can keep your dog out of the way without them becoming frustrated.
3. Be careful of certain foods
Cooked bones can splinter and cause internal damage when eaten, so be sure that all scraps go straight into an outside bin. Gravy, stuffing and other festive foods may have a high salt content that can upset stomachs, so licking the plate clean may not be best for your dog.
Sweets, Chocolates, Liquors, Mince Pies and Christmas cake all contain ingredients that can make dogs very ill. Be sure to keep them in a secure cupboard or well out of reach. If presents contain food, ensure they are not left under the tree where your dog can access them – remember, they can sniff these things out even if they can’t see them.
Also, be mindful of your dog’s intake of food and treats. If you intend on giving them chews and treats to manage their behaviour, reduce their meal portions slightly to reduce overall calorie consumption. If your dog never experiences variation and higher value treats or foods, either avoid giving these or gradually introduce some variation in advance.
4. Consider penning your tree away
A decorated tree can be very enticing for your puppies or ball-obsessed dogs. Having your tree up high or penned away can prevent your dog from causing chaos and potentially ingesting dangerous items.
5. Ensure visitors know how to behave around your dog
If your dog is anxious around visitors, then ensure they have a safe place, as detailed in tip number one. If your dog is over-excited by visitors, giving them something to do to keep them busy may help redirect their behaviour onto something else. Visitors must be clear on what interactions help your dog feel confident or stay calm. Excitable voices, excessive attention, children running around, or unsolicited affection may promote undesired or dangerous behaviours.
If your dog has a history of resource guarding, ensure visitors understand not to take any item off your dog and to call you to deal with the issue. Text visitors in advance and remind them as they turn up, so they are well-informed on how to behave.
6. Bear in mind your dog’s existing exercise tolerance
If your dog is only walking for 45 minutes at a time, a three-hour Boxing Day walk may be too much for them. If your dog is used to three walks a day without fail, then a sudden drop to one walk a day may result in undesired behaviour.
Prepare your dog by increasing their walks a little, choosing a walk duration that suits them or increasing their rest periods in preparation for the big day.
7. Don’t forget alone-time
Too often, alone time is overlooked during the festive holiday season. After spending time in constant company, the sudden shift to your previous routine can then be a shock for dog. If your dog can cope when home alone, be sure to maintain this across the holiday season.
8. It may look cute, but is it fun for your dog?
Dog antlers, hats, jumpers, posing for the camera, cute pictures of kids with dogs. Too often, we see pictures of dogs looking uncomfortable in these situations. Look for signs that your dog is uncomfortable, such as the whites of the eyes showing, any signs of tension in the face, excessive lip licking or yawning, looking away or trying to move away. Your dog’s welfare is always more important than likes on social media.
Find more from The Blue Pet Co.
● The Blue Pet Co. Christmas Gift Box (£9.95) is available now on bluepetco.com.
● Find Blue Pet Co.(https://bluepetco.com/) on Instagram @bluepetcompany and Facebook @thebluepetco.
● Blue Pet Co. is an Irish range of zero-waste, all-natural dog supplements made with seaweed sustainably sourced off the West coast of Ireland.
● The Blue Pet Co. Christmas Gift Box (£9.95) is a nutritious and sustainable way to treat your dog this Christmas. Available now on bluepetco.com.
● Set your home and dog up for a stress-free holiday period with expert tips from Blue Pet Co’s resident dog behaviourist Roz Pooley.
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