A Guide to the Ultimate Pet Care Resolutions for the New Year

Amy Castro: 0:00

Every year, millions of people around the world make New Year's resolutions, but have you ever thought about making resolutions in your role as a pet parent? Well, we did, and so that's what we're gonna talk about on today's episode. So stay tuned. You're listening to Starlight Pet Talk, a podcast for pet parents who want the best pet care advice from cat experts, dog trainers, veterinarians and other top pet professionals who will help you live your very best life with your pets. We also share inspiring rescue and adoption stories from people who've taken their love of pets to the next level by getting involved in animal welfare. My name is Amy Castro and I'm the founder and president of Starlight Outreach and Rescue and a columnist for Pet Age Magazine. I've rescued thousands of animals and help people just like you find the right pet for their family. My mission is to help pet parents learn all the ways that they can care for, live with and even have fun with their pets, so they can live their very best lives and their pets can too. Welcome to Starlight Pet Talk. I'm your host, amy Castro, and we are coming to you live, my best friend Bev and I, to kick off our second season of Starlight Pet Talk. And what better to do when you're talking about a new season and a new year than to talk about resolutions, and I just happened to be the other day looking around the internet at New Year's resolutions, because I hadn't made any. And I started thinking to myself well, do pet parents make resolutions for themselves, as pet parents, to do better by your pets? And sure enough, there were tons of articles out there about what you can do to be a better pet parent, what resolutions you can make. And so then I got really conniving and decided I was going to ask ChatGPT what would be the top 10 New Year's resolutions for pet parents for 2024. And so, very kindly, chatgpt set me up with top 10. So what I figured Bev and I would do? First of all, we're not doing all of these resolutions, and I don't want you to try to do them either, because I mean, what do you think? happens when you. But what do you think? If you tried to do all of these, what's going to happen? You set yourself up for failure, that's right. You're going to be a big failure, and so therefore, we don't want you to do all of them, but we're going to go through the 10 and kind of discuss our feelings about them and maybe you can pick two. I think two or three is probably more than enough to get you started, and they may be. Some of these things might be things you're already doing and some of them might be things you haven't really thought about. So let's see what we have. Are you ready, bev? I am ready. Okay, all right. So number one on our list, or actually ChatGPT's list, was regular veterinary checkups, and I'm a big believer in this, although I will say that I can sometimes fall behind on my schedule with my pets. But you have a million pets, I know that's the problem, isn't?

Bev Brooks: 2:50

it. I have one.

Amy Castro: 2:51

Yeah, she's got one pet and so it can be a challenge to keep up with your pets, but it is really important that we do the regular checkups for our pets. I think a lot of times people think, well, my pet's only two, my pet's only three, it doesn't need to go to vet, it's not sick. What's your thought on that?

Bev Brooks: 3:09

I think if you have a regular checkup you might be able to catch something very, very early. So you can spend a few dollars on a regular annual, semi-annual vet checkup and they can catch something early, rather than four years down the road where it's a huge surgery. So just do the regular checkups, everybody's happier for it.

Amy Castro: 3:26

Yeah, once a year, and we've talked about that on past episodes. We've talked about pet insurance in season one. That can make those types of things more affordable. But yeah, I definitely agree that you can definitely do some really good preventative screening and save yourself some money down the road, even for things as simple as getting their teeth checked when they're at the vet, because you wait until that's gone too long and you're looking at a really, really extensive not only extensive and expensive dental treatment. But why wait until your pet's teeth are so bad that they have to have all their teeth pulled out?

Bev Brooks: 4:00

So when the check engine light comes on on the kitty, take the kitty for a checkup, that's right or the dog or the dog, and especially for those of you who have bigger dogs.

Amy Castro: 4:08

Bigger dogs aren't gonna have the same dental issues that little dogs are, so unfortunately those of us who have smaller dogs in the mix you're gonna deal with those issues a little more often. So the sooner you get in, the more you do as far as maintenance, the better off you're going to be. Yeah, well, one of the things that I like about my dentist and this is probably something we could all do with our pets too is when I'm sitting there in the chair waiting for the dentist to come, they're already gonna start booking my six month appointment. So certainly something you can ask your vet about While you're checking out and you get that next year's appointment scheduled. Get it on your calendar, put it on your Google calendar, set yourself some reminders. It is important to do those check-ins and how often they are. Notice we said regular week. I did mention annual, but not every pet may need annual. Talk to your vet about it. Maybe your two year old cat can go every other year for a couple of years to a certain age. But that's a conversation you definitely want to have with your veterinarian.

Bev Brooks: 5:04

Can I ask a question about large dog teeth problems versus small dog teeth problems? Is that common or why the difference?

Amy Castro: 5:11

I don't know why, but it is common that smaller dogs just their teeth go bad, they yellow, they get a lot more tartar buildup than bigger dogs, sometimes like a big dog. My dopamine pincher was a prime example. He died at 13, never needed a dental treatment. And then I've got Tinky the little. What is she like? A six pound Chihuahua and she's had I mean she almost needs one every year, every other year at the most. Because the tartar gets built up and she's lost a lot of teeth because I didn't keep up with it. So I'm trying to do a better job on that front, all right. Number two was balanced nutrition, and we've talked a ton in season one about balanced nutrition and obviously it's going to depend on the animal. I mean, we're talking about all pets at this point, so part of it would be, I'm sure, doing, you know, doing your homework about your particular species of pet, but also drilling down to how old is the pet, gender of the pet all of those things can impact what they might need. Nutrition wise, I know you do a lot of little different things when you feed Cuzzy. How does that play out and why? Why not just throw down the bowl of food I wish?

Bev Brooks: 6:14

I could All my other cats I've ever had in my life. You can leave a dish out and they self-regulate. Here comes Cuzzy and my neighbors can attest to this too what, how regulated it has to be. So when I first got him, he was a stri and I put down a bowl of food like I would normally, and he ate the. I mean, we're talking like this much food. He ate the entire thing. I didn't know he was gonna eat the whole thing. He cuts the food, it was huge ate the whole thing and then, of course, barfed it up the next day or whatever, and it was just. It was a nightmare. Sorry, I have to regulate it and just through a series I mean, if you listen to the other podcast about the stuff that I've done to regulate him, we'll call it whatever. It's quite complicated but he has to be portion-controlled, he has to have a special diet, he has eating complications, but it's very complicated but it's manageable if you do the work and figure out what's gonna work best for him. Each pet is different. Obviously, I can't leave food down for him, so it's gotta be on a timer and it's gotta be, unfortunately, prescription. So it's expensive, but he's totally worth it.

Amy Castro: 7:12

Yeah, yeah. And so the concept of balance includes a lot of different things. Obviously there's the nutritional balance, which he'd want to talk to your vet about. I know there's so much controversy out there as to grain free, not grain free, can food versus dry food. Should you cook your own food? And I don't wanna advise in any real direction, although I will say that I have switched my cats from dry to canned food because cats are kind of chronically dehydrated and we've talked about that before on the show. But that's something definitely talk to your veterinarian about what that balance is about. The other thing I would say is think about measuring, because that's one of the things the vet always asks well, how much food are they getting? And I am notorious because I have so many pets that I did it today. I scooped out like seven cups of food into a giant container and then went around and dumped it into people's bowls and then I kind of use their body type, like if somebody starts looking fat, then I kind of mentally think, okay, maybe I should cut them back a little bit. Maybe that'll be one of my new year's resolutions this year is to really determine how much each animal needs and measure that out appropriately. I mean, there's no reason where I can't gather up all the bowls and dole out and I was doing it for a while and I just got lazy, especially because we've got these extra fosters in the house. So I think, measuring the food, so you, number one, you can tell your vet this is exactly how much I'm eating, and then they can say it's too much, it's not enough. Whatever the case may be, it's also probably better for the pet, just on a daily basis, not to be. One day I get three cups of food, one day I get one, and they're all kind of messed up that way. What about treats? Cause that's another thing that kind of came up in the little search. I am not a treat giver. We have them and occasionally we'll do it from a training perspective, but I'm not somebody that just generally gives my cats or dogs treats, do you?

Bev Brooks: 8:57

do treats I do, but because Kasi is so food motivated, his regular dry kibble, which only gets about two tablespoons a day, he likes it so much I can use those as treats so I know he's guaranteed to get the same nutrition. But then also I'm afraid to give him Other treats that I don't really know the ingredients or how it's gonna affect him, because he did have a the stones in the urinary, yeah, and that was very scary, very expensive. Don't want to do it again. So I'm very careful about what I give him. So his regular dry food works good for treats. And then he gets like occasionally like freeze dried chicken, oh nice, so it's just guaranteed chicken, there's nothing else, yeah and whatever. But yeah, that's like the only treats he gets. But he definitely gets treats, unlike in this house.

Amy Castro: 9:57

Yeah, well, you know when I think about it, when you think about from that standpoint, when I was originally saying treats, I was thinking like packaged. I won't name any brands, but a Lot of the treats that you buy that are pre-packaged have a lot of junk in them and they're really unhealthy, especially if you give too many, and not only from a weight gain but just from a stomach upset. But I will say that my animals do get, like people food, treats, and that's something you want to be careful about. How you dole, yeah you think about the salt. You know, yeah, yeah, I mean I'm not giving him, like you know, a little piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, use some fruit. You know, like today you were, you're eating an apple, right, and it's like, yeah, I, you know, I would have given him a chunk of apple if I was sitting outside with him and actually on that prescription diet thing, I mean, you really could Navigate that without having a mouth to do some more research on it.

Bev Brooks: 10:45

Yeah, yeah, that'll be my nearest resolution.

Amy Castro: 10:47

There you go, you know. Another thing too would be just keeping up with knowing what they weigh. You know that's one of the things that I always and I don't look at it for myself waistline, but I am constantly watching my pets waistline and it's like, do they have a waist? Or like my chihuahua tinky, for a while there she just kind of looked like a tube. You know she had no waist where she should have had a waist, and now she's got a nice little waist, but she's not overly ribby. So knowing and that's something you can get out in Google you know there's condition charts with. You know, with different scales about body type, you know, based on whether you can see ribs, fine things like that, but you know that's for dogs and cats, I'm not sure about other critters right, I remember seeing that for the first time at the vets office.

Bev Brooks: 11:27

If you're looking straight down at your cat, you know you have the head and the neck and then the chest and then the you know Nipping in at the waist or whatever. And I started looking at my cat differently, looking straight down to him, yeah, and see, you know, if we do monitor his weight, but it's always nice to see that he does have a shape, yeah, and then he's fine, he doesn't need to add anymore, he doesn't need to lose any.

Amy Castro: 11:45

So he gets plenty of exercise to he does. Yeah, that's true so so, yeah, just you know, know what's, know what's an appropriate weight or weight range for your pet and obviously monitor that so that you're staying within that zone, because especially losing weights in pets if they start to get overweight. We were driving somewhere the other day. There's an elderly couple walking a really fat dog. It was really having chunky, yeah, really having trouble walking and it's like it's so easy to it's. It is so easy to control what your pet gets or doesn't get, because they can't get it themselves. They're not opening the fridge and taking out food themselves.

Bev Brooks: 12:18

So, but as humans it's so hard. Oh, just give him a little, oh just little, cream cheese or a little this little, that next thing you know he's got joint problems and he's having difficulty breathing walking down the street. Yeah, terrible.

Amy Castro: 12:28

Yeah, all right, moving along, number three, daily exercise routine. And when I think one of the mistakes that pet parents make along this front or at least many do, I did, and it comes up a lot when we do adoptions because people will say, well, I can't have a big dog because I don't have a big yard. So somehow people equate the fact that if I open the back door and my dog runs out, that that's adequate exercise and for some animals it might be adequate exercise but for others it might not. And especially with cats, people think oh well, you know, cats run around the house, so they're climbing things and are they getting enough exercise? So again, you're gonna have to monitor, you know, obviously, talk to your veterinarian, base that on your animals, I think, health, their physical condition as well as behavior, because I think they're a lot of times. Dogs that aren't getting enough exercise and cats that aren't getting enough exercise Are more prone to getting into mischief and causing trouble and being bothersome around the house.

Bev Brooks: 13:23

Sometimes that's usually the key factor. Yeah like when they start, when he starts to be a jerk. That's when we know it's time to put the harness on them and we go outside or bust out some you know a play toy or something. They'll tell you when it's time to burn off some energy. Yeah, they're good at that.

Amy Castro: 13:38

Yeah, and if you have a big, like a big dog, you know thinking that taking my big dog for a walk is not gonna be adequate exercise. I'm gonna need to do something else. So that's I know. When we had our Doberman, I had a Walkie dog, which was this awesome bicycle. I still have it, I just don't have a bike, but I had this walkie dog bike attachment and that allowed him to be able to run, because I couldn't run. Even back then, when I was thinner, I couldn't run fast enough to really get him to burn Steam off.

Bev Brooks: 14:05

There's got to get that cardio up and burn all that energy off.

Amy Castro: 14:08

Yeah, yeah, muscles.

Bev Brooks: 14:10

Yeah, for their brain.

Amy Castro: 14:11

Yeah, definitely something to take into consideration to when you're thinking about what kind of pet, because, like around here, we see a lot of cattle, dogs, we see huskies, we see things like that, and a lot of men up in shelters. Because people don't realize their need for Exercise and so many of us are sedentary, sitting around on the couch is not getting that in all the exercise that it needs and that's not exclusive to dogs. Because you exercise, you're like I don't really exercise my cats, yeah, but he let's me know like the three of them maybe exercise.

Bev Brooks: 14:41

I think so too. Yeah, and him in the house by myself, with you know just the two of us. He starts climbing the walls and he becomes a jerk. He just becomes an absolute pest. So out we go, burn it off. Be a cat in the brain, be a cat, yeah.

Amy Castro: 14:53

But you have a harness and a leash or a long.

Bev Brooks: 14:56

I know you got harness on a leash, but it's a very long leash. So if you see something that he wants to run after it, he can do that ridiculous zoomies and do that outside so he can run like I don't know 50 feet, 100 feet, whatever, and there's a long Rope that's attached to the leash and he can like burn that off and he doesn't keep running. For some reason he stops. I don't know why he waits for me to walk up to him. He's very good that way, but it just you just know he's just burning off that electric energy that they all have. When everybody, how's a pet, knows about zoomies and that's what he'll, he gets to do that, but he does it outside, so it works out really well. He gets to see the sunshine and the birds and he tries to attack turkeys which are three times bigger than him.

Amy Castro: 15:32

He chased a deer one time he chased a deer in the backyard. That's right, yeah, yeah, making that a part of the routine. I think it, you know, not just something that's sporadic, just like we should all have an exercise routine. Maybe that's what I need to set as another resolution for this year. All right. Number four was training and enrichment. You know that's beyond the exercise is. You know there are other things that you can do that will mentally challenge your pet cat, dog or otherwise. That's In many ways just as good as learning exercise. So I know that's something that Kelsey's been doing with her dog is pretty. I don't know if y'all remember producer Kelsey. He was on our live episode. She's got this crazy dog named Gigi and Gigi has all kind of food puzzles that she does and snuffle Matts and things like that oh. Yeah, yeah, so that was the new one. I actually got her that as a Christmas present, but then I did couldn't wait to give it to her, so I gave it to her late. But yeah, there's a little button pass. You've probably seen, if you've seen the videos on tick tock or Instagram, things like that, where the dogs are communicating. I'm not sure how far I buy the whole communicating thing, but I haven't done my homework so I'm not gonna poo poo it, but I do think that an animal can, you know, can know that a certain sound or whatever it might be. I mean, people have trained their dogs to go, you know, to let them know they need to go outside by Nudging the doorknob or ringing a bell or whatever it might be. And so this one just is just a little button and it says outside, and she recorded it with her own voice, so it's Kelsey saying outside, and then the work and the practice is to teach you, gigi, to Step on the button.

Bev Brooks: 17:02

You just have to be consistent. Yeah, make it work, yeah.

Amy Castro: 17:06

So and that's I think you know, with with training in general. I mean, that's so many of the problems that we see with Animals that people are trying to relinquish is a lack of training. I think people Either they don't put any time into training and they let that, especially with puppies, you know they let that puppy get big and now it's hard to train it because it's a big, 80 pound dog that's jumping all over you and jumping all over the furniture, climbing on the counters, things like that. Or people will have a tendency and I've been guilty of this in the past is you're all excited about the new puppy, so you take the puppy to puppy kindergarten and they learn sit and maybe even stay and come, but then we don't practice that over time and, yeah, they start running their own agenda.

Bev Brooks: 17:47

At that point and as a puppy, it's really cute that they're jumping up on the furniture and jumping up on you. Oh, he loves me, he's jumping up, but, like you said, when he's 80 pounds you're not so fun anymore. Or if you're going to go out for dinner and you dress nicely and they jump up on you, because that's what we do all the time.

Amy Castro: 18:03

Or people come over, nobody wants that and people will say it's okay, it's okay, it's like no, it's not okay. I'm constantly working on. We've got one dog here named Sassy that she just can't, she just doesn't give up. She wants to get up on you. Now she is totally blind, so that could be part of it. Maybe she just needs that more physical connection. But nobody wants, or most people don't want a 50 pound pit bull claw on them up. So you just got to work on that consistency and I think the idea of engaging in their natural engaging activities that are their natural instincts, kind of like what you're doing with Cuzzy and letting them go out and hunt things and be in the outdoors but, safely where he's not able to get away.

Bev Brooks: 18:46

Anyone who has a cat knows that when they have an empty cardboard box, that's always a great cat toy. Cut a couple of holes in it and they're in and out there investigating it. It's all that mental stimulation that they need, not just the physical stuff. Yeah, definitely All right.

Amy Castro: 19:00

Number five is one that I've been remiss in some forms and fashions. But I also don't have high maintenance pets from the standpoint of grooming. But number five is grooming and hygiene. So that includes beyond just brushing, but things like teeth brushing, nail trimming. A lot of times people think they can't do that themselves and you actually can do a lot of that yourself and you save yourself some money that way. But the more you get your animal used to that routine, the easier it's going to be. Like I've had so many people say to me when I'm sitting at Pet Supplies Plus and we're getting ready to adopt out a cat and I'll say, well, let me just cut her nails real quick. Oh, you can do that. And they're like oh, freaked out, Like, oh, my other cat won't, let me do that. He'll tear me up. And it's like well, because we start when they're little kittens and getting them used to it and making it a positive experience With dogs. Some dogs are more resistant to that than others, but I think getting them in that habit early is a big thing. And another thing too if you're new to, let's say, nail trimming, just as an example, nobody said you have to do all four feet in one sitting. Yes, and I think too many times people think they've started and now they're going to fight the dog or the cat or whoever. It is all the way. Maybe you do two nails, you give them a treat and you let them go, praise them and move on to something more fun.

Bev Brooks: 20:17

I've done that with Cuzzy and I try to remember which foot I've done. He's only got claws on his back feet. I didn't do it, he came that way as a stray. He was declawed in the front. So I try to remember like that, lift, lift, lift, right, left. I'm like, oh, which one did I do first? I try to remember. But yeah, go back another day when he's more tolerant of it, or even a couple hours later.

Amy Castro: 20:34

I mean, it's depending on the animal and I think that's also something that people need to think about when they're choosing a pet is how much grooming is it going to need? Like we've got these doodles that are all the rage right now and I don't know that people realize and I know we actually did a whole episode with a celebrity groomer, jess Rona, and doodles are the scourge of dog groomers, because the owners don't maintain them in between visits to the groomer and then they want this fluffy teddy bear of a dog but the thing's matted to the skin because their fur gets so tangled that, really. So it's not short and curly like a poodle, no, it can get long. Definitely this. I'm going to get really poofy.

Bev Brooks: 21:15

Oh, you need to keep up with that.

Amy Castro: 21:17

Yeah, Well, and that's the thing. But if you're going to get a doodle or a husky or something else with longer hair, yeah, you're going to need to do that every day. Are you ready to commit to do it then? And it's not just this, is the other thing. I remember her saying it in that episode is that there'll be certain parts of the dog that are really well brushed out but then, like underneath the back legs are giant matted mess, you know, because it's like oh yeah, I brushed my dog. Yeah, you brushed his head and the top of his back. Yeah, but did you go down every leg? Did you get under on the belly? Did you get all the way down to the end of the tail Right? And you know that could probably take 20, 30 minutes.

Bev Brooks: 21:49

Especially if the dog doesn't particularly like it. Yeah, a tender spot or whatever on his tummy, yeah, so you got to do that definitely regularly.

Amy Castro: 21:58

Other thing, too Cleaning. That's something I am good about keeping an eye on everybody's ears because I don't want ear infections to start keeping those ears clean and making sure you know what you're doing as far as cleaning. And then the scourge of my existence the tooth brushing.

Bev Brooks: 22:13

I've never done it. No, no, I know, I know I've never had a dog, though, and the cats just get it done with the vet. Yeah, it needs to be done. That's the thing you have to brush your dog's teeth.

Amy Castro: 22:23

Yeah Well, you're supposed to.

Bev Brooks: 22:26

And what they're going to sit there and let you do it.

Amy Castro: 22:27

Yeah, because the toothpaste is flavored like chicken or whatever else.

Bev Brooks: 22:30

Yeah, I don't know about all that They'll put up.

Amy Castro: 22:34

I want to talk. Let you do that. That's crazy. I will show you later. I will show you. But I will say, as far as the tooth brushing is, that there's a lot of different toothbrushes out there, and so there's and there's everything from a toothbrush that looks like a regular toothbrush, which would be fine for Gunny. I can lift her big old flappy bulldog lips and brush her teeth, no problem, because I've got a tiny, tiny Chihuahua and that brush is not really going to get in there. But there are little finger brushes like a little rubber ones.

Bev Brooks: 23:03

I've seen those.

Amy Castro: 23:04

And then there's actually even green moistened. It's almost like a little textured cloth that goes over your finger, and I've seen people brush with that too.

Bev Brooks: 23:14

So, and I'm thinking well, why should we have to do that in the wild? They wouldn't do that, but in the wild they're eating animals and bones and all sorts of things, and that's what. Yeah, we'll get rid of the tarnor.

Amy Castro: 23:25

And along those same lines too as far as the bones go, because I remember the episode that we did with Dr Jeff Grognet. We brought up the issue of people thinking that you know, giving my dog like a milk bone, just as an example, and the commercials for the milk bones when they first came out are like a milk bone in a toothbrush holder kind of thing, like equating it to brushing your dog's teeth and in reality your dog's not chewing that long enough to do any good for his teeth. So all these dental chews you know if it's going to be a dental chew it's got to be a special one that lasts long enough to really do some good but it doesn't take the place of teeth brushing. But there are other things, like there are water additives that you can put in their water. There's actually bought a powder, but I didn't end up using it but the powder that you can put in their food. But obviously you want to talk to your veterinarian before you do any of that. But good old fashioned tooth brushing Never knew, got to get in there and do that, got to get in there.

Bev Brooks: 24:17

Didn't know it was a regular thing. Yeah.

Amy Castro: 24:19

And they really they don't mind it. You know it's harder with, like I said, it's harder with the smaller dogs. The tinky definitely does not like it, but with bigger dogs they tend not to have a problem with it, especially again, if you start while they're young, start when they young, yep, all right. Number six reminds me of our almost our second to last episode from season one. So update identification and microchips. So new year would be a good time to confirm with your microchip company that they've got all your latest phone numbers addresses. And then I also hadn't thought about and I only got me thinking about it the other day, because I noticed that we've got what? Five dogs here now Five, there's five dogs in my house right now and I noticed some of them have tags and some of them don't. So one of them one of them I know came off because it was the little ringy thing was bent out and it was sitting over on the floor, did not get put back on yet they're all microchipped, but microchips only as good as a scanner. And so if somebody finds your pet and doesn't take it to get scanned. It's not going to do you much good. It's making sure your tags are on, making sure your tags are up to date and making sure your tags aren't worn off. Oh, good point, Because that's the other thing. Especially if you put, a lot of people will put the rabies tag with the.

Bev Brooks: 25:31

ID tag and then you get the metal rubbing on metal and it wears off over time. One of them. Doesn't one of them haven't stitched on the collar. Did I see one of your dogs? Maybe it was your other home, but isn't it like stitched right into the collar? You can do that Like a phone number or whatever, and easy peasy I remember with Bonnie, our dog that we had many years ago.

Amy Castro: 25:50

It used to drive me crazy that her tags would clang clang clang, clang, clang, clang, yeah all the time, and so I put I kind of taped him, which doesn't do any good, but there are so many things now, like little rubber rings that go around the tags. There's the collars that you can stitch, and then there are tags that actually go on the collar itself, that loop around the collar. Okay, I can't know how to describe it. It's like it's more of a visual thing, but instead of being a dangling tag, it's it runs parallel with the actual collar itself. Yeah, and there's metal ones and rubber ones, things like that. So definitely a good idea. So does well, cause he doesn't go outside loose, but he doesn't he? Doesn't wear a collar, does he.

Bev Brooks: 26:27

He does not. He does have a microchip. Yeah, everything's up to date. He likes to be naked.

Amy Castro: 26:31

Yeah, so yeah, just make sure everything is up to date and make sure they've got it on. It's only as good as if they're wearing it. Number seven was quality time together, and actually this was the trigger for this whole conversation is that I morphed my idea for this episode from how do you spend more quality time with your pet which I still want to delve into and then it kind of morphed into this idea of doing New Year's resolutions. But I know that I feel like, as opposed to the time that you spend with your pet, I feel like I don't spend quality time with my pets, and part of it is because I'm running a rescue, but I feel like my pets sometimes they're not even. They're not even like individuals. It's a herd.

Bev Brooks: 27:09

Everybody in, everybody out.

Amy Castro: 27:11

Everybody grab some food, but I will say that I did try at least. Well, and one of the other resolutions, which will be the next one, number eight, which is socializing your pet. My pets have spent a lot of time here at the rescue ranch and not out in public, and so to try to spend that quality time, like really it's tinky. The little Chihuahua that I can take out because she's a little bit more, she loves to go for a ride in the car. She's good in the car. She doesn't get overly excited and get crazy and slobbering everywhere and anxious when you go in the car and she's just easy to take places. So I feel like, like this last year, I did a pretty good job of taking her out and about places and getting her a pup cup or something like that I know.

Bev Brooks: 27:48

I know, but she didn't eat.

Amy Castro: 27:49

I ended up eating the pup cup. I hope that's human. I hope so it's human grade.

Bev Brooks: 27:52

I hope so. That's too late.

Amy Castro: 27:54

I poured it on my coffee, so, oh, I think it's just whipped cream in a little cup.

Bev Brooks: 27:58

Fingers crossed.

Amy Castro: 28:00

She wanted nothing to do with the pup cup, and so I didn't want it to go to waste, so I put it in my coffee. It was whipped cream, I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure. Sure, let's go ahead. So yeah, quality time could be.

Bev Brooks: 28:13

I beg to differ you do spend quality time. Everybody knows when it's like lights out TV time right, and that's when it all happens. The magic happens when you turn the TV on at night time. Here comes one, here comes the other. The other night you had three cats on your legs. I think everybody knows it's. You know, now I got you, you're sitting down, you're watching TV, you're going to be at least an hour, at least. Captive audience, captive audience. So there is that. Oh, it's our special quality time.

Amy Castro: 28:39

That's true. Yeah, I'm not about it like that.

Bev Brooks: 28:40

But during the day it is quite the movement of herds in and out of the house. Yeah, for sure.

Amy Castro: 28:45

And I have tried to with my cat, with the cats, because I generally don't like having them sleep in the bedroom. I pretty much kick everybody out and really there's only one of the three cats that lives inside the house that is okay to sleep with. The other ones are pain in the butt, yeah. But I have at least tried to cycle them through, like if I'm going to go back and, you know, sit in my bed for 45 minutes and play a game or watch TikTok or something like that, to let one yeah, and secretly tell them they're your favorite cat.

Bev Brooks: 29:14

Yeah, that's right. And the next one, you're my favorite.

Amy Castro: 29:16

Yeah, and then I pick them up, like Fred Flintstone, and put them outside, not outside of the house, outside in the hallway. So yeah, I do. Okay. So I'm not so bad at that one, but I think sometimes just that kind of ties, like I said, to the next one, number eight, which was socialization opportunities. That's one of the reasons. Like Gunny, my big bulldog, I would like to take her out more places because she is cute, but she just gets so freaking wound up. I mean she's just and she doesn't calm down quickly. Like she stays wound up for a long time even though she's almost nine or 10 at this point, you wouldn't know it. Yeah, yeah, she gets very wound up, but I wonder if she would have been better had I started younger getting her out and about more. She was so mangy and disgusting. When I got her I was embarrassed to bring her out in public. She was gross Really and she's stuck. She definitely stuck. What got me thinking too about the whole socialization thing, especially for dogs, is we did this puptopia event. We had a booth at this puptopia event and it was meant for people and their dogs and all kind of great activities for dogs. And there were some dogs that were really you know, and it's a combination of training and socialization but there were some dogs that were obviously really well trained. You could tell they were obviously used to being out around other animals and there were some that were just out of control.

Bev Brooks: 30:29

Yeah.

Amy Castro: 30:30

Dragging their owners all over the place barking, growling at people, growling at other dogs, and it's like a lot of that can be prevented if you start getting that dog out early and often when they're young.

Bev Brooks: 30:41

Yeah, and everybody benefits from that. Who wants to go anywhere if the dog is going to be misbehaving all the time? Yeah, it's not fun for you. It's probably very stressful for them.

Amy Castro: 30:49

They're like having a screaming baby on a plane. To me it's kind of the same thing like the out of control. So yeah, if your dog is not socialized, you know you probably don't want to start off by like, hey, I know my dog's a maniac around other animals because they act like a maniac at the vet, just as an example. So yeah, maybe you don't go to Puptopia or go to some big public event. But maybe you create a play date for lack of a better term with a friend or a couple of friends and kind of start with that. Or maybe take them to Home Depot or some of the other places that allow you to bring your pets. You know, go to a pet smart or a pet co or something like that, but go at an off hour like not Saturday afternoon when everybody else is there with their pet, and kind of build them up to it.

Bev Brooks: 31:34

So do you think a dog park is a good place to do all that? I am very anti dog park.

Amy Castro: 31:39

I just I know there's a lot of people that love them. I just feel like it's a place to catch diseases and to end up in a dog fight or end up with a fight with some other dog owner.

Bev Brooks: 31:51

And a bad experience all around For everybody, yeah, so. So if you do play dates, at least you know who you're getting and they're vaccinated and all that stuff. Yeah, and it's organized and it's timed. You'll come to my house for half an hour or whatever, and it seems a lot less stress, because at a dog park everyone else is running around too, not just the dog that's being supervised with you.

Amy Castro: 32:17

Yeah.

Bev Brooks: 32:18

But if it's with friends who are all backed up and your dogs are so socialized because they're constantly having fosters coming through, yeah, they're good with other animals. To see them interact is just amazing. They are very polite about distance and all the posturing. You can read posturing better than I've never seen it done that well. I look at two dogs that are sizing each other up and I'm like, oh, here we go, they're going to fight. And you're like, no, they're just going to play. And sure enough, boom off, they go and they're fine.

Amy Castro: 32:46

That actually makes a good point too is that you really need to understand, if you're going to take your dog out amongst other dogs, even if it is friends' dogs to understand what the body language is telling you, because people misinterpret it. Oh, they're wagging their tails. We had this recently where somebody wanted to adopt a dog and she was like, oh, look, they like each other, they're wagging their tails. And man, that tail was straight up and it was alert. Yeah, very alert, very high alert tense body and next thing, you know, it turned into an almost dog fight. So luckily it was small dogs. I have less of an issue with smaller dogs. It's easier to break it up. But yeah, just be careful.

Bev Brooks: 33:28

Interesting. I never really thought about that. No, your doggy body language.

Amy Castro: 33:31

I don't know, but what about socialization for cats? Is that even possible?

Bev Brooks: 33:34

There is no socialization for Kaz. He sees a cat outside the window and he almost threw himself at the front door storm door. Oh my god, he'll have none of that. No dogs, no cats. Now he's a one man show. He'll have none of that. Amy's cats here are even today, when you brought one of the foster cats inside and each one of her cats approached it very cautiously, very politely, and when the foster cat said no way, they all backed off. Yeah.

Amy Castro: 34:04

Well, they don't get it. Well, they're so used to having that's amazing Rando's in the house.

Bev Brooks: 34:09

It's just so amazing. You just think that, oh, two cats see each other, boom, they're going to be a fight, but no, All right.

Amy Castro: 34:14

Moving along to our last two items, number nine was environmental enrichment, and I really got to thinking about this improving your pet's living space, changing out toys, things like that. I really started thinking about that with my birds Because I set up that new aviary for lack of a better term and put all the toys in there, but I hadn't switched them out at all and it's been like that for months. So I probably need to consider.

Bev Brooks: 34:37

But have you ever seen them playing with the toys? No, I never seen them playing with the toys, so you wouldn't even know what new toys to put in. Yeah, but you could experiment a little bit.

Amy Castro: 34:48

I mean, I have seen evidence Like a lot of the bird toys are things where they can chew on things or pull things apart.

Bev Brooks: 34:56

You should put a critter camera in there I could To watch them and see what they enjoyed they could be doing, having a lot of fun you don't know about. Yeah, that could be.

Amy Castro: 35:02

They just all the fun stops when the dream crusher comes in.

Bev Brooks: 35:07

Put away the disco ball, here she comes.

Amy Castro: 35:09

But even toys Like. Remember the other day. So the other day we were cleaning out our dog storage room. Yeah, that was sort of a fiasco.

Bev Brooks: 35:16

I don't know, but we'll see.

Amy Castro: 35:18

Anyway, we were changing offices around, moving things around, trying to consolidate all the pet toys into one tote and despite the fact that there have to be, I don't know, at least 10 toys laying around the house. Yes, that's right. Gigi was still very interested in the new stuff. So I think the idea of taking things up, washing them and then putting some new stuff out changes up the environment. I know our dogs get their beds changed a lot.

Bev Brooks: 35:45

Right and then brings back the old toy and all of a sudden it's new again.

Amy Castro: 35:47

Yeah, so, just like with kids, I guess something new and different to play with.

Bev Brooks: 35:52

I think because Cousy's getting older. Nothing impresses him all that much, although that feather toy from it's called D'Bird D'Bird, those are the best. He doesn't do it as much as he used to in the past, but he still is interested in that. But you've got to put it away each time or else they're going to destroy it. But it's always the cardboard box. Yeah, it's always the cardboard box.

Amy Castro: 36:11

Well, because maybe that's what it is. It's not. I mean, part of it probably is just that it's fun to get in a box, but that just sounds so weird. But it's new right.

Bev Brooks: 36:22

It's new. I do switch those out, yeah.

Amy Castro: 36:24

So I know, when I added that new cat tower, suddenly everybody, even though there's already another one, or new water fountain. That's suddenly fascinating, because it was something new and different. So, changing things up, even if it's just putting that same cat tower into rotation, sticking it in a closet and get it back out, put it in a different room, maybe give them a different vantage point.

Bev Brooks: 36:44

Yeah, the fact that they become so interested in something new forces me to think that they're not getting enough stimulation, forces me to try something new. If they think a new cardboard box is the cat's nuggets, then we need to do something more.

Amy Castro: 36:58

We can try harder.

Bev Brooks: 36:59

We can try harder.

Amy Castro: 37:00

All right. Last but not least, I thought this was a good one Emergency preparedness, and I'll just read you the tips, because I thought they were pretty good Develop a pet emergency kit that includes essential supplies such as food, water, medication, medical records and a first aid kit. Familiarize yourself with the location of your nearest emergency vet clinic. Have a plan for evacuation in case of natural disaster and ensure your pet's identification is readily available. And then I added to this plan for what will happen to your pet if something happens to you illness, hospitalization or death. All right, so that's good, let's end this on death. But I find it shocking when we have people that want to adopt a pet from us and they've already got cats, let's just say, and they don't have a cat carrier. How can you not have a cat carrier? How do you take your cat to the vet if you don't have a carrier? And I hope it's not in your arms, because that's a disaster waiting to happen yeah, that's no good. So having those types of things, even if it's just for emergency purposes and they have collapsible cat carriers and dog carriers, for that matter, and I know when we evacuated, oh my gosh.

Bev Brooks: 38:06

I was just thinking about that.

Amy Castro: 38:08

When we evacuated for Rita and we're sitting in traffic for I don't know 17 hours to go make a trip that normally would have taken two hours to have that stuff ready on the go, Everybody gives in their crates. We were able to put litter boxes in for them to use. We didn't need cats and dogs just flying around loose inside the car and that would have been a fiasco.

Bev Brooks: 38:28

You do anyway. Right, when the weatherman says prepare for power outages, you get the batteries, the flashlights, everything that's ready. You don't have to bring the cat carriers out, but just make sure you have them at the ready in case you do have to evacuate or you lose power and it's the middle of winter and there's no heat in the house You're going to have to go to, maybe a shelter, maybe a friend's house maybe a hotel. Have those as long as you know where they are and they're ready to go clean, not full of cobwebs and whatnot. Have a bed ready and if something happens when you're ill, make sure that. I think one of your episodes on the podcast had one of the people suggested a jump drive.

Amy Castro: 39:00

Oh yeah with all the medical records, with the many traveling.

Bev Brooks: 39:02

Easy enough, bring that to the vet. And the vet will have the information. If you can't just say you're in a horrible car wreck and you can't get home and your cat or dog needs assistance in some way, whoever is doing that can take that jump drive and bring it to the vet Because they don't know. They don't know your pet's history or whatever, so store it on a jump drive.

Amy Castro: 39:20

Or have a folder. So now I'm going to put you on the spot. So your neighbors have been watching your cat since you've been down here. If something happened to you, well, they would have access to me. But would they know, like do they know where Kasi goes to the vet?

Bev Brooks: 39:32

They do know where Kasi goes to the vet because there's a magnet on the fridge and beyond that, Kasi's got his own folder that has all his information. But I guess the vet would have all the information that they need, whether it's medication, the food, and they even do boarding at the vet so they can just pack them up and send them off over there if need be. But yeah Do they know where his carrier is? I don't know. Do you guys know where it is? I think they do. I think they can figure it out. But yeah, make sure anyone who's going to care for your pets knows what to do. You don't want to put them in a situation where they're going to be panicking and not knowing what to do. Leave instructions and make sure they're supported.

Amy Castro: 40:06

Yeah, we're definitely in that episode that we did with Dr Zoo. Oh yeah, On boarding versus pet sitting, we talked about different things that people might want to have information, have available. So yeah, and I think, just long term too. We've had this come up so many times in the rescue, where Mom, grandma, uncle, whoever somebody, passes away and nobody wants their pet. Now I don't know if that person assumed that, oh, certainly my children will take my dog or my cat or whatever it will be, but that could be a whole episode right there. It's talking about what's going to happen to your pet if something happens to you, but for now let's at least just focus on having medication, on having food and water and even water bowl. That was one of the things that we didn't necessarily think about. Now you're trying to as you're sitting for 17 hours in the car because we didn't think we were going to be that long in there. It's like, how are we going to get water to the animals? And portable bowls, collapsible bowls, things like that are good to have handy, so you could probably even just take your pet crate and pack it up with supplies so that it's ready to go, and then, I think, the first aid kit too. A lot of times people will assume that human stuff will work on pets, but it doesn't necessarily. And even just having that especially if you are going to cut your own nails, having that quick stop powder on hand as part of your emergency kit.

Bev Brooks: 41:24

How would you know what's like? I guess you can ask your vet what's put in an emergency kit. Yeah, you can buy ready made for pets.

Amy Castro: 41:30

Yes, pet ones, and add to it. But, yeah, you could certainly ask your vet what to go in there. Ok, so have that on hand. Oh, and then familiarize yourself with the location of the nearest emergency vet clinic.

Bev Brooks: 41:42

Yeah, where's yours?

Amy Castro: 41:43

Brewster, brewster, ok, I know where mine is too yeah yeah actually we're lucky, being in Houston, that we've got them all over the place, but it would be good to know what is the closest.

Bev Brooks: 41:53

Yeah, hopefully we'll never have to visit there, but I know.

Amy Castro: 41:57

Yeah, yeah. So those are our top 10. And there probably could be lots and lots more but at least certainly 10 items to consider as possible. New Year's resolutions for pet parents. So, Bev, I can tell you right now what are you going to do? You going to try to do any of these? Yes, All right.

Bev Brooks: 42:16

The one I'm going to try to nail down is learn a little bit more about his nutrition. Ok, because he has been getting the same prescription food for as long as I've had him, and we're talking like 10 years. It's rather pricey and perhaps there are other options available, so I need to learn what's up with the nutrition and perhaps switch it, because I know he'll eat anything.

Amy Castro: 42:42

Yeah, on that note too that that can be a conversation. You know, my first thought was oh, you should seek out a holistic veterinarian, because most of them are not going to be in favor of those prescription diets and they're going to be in favor of some alternative. But you could always start the conversation with your vet and say, hey, I'm interested to know what other options, what else could I be feeding him, that would achieve these same goals?

Bev Brooks: 43:02

That's my New Year's resolution to drill down on the nutrition and see if I can do better by him, yeah, what's going to be yours?

Amy Castro: 43:09

I don't know. I don't know. Maybe socialization, maybe I need to get Gunny out of the house more. I mean, she does get a lot of socialization, but maybe work on getting her out in public a little bit more so she doesn't act fool.

Bev Brooks: 43:19

Well, I think, like you said, I think she gets so excited. So, even if it's just a car ride to the post office and back with no interaction, yeah, it's just a car ride, yeah, and do that over. I mean, you guys are going to the post office so frequently.

Amy Castro: 43:32

Right, so we do go to the post office, so it's like, oh, it's just another ride in the car.

Bev Brooks: 43:35

It's not like, oh, we're going to the dog park or, you know, meeting other dogs or whatever. Yeah.

Amy Castro: 43:40

And maybe the grooming and hygiene. I used to be really, really good about the toenails too, and I've gotten a little bit lax. They're not terrible.

Bev Brooks: 43:47

That's not for anybody. They could be better yeah.

Amy Castro: 43:49

But working on the nails and the teeth. I'll work on that and making it a positive experience, not pushing it too much, because she's going to show me.

Bev Brooks: 43:56

Yeah, I'll definitely show you.

Amy Castro: 43:57

So, anyway, I hope that these 10 ideas for New Year's resolutions will give you some points to ponder on how you can be a better, more effective pet parent and improve the quality of life for you and your pet. We've picked out a couple of things we're going to try, and again, don't try to do all 10. Don't overwhelm yourself. Pick one or two, get started until those become a habit or a routine, and before you know it, you'll probably be doing all kinds of great things to make your pets life better. Thanks for listening to Starlight Pet Talk. Be sure to visit our website at wwwstarlightpettalkcom for more resources, and be sure to follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app so you'll never miss a show. If you enjoyed and found value in today's episode, we'd appreciate a rating on Apple. Or if you'd simply tell a friend about the show, that would be great too. Don't forget to tune in next week and every week for a brand new episode of Starlight Pet Talk. And if you don't do anything else this week, give your pets a big hug from us.