Fall / Autumn Dog Health and Safety

DutyFree Pets is a pooper scooper service in Boulder County Colorado established in 2006. I feel very blessed to own this service in such a dog friendly and compassionate community.  Our philosophy goes beyond just making sure you have a clean and safe lawn for your furry family members. We believe in increasing the quality of life for you, your family, and pets. This is why when we come out we bring only Zuke’s All Natural training treats, spray our tools to eliminate bacteria, use only all natural non-evasive bacteria and odor eliminating sprays, recommend only the best local dog services and doctors, and provide a pet friendly section of our website devoted to offering tips and tricks for caring for the health and safety of your pets.

Please take the time to forward, repost, and recommend this section of our website to your friends and family. The information shared here will save a dogs life.

Fall / Autumn Dog Health and Safety Tips

1 – Pumpkin
Digestive Health – One of the 1st things we notice when we clean your lawn for the 1st time is the consistence of your dogs poop. On a pet diet your dogs poop should be relatively firm. Often we find lawns that are riddled with diarrhea making the lawn very messy. Unfortunately, this is usually a sign that your dog is not digesting its food properly and could cause major short and long term health problems. If this is consistently the state of your dog’s poop the 1st place you what to check is its diet. Try switching your dog to a food with a different protein. Chicken is one of the hardest proteins for a dog to digest.

If you know that the food or medical emergency is not the cause of your dogs loose stools pumpkin could be the answer for you. This natural food is a great source of fiber for you fur kids. What does this mean to you? Often dogs will get into something, foods are changed, or the medicine you give your dogs will cause an upset stomach. Once you have ruled out a medical emergency or regular diet being the source of loose poop problem try feeding them some pumpkin.

We are not veterinarians but we recommend a dosage of 1 cup of pumpkin for every 25lbs of dog weight. The fiber in pumpkin will go a long way to firm up your dogs poop in a relatively short period. You will usually notice the effect in less than a day. You can use regular canned pumpkin but make sure it isn’t loaded with sugars and preservatives. Personally, I feed my dogs real pumpkin that I bake like I am making a pie then scrape out the yummy insides to feed them.

Dog Halloween Dog Waste Removal Boulder Colorado2 – Halloween night and trick or treating
Remember Halloween is not the same holiday for a dog that it is for you and I. While we are enjoying costumes, candy, and things that go bump in the night remember Halloween can be a very stressful night full of anxiety for our little fur friends. Here are a few tips from Duty Free Pets Colorado’s Pooper Scooper Service to help your furry family enjoy the holiday.

Make sure that all of your pets are tagged with the proper identification including current contact information for you in case the little one gets out. With all of the door opening and closing it doesn’t take much to spook a dog and loose track them. If they escape you want to make sure people know where the lost one belongs. If your pet gets out at night one way to greatly increase their chance for survival is to make sure they are wearing reflective or lit articles such as collars or tags. There is a great company out of Boulder Colorado called Nite Ize www.niteize.com that specializes in helping your pets remain safe by keeping them  seen.

Never take a dog trick or treating. They may become spooked and very hard to control. Also, kids have a way of petting and approaching dogs without permission. Combine that with a scary Halloween costume and you could end up with an expensive doctor bill or lawsuit when your pet acts out of character because they are scared and bite a child who is trick or treating.

The safest and best option for your dog on Halloween night is to find a quiet safe place for your dog away from access to the front door. Have some soothing music, a toy, or maybe even a bone for them to chomp on until the bell stops ringing and the front door stops greeting trick or treaters.

Most dog owning adults know that chocolate and candy can be fatal for your dogs please take this time to help spread that education. Remember, kids do not know this information unless they are taught it.

If you have any candle lit pumpkins or electrically lit Halloween decorations keep these away from your dogs too. It doesn’t take much for a dog to chew through power cords. This could severely harm them or short them and cause a fire. This goes for candle lit pumpkins, if a dog knocks these over and they are unattended this could lead to a fire.

Your garden and your pet…
Last year in our ongoing blog 10 Household Things That Could Harm / Kill Your Dog Garden Edition we covered things inside your garden that are not healthy for your dog and could lead to serious illness or death. Please take the time to link here to go over these items. Also, forward or share this information with a friend on Facebook it just might save their dogs life.