Age is Just a Number, Here’s Four Reasons Why You Should Consider Adopting a Senior Pet

Many older cats and dogs tend to spend more time in shelters waiting for their forever home compared to their younger furry friends. Most people come to the shelter wanting to adopt puppies, kittens, or young adult dogs and cats. According to the ASPCA, senior dogs, for example, have a 25% adoption rate, compared to the 60% adoption rate of younger dogs and puppies.

Potential adopters often look at a senior pet’s age or their wispy looks and assume they are too old to be a good companion, which is simply not true. In honor of National Adopt a Senior Pet month, I want to share four reasons why you should consider adopting a senior pet at your local shelter.

Age Comes with Experience

Senior pets often already have years of experience on how to be a good roommate, so you don’t have to worry about leaving them alone and coming home to a mess. Most older pets are potty-trained and have already mastered basic commands, which means you don’t need to teach them not to destroy your furniture or to let you know when they need to go outside.

If you have a busy schedule or don’t have the time to train a younger pet, a senior pet can have all the joys of being a pet owner without all the added responsibility of training! But that doesn’t mean you can’t teach an old dog or cat new tricks – senior pets are still receptive to learning new skills.

Established Personality

Older pets have had years to develop their own personality and quirks, so when you meet them, you will have an immediate idea if they match your household and lifestyle. Now this doesn’t mean all senior pets have the same behaviors and personality just because they are older.

A pet’s age has nothing to do with their individuality or what activities they may like. A ten-year-old dog may still love daily walks or enjoy playing with other dogs. Or an older cat may still like to play with her toys and run laps around her home!

Instant Friendship

Senior pets have so much love left to give and are so excited to be able to share it with you! It can be difficult for some pets to adjust to losing their homes, and older pets know what they’re missing when they end up at a shelter.

They know what it feels like to have a warm bed and family to call their own, so when they are given that opportunity to again, they want to show how thankful they are to their new family.

Save a Life

Adopting a senior pet will make you feel good! It’s a special feeling when you know you gave a homeless pet a safe place to call home and somewhere to live out their golden years. Plus, you’re helping make room at the shelter for them to save another life!

If you’ve been thinking about adding a four-legged family member to your home, I ask you to consider adopting an older cat or dog. I want you to look past a pet’s age and learn just how special they are, and how grateful they will be when you make them yours. Together, we can work to make sure every pet has a family to call their own.

Here’s a few of our seniors who are looking for their forever homes:

  

      

  

Fireworks may be a fun celebration for us, but they can cause severe anxiety for our pets and can cause them to flee in terror from their homes. Between July 4 and July 6, more pets are lost than any other time of year and local shelters are overwhelmed with the strays entering their doors.

Luckily, there are some precautions that you can take to keep your pets safe during the upcoming holiday weekend:

Plan Ahead

Exercising your pet is a great way to reduce their anxiety by the time fireworks start. Pet owners should research when their neighborhood will have fireworks events and plan to exercise them hours before. Walks or a game of fetch isn’t the only way to exercise your pup, you can also plan some brain puzzles for them to help tire them out before night fall.

Update Their IDS

Make sure to double check that your information on your pet’s ID tag and microchip is up to date in case they get separated from you.

A microchip is a permanent form of identification for your dog or cat that is embedded under your pet’s skin. It stores a unique code that can be scanned by animal shelters or vet offices to pull up your contact info, which makes it easier for you to be reunited with your pet in case they become lost. You just want to make sure that you keep your contact information up to date!

If your pet isn’t microchipped, it’s a very quick procedure that takes less than 30 seconds and will last the lifetime of the animal. The procedure is virtually painless for your pet and can be accomplished through a quick visit with your vet.

Create a Relaxation Zone

Help your pet destress during the fireworks by creating a dark and quiet space for them to get away from the noise. You can also try to minimize the noise by running a fan, a white noise machine, a tv, or radio.

If you know your pet tends to be anxious around loud noise, you might want to invest in a ThunderShirt for your dog or cat, which applies gentle, constant pressure to help calm anxiety. Or talk to your vet about possible medications to help ease their anxiety during these stressful times.

Keep Them Secure

Pets become lost when they try to escape the loud noise of the fireworks, so it’s important to keep pets inside as much as possible during the Fourth of July. You want to make sure that your gates are secured and there are no holes that your pet can get through in your backyard.

It’s also best to keep your dog on a leash when they need to go outside, even in a fenced yard, so they don’t run and hide because of the loud noise. Cats who are allowed to wander outside should be kept inside to keep them safe and secure during the holiday weekend.

If you are having guests come and go from your home, you should keep your pets secure in a another room or behind a gate, so they don’t slide through the open door while trying to find a good place to hide.

If you take these simple precautions, you are not only protecting your pet, but you are also helping limit the burden to local shelters who are already overwhelmed with animals in need.

 

The triple digits are upon us, which means many of us will be trying to keep cool and spending more time by the pool or at the lake. All of us know we must be mindful of our kids when they are around water, especially if we have a pool in our backyard. Just leaving them alone for a matter of seconds can lead to devastating consequences, but did you know our pets can be at risk too?

If you have a backyard pool or want to take your dog out to the lake, here are some important water safety tips to ensure you keep your pets safe in and around water this summer.

Never Leave Your Dog Alone in Water

You might think that if your dog fell in the pool that they would be able to get themselves out, but that’s not usually the case. You should never let your dog near your pool if you aren’t outside with them.

If you have a doggie door, you should make sure that your pool is secured behind a fence and that your dog doesn’t have access to it. Otherwise, your dog may fall into the pool when you aren’t outside or even home, and they may not know how to get out on their own.

Practice is Important

If you have a pool in your backyard, you need to show your dog how to get out of the pool using the steps. You should practice getting out of the pool together until your dog learns how to get out on their own. This way if they fall in accidentally, then they will have a better chance of getting out safely.

If you want to teach your dog how to swim and enjoy the pool, you want to mindful of your dog’s breed and age because some breeds are more natural born swimmers than others. Dogs with short snouts like bulldogs or dogs with short legs like dachshunds, will have a harder time keeping themselves above water, so exercise extreme caution when they are near water.

Make sure to start small and to always be in the water with your dog when they are swimming, and never force them into the water if they don’t want to go in.

Make the Investment

If your dog will be around water often, either near a pool or on a boat on a lake, it might be worth investing in a life vest for your dog, so you can ensure that they won’t go under water if they fall in accidentally or if they tire easily.

It’s also a great idea to learn dog CPR, so that you are prepared in case anything happens. The Red Cross offers an online cat and dog first aid class, which includes how to perform CPR on your cat or dog.

Keep Your Dog Healthy

Even if your pup is a strong swimmer, you need to make sure you are keeping a close eye on them in the water. Don’t let them drink the pool or lake water, to prevent them from ingesting chemicals or parasites.

You also want to rinse them down after they have been in the water and dry their ears after to prevent irritation or an infection.

These are just a few things to keep in mind as you enjoy this season with your pup. It can be quite entertaining to watch your dog play in water, but it’s important to do it safely!

 

It isn’t just puppies who can benefit from training! Dogs of all ages are capable of learning new behaviors or skills. Many dog owners think that after a puppy reaches a certain age you can’t break their bad habits or teach them new skills, which simply isn’t true. You just need to take the time to train them and have patience during the process.

Training your dog has so many benefits, from building their socialization skills to strengthening the bond between you and your dog. That is why in honor of National Train Your Dog Month, we want to share four reasons why this is the year you should start training your dog.

To Build a Stronger Bond

Training your dog will help you develop a deeper bond with each other, and you will have a better understanding of how your dog learns. Research has even shown that dogs will develop a more trusting relationship with their dog parents through shared activities, like learning new skills.

Positive reinforcement training is one of the best ways to build that relationship with your dog, and it’s also easy to teach some skills and behaviors on your own using this technique without the help of a professional dog trainer. However, to be successful, you need to put in the time to teach these skills to your dog, even if it’s just 10-15 minutes a day.

To Increase Socialization

When you teach your dog how to respond in certain social situations, your dog will find more enjoyment out of these experiences. If you show your dog new experiences by bringing them to different environments like the park or friend’s house, then you are helping them build their confidence and they will learn how they should behave in similar situations.

These experiences will also provide your dog with physical and mental stimulation, which will help decrease the chance of them displaying unwanted behaviors like anxiousness or excessive barking when they are in a new environment.

To Prevent Problem Behaviors

You can teach your dog not to jump on guests when they arrive or to not steal food, but it all starts with training, and making sure you are not accidentally reinforcing the bad behaviors at the same time.

What this means is that rewarding a behavior can be the same as training a behavior. For example, if you pet your dog when they jump on you then you are reinforcing the behavior as okay and they may continue to do it.

To Teach New Skills

Everyone knows about the basic obedience skills you should teach your dog, but really the possibilities are endless when it comes to the different tricks and skills your dog can learn. You can even teach your dog to dance with you!

If you’re ready to start training your dog, there are so many ways to get started! At the Arizona Animal Welfare League, we offer different options for everyone depending on your budget and schedule. We have a variety of training courses that we offer monthly, including

• Basic Obedience
  • Teach your dog all the basic skills that all “civilized canines” should know, including sit, stay, and loose leash walking.
• Puppy Manners
  • Designed for puppies between three to six months to help set them up for success to become the best pup they can be.
• Feisty Fido
  • It’s all in the name, if your dog is a little feisty and needs to some help refining their manners then this is the class for them.
• Shy Pup
  • This course is designed to help build your dog’s confidence, and teach them them how to react in new situations.

We also offer private dog training sessions if you would like one-on-one support with a professional trainer. If you don’t have the budget or the time to commit to several course, we also offer free online training guides to help you with common behavior issues and easy skills you can teach your dog.

With so many different options to help you get started, you have no reason not to take the plunge in to dog training!