everything pets + a tiny human
Happy New Year everyone! We hope you all enjoyed your festive season and holiday break. We sure did! Zara is having a little bit of a hard time adjusting back to her normal routine.
We are excited for 2019 and all the exiting things it holds for us! We hope your 2019 is your best year yet…
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Since the day we brought Princess Zara home almost two and a half years ago and fed her her very first Acana meal I have been searching for slow feed bowls, toys and ways in which to get Zara to understand that her food will not run away from her.
I was utterly horrified when I first saw the way my beautiful 8 week old puppy gobbled down her food in twenty-seconds flat! I was so used to Oscar who would have won a medal for the worlds slowest eater if I had entered him into such a competition!! I was of course concerned for Zara’s health and sought advice from a lot of my Instagram friends and our vet Dr Sally.
Through time and lots and lots of patience, I can say that I am extremely proud of what a lady Zara has become with her food at meal times. She does still have her moments especially when it comes to treats and table scraps which I don’t think will ever change.
Pack Leader is the sole distributor of many fantastic top quality products for the South African Pet market. Their brands include Orijen dog food, Acana dog food, Weuva canned cat and dog food, Planet Dog durable toys, Smart Cat-cat litter, Tuffy Dog Toys, Mighty plush toys, Dura Force toys, RuffWear Dog Gear, Earthbath grooming products, Pawbreakers catnip candy, Chuckit dog toys, Earthrated biodegradable poop bags, Ducky World cat toys, Go Cat interactive toys and Kittens no 1 cat trees and furniture. Their list of products is pretty amazing and no doubt you have seen them around or are a huge fan just like me. Pack Leader prides themselves in only bringing you the best quality for your pooch or cat, and I would say they’re doing an amazing job!
So when Pack Leader South Africa contacted us, Zara and I did back flips in the pool. I have always taken pride in the fact that we give Zara Acana kibble. I have done extensive research when it comes to dog food and of course there is always going to be the debate of raw vs kibble but for extremely personal decisions Zara gets kibble and I believe Acana/Orijen is a raw diet in a kibble. The ingredients do not lie.
Up first in our bag of goodies to review from Pack Leader are the Planet Dog Snoop and Nook Slow Feed Balls. To say that I am impressed is a serious understatement! For once I can say that Zara has met her match with her Snoop and Nook balls. You fill the blue Snoop ball with kibble or treats and then place the red Nook ball inside the Snoop ball. The idea is for your pooch to work out how to get to her treats. I actually had to take the Nook ball out which made it a little easier for Zara to understand. The Snoop ball alone kept her entertained for over an hour, with just a few Orijen freeze dried treats inside. She had to really, but I mean really use her brain!
For added entertainment you can squish peanut butter or cream cheese inside the Nook ball. You can then use it as a stand alone interactive toy or place it inside the Snoop ball for yet an even harder challenge for your pooch. Zara did eventually work out that she needed to take the Nook ball out the Snoop ball so she could reach her treats.
I love the Orbee-Tuff material that the Snoop and Nook Balls are made from. Planet Dogs was founded on this material invention. Orbee-Tuff is non-toxic and made from 100% recyclable medical-grade material. It remains the most innovative and eco-friendly dog toy in the world. That alone should be enough to convince you that the Snoop and Nook balls are amazing!
The feel of the Orbee-Tuff material is pretty awesome. It will never crack, is tougher than elastic and will last longer than rubber. With that being said I don’t believe the Snoop and Nook balls are chew toys and you should always be present while your pooch is playing with them, pick them up once the fun is over for the next round of entertainment.
Did I mention that the Snoop and Nook balls are 100% dishwasher safe too-yes please!
Overall Zara and I give the Planet Dog Snoop and Nook Balls a five paw rating. They are fun, interactive and extremely entertaining for your pooch. These balls will get your pups brain working in no time.
To get your paws on these fabulous balls, you can purchase any of the following:
*2x 2kg Orijen dog food and receive a FREE Planet Dog Nook Ball
*2x 6kg Orijen dog food and receive a FREE Planet Dog Snoop Ball
*2x 11.4kg Orijen dog food and receive a FREE Snoop AND Nook Ball
Or you can purchase the individual Snoop and Nook Balls from participating pet stores
*This promo is running until stocks last-so hurry!!
Follow Pack Leader on social media for all their upcoming promo’s and awesome products they stock: Website www.packleader.co.za | Facebook | Instagram
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by Ho-Ho-Ho… And just like that we are in the last month of the year, possibly the funnest month of the year with all the festivities that goes with December and Christmas.
We trust your 2018 has been a successful one but here’s to an even better 2019!
Thank you for following us and continually showing us your love and support, we love you all.
Here’s wishing you and your loved ones a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous New Year!
Download your December calendar here
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Zara underwent TPLO surgery in July this year and since then recovery has been long and tough. It has been weeks upon weeks of rest, and anyone with a rottie will know what a difficult task that is… But we managed and with the help of some added extra supplements and treatments I can safely say her recovery is going well.
One of the added extra supplements I chose to give Zara was bone broth. After doing extensive research I realised just how good and nutritious bone broth actually is for her and I wondered why I had never given it to Oscar or Zara before.
Benefits of bone broth:
Some of you might think that bone broth sounds absolutely awful. I was totally one of those people and never in my wildest dreams thought I would stomach making it! I reached out to an Instagram friend @goldengirlcalibear and asked for her advice. She is a vegetarian herself, but feeds Cali a totally raw diet- yes that includes raw meat of all kinds. I figured if she can do this then I can too, plus it was for my baby loves!! So I pulled myself together, bought the ingredients and went home to make some all important bone broth…. Here is my recipe:
Ingredients
1-2kg of bones (you can use chicken or beef or both)
2-3 tbs apple cider vinegar
Enough water to completely cover your bones in the pot
Optional-vegetables or vegetable cuttings
Directions
Place your bones in a huge pot and add the apple cider vinegar, stirring it over the bones- it helps break down all the fat and cartilage which is the good stuff in bone broth. Leave it for about 30 mins. Then fill your pot with cold water making sure you completely cover the bones. Gently bring the pot to a boil and then turn it down and let it lightly simmer for at least 10 hours with the lid on. Once done strain your broth, making sure absolutely NO bones or bone fragments end up in your final bone broth stock. Please throw away these soft bones immediately-NEVER give them to your pooch no matter how much they beg for one!! Let the strained broth cool completely. You will notice all the fat will rise to the top and solidify as it cools. You gently remove the fat layer and underneath is your beautiful and nutritious bone broth. I simply pour the broth into cute ice cube trays or even small tupperware pots and pop them into the freezer. Take them out as you wish to use them. You can give them to your pooch frozen or let it thaw a little. Your pup will LOVE you for making the effort!
Tips and findings from my experience making bone broth:
The more bones you use essentially the more broth you will end up with. Don’t let the pot boil for long, the idea is for it to gently simmer for hours on end. I also find the longer it simmers the better the outcome of the broth. Don’t be alarmed if your broth reduces significantly, on my first attempt I started with 5 litres of water and ended up with 400ml of broth. I was horrified-haha! I then learnt that I filled the pot too much and so water kept spitting out through the lid which caused more evaporation than usual. You will soon learn when your broth looks right and you can turn it off or if it needs a few more hours. I also found that adding veggies to mine did dilute it a bit. When I used bones only it made a beautiful bone broth. Again the choice is yours. Adding veggies increases the nutritional value too, but please be mindful of safe veggies for your pup. You might think you cannot stomach the smell of boiling bones, honestly that was what I was worried most about and it actually pleasantly surprised me. It smells like a simmering soup and it is not offensive at all-I promise!
I feel that if my vegetarian friend can make bone broth for Cali and I can make it for Zara (yes I am probably the worlds fussiest eater who drives my husband crazy) then anyone can! The nutritional value and benefits from bone broth are endless and in the long term you will see a difference in the overall health of your pooch. I do hope you give it a try and feel free to share the results with us either on Facebook- @stylishpaws or Instagram- @stylish_paws
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As we enter the second last month for 2018, it’s hard to believe how fast this year has gone! We wish you a wonderful November.
Download your November calendar here
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When Fit Pets wanted to collaborate with us, I was seriously excited and intrigued as to what we would receive and how this device would work…
Fit Pets is an activity monitoring device for your pets. Very much like a human fitness tracking device. It tracks your pets sleep, activity for the day, provides you with insight into their mood and you can set fitness goals for your pets to achieve.
Once you get your Fit Pets activity monitor, you put it together and download the app. This is how you get all the readings and insights into your pets overall fitness and activity levels. With Zara having had knee surgery almost three months ago, I was extremely intrigued as to what the device was going to tell me. The moment I received it, I put it all together, put the device onto Zara’s collars and then waited patiently. I waited 48 hours so I could get a good reading and a full understanding of the app and how it works.
I was wonderfully surprised with Zara’s results. Although we are keeping her quiet and calm for the most part because of her knee recovery, she still does seem to get enough daily activity to keep her happy. I also learnt that she doesn’t necessarily get all that much sleep during the day. She may be lying down and resting but it doesn’t mean she is getting her much needed quality sleep. With me being at home, I often disturb her sleep. Luckily she seems to sleep really well at night and falls into her deep sleep a lot.
On the activity front, Zara has only managed to reach her daily target twice. This is because we are trying to keep her calm because of her knee recovery. To reach your daily target you need to include daily play and a walk or outing of some sort. On the particular day that Zara did reach her goals, she swam for most of the day and we played in the garden with her a lot. But she missed her daily sleeping goal by a long way. Balance is key to a happy and healthy pup so I am loving learning how to balance Zara’s sleeping and activity better.
Reading the results is very easy. The app is user friendly and everything is explained to you. Your pets sleep is split up into light and deep sleep, it explains the difference and why each one is important for the overall health of your pets. There is also a calorie burn calculator so you can monitor how many calories your pet burns each day versus what she eats. The mood tracker is an interesting one, because the more activity your pet does the happier she is. To give you an example, over the past weekend we were out and about, and Zara was home alone resting. Her mood was rated at a low 60. On the day where she met her daily activity goals her mood was at a high 84. The perfect balance of course is to fulfil your pets activity goals and for them to reach their sleeping goals for the day.
The best feature on the Fit Pet device is the fact that it is completely waterproof! That means Zara can swim with it and I can still track her activity. Zara’s happy place is when she is swimming in her pool and it certainly shows on the mood counter! She loves playing with all her toys in the pool, throwing them around and swimming after them. The fact that her Fit Pet device tracks all this is amazing for me.
The device itself is small and pretty, easy to assemble with a battery that’s similar to a watch battery so you don’t have to worry about charging it. It clips onto your pets collar with ease and I have had no issue with it falling off. Not even in the pool when Zara is quite rough with her play. She sleeps, eats and plays with it and it does not disturb her at all. I simply love this little device!
I will continue to use our Fit Pet device to track and compare Zara’s progress. Being a Rottweiler she is naturally an active pup and I love reading the data each night to see if she could have overdone her activity for the day and in turn feel sore in her leg that was operated on. Both myself and my hubby have fitness watches so now it’s awesome to compare who has been the most active between the three of us, it sure does provide us with some giggles and motivation.
Thank you Fit Pets for Zara’s activity monitor. I absolutely love it and as her recovery improves I look forward to watching her overall fitness improve too!
To order your Fit Pet activity monitoring device visit the Fit Pets website www.fitpets.co.za
Don’t forget to follow them on social media for all the updates and new products
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When the Petbound team contacted us to review the K9 Connectables toy range, I was so excited! Zara sure was going to love this one.
K9 Connecatables are a group of toys that connect together forming an interactive toy for your pooch. You can stuff them with treats or smear peanut butter inside and your pooch has to use her brain and work out how to get to the treat.
When we received our K9 Connectables I was immediately impressed with the quality and the durability of the toys. Remember that no dog toy is indestructible, but these are strong and I know Zara is going to have hours of enjoyment with them. The colours are also bright and fun making the toys visually appealing.
We received the K9 Connectables 3 pack. Is Zara spoiled or what! In it includes ‘The Original’ which are two ball like connectables and they also fit into ball launchers for you to throw, ‘The Dentist’ which are bigger than the balls and promote dental hygiene, and then ‘The Tech Bone’ which is the bone shaped one which all the others can connect to.
It was time to get creative and make Zara work for her treats. Zara is extremely intelligent and catches onto things really quickly. But this she had to think about… Each connectable has levels of difficulty. As you connect them together you can click them in once for easy, twice for medium, three times for hard and the Tech bone allows you to click four times which is super dog hard.
I started with the easiest setting on The Original connectables, I placed a treat inside and connected them together and just watched how Zara thought about how she was going to get to that treat. It was a total disaster on my part because I put treats that were small enough to slip through shapes on the side. So my princess learnt very quickly that rolling them got her treats… Now it was time for me to rectify that and teach her she needs to break them apart to get the treat. So I showed her the two separate balls, changed the treat, clicked them together and watched as she frustratingly tried to get her treat. She soon realised that rolling it this time was not getting her a reward so she tried a different tactic, us using her paws and jaw to pop them apart. Success!
The K9 Connectables are different from any other interactive toy Zara has ever played with. These are awesome! Even on the easy setting it is challenging for your pup, and so it should be! Zara is hugely food driven so once she knew there was a treat inside she did not give up until she broke the K9 Connecatbles apart. And i’ll be honest it took her a while, which I love because it really made her think about what she needs to do for her reward. These are without a doubt fantastic mental stimulation toys for your pooch.
Then it was time to enjoy them in another way… When I read on the packaging that the float, my heart skipped a beat because I knew this would be another way Zara would love these toys. Everyone who follows us on Instagram will know just how much Zara LOVES to swim! It is her happy place for sure, being in her pool. So now it was time to put these K9 Connectables to the test in water. I didn’t use treats or anything like that. I simply used them as some fun pool toys.
Zara couldn’t get enough of them. They were all floating around her, she grabbed them, flung them around and literally had a party for one with her K9 Connectables.
She began biting down on them and I for sure thought they would split but they didn’t. It turns out they are made from a special soft but durable material called TPE (Thermoplastic Elastomer – essentially a soft plastic) and this makes them super awesome for your pup to bite down on. They are also certified to be completely non toxic, BPA and phthalate free, another tick of approval!
All in all these K9 Connectables are fantastic toys. I absolutely love them and so does Zara! I am blown away by how much they made her use her brain to figure out how to get her treats. She will be getting these toys everyday to keep her mind stimulated. Thank you to Petbound for sending us these super fun toys to review. Zara gives them a five paw rating and so do I!
You can view the full range of K9 Connectables on the Petbound Website www.petbound.co.za
They also offer a variety of other goodies to spoil your pets!
Follow Petbound on social media too | Facebook | Instagram
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Happy October everyone. I cannot believe we are in the last quarter of the year. It’s scary stuff!
Zara decided she wanted to be part of the flamingo craze, so here she is looking absolutely gorgeous in her very special mingo bandana.
Download your October calendar here
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Yay! Summer is back and we’re having tons and tons of water fun again. Zara is one big water obsessed pup! She absolutely loves any water, be it the pool, the sprinkler, the bath or shower-with us in it! She loves nothing more than getting her fur soaked and having a bit of fun.
When we got Zara there were two things I insisted on, one was proper puppy training which she still does two years later. And the second was she would not be scared of water. Our perseverance paid off, and now she is a total water baby.
Not all doggo’s love water, Oscar was one of them! He hated having a bath even though I bathed him from a tiny pup. I would also take him into the pool and hold him tight so he could get used to it but he absolutely hated it and that never changed. He would sit and watch from a distance as Zara would behave like a complete loon with the sprinkler. He would watch her swim in the pool while he lay on a beach towel soaking up the sun instead. She would try and get him to join her but he was having none of it-haha!!
If your pup hates water but you would like to try and get him used to it here are some simple tips for you to try, but remember do not push your pup too hard. It could have the total opposite effect, so tread carefully….
Start small
Fill a kidies pool with a small amount of water to start off with and gently encourage your pup to climb in. Reward them with a treat and or some praise for any interest in the pool he might have. Never splash the water at your pup or make loud demonstrative moves. The aim is to show your pooch there is nothing to fear here. As your pooch gets more comfortable you can fill the pool with more and more water.
Make it fun
Make water fun by adding in his favourite toys. Because Zara is so food driven, I added chopped up apple pieces to Zara’s little pool. They were floating treats teasing her as they moved around. She soon got the idea that she would have to put her head in slightly to get the treat. She learnt and its because of that, that she now submerges her whole head to get a pool toy! She has even learnt to blow bubbles through her nose so the water doesn’t go in. One clever pup I tell you 🙂
Moving to a bigger pool
Once your pup is comfortable playing around and splashing in a small amount of water, it’s time to move them up to a bigger pool or lake. If your pup cannot stand comfortably in your pool then it’s a very good idea to invest in a doggy life jacket! (Click here to shop) Our pool is a steel structure and canvas pool so luckily Zara is able to stand in it. Gently bring your pup into the water and continually praise him for being so brave. Encourage him to swim, with you right beside him holding his under belly. Show him that swimming can be fun. Slowly build up his confidence as you did with the small pool.
Swim together
Once your pup is totally confident you can both enjoy swimming together. You can swim out and ask him to come to you or even throw his favourite toy or ball and ask him to bring it back for you. It’s important to continue to praise your pooch for doing so well. The more you praise and make swimming fun, the easier he will understand that it’s not that scary after all.
When it comes to swimming, your pups safety should be your top priority. Never push your pup too hard. Keep the lessons short and sweet, any progress is great progress. Take breaks and keep it fun. Our pups love having fun with us. Never leave your pooch unattended near the water, no matter how well they’re doing. Your pooch can panic if left in the water and you leave his sight.
But most importantly have fun with your pup. We love nothing more than swimming with Zara on a hot summers day.
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Happy first day of Spring to all my Southern Hemisphere readers! Spring is such a happy time of the year.
For me, this September will be a little different. September is Oscar’s birthday month and this will be the first one without him. I decided to feature him on his birthday month, and I probably always will, because it will forever be a special time of year to my family and I! So happy September everyone.
Download your September calendar here
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