All Dogs Know How to Love

A Dog's Unconditional Love

No One Loves You More Than Your Dog!

A Dog's Love...

Your Dog is Always Watching

Dogs Make a Home a Home

A Happy Lab Is A Healthy Lab!

What's cuter than a happy, playful lab? Not much! We are a dog loving family and have had several breeds of dogs over the years. Shepherds, sheltie, and quite a few mutts. Then we got our lab! Bingo! Just the right dog for our family. Buddy, our black lab is a floppy eared, lovable and energetic pup! Our kids can drag him around and roll all over him without any worries.

Naturally, we want to keep him healthy and full of energy. We have had the sad experience of losing dogs to illnesses like cancer. That motivates us to take really good care of Buddy. One thing we really try and avoid is giving him table scraps. We want him to get all of his nutritional needs met and that means no table scraps!

We made sure to find out the schedule for Buddy to get all his puppy shots. since they are good preventatives. We were on the lookout for the dreaded Parvo, which we didn't have to deal with, thank goodness!

There's also the matter of nutrition. I got some recommendations from some of the pet stores and then researched more about them online to make the final decision. Our dog is NOT a picky eater so that part was easy. I recommend that you find a good, nutritionally balanced dog food right from the beginning if you can.

With a houseful of kids, Buddy gets plenty of exercise and he loves the outdoors. We had to shore up some of the holes in our fence to make a safe play area for him. He seems to do just fine in the cold weather playing outdoors for awhile.

Flea control is very important as well, and may take a bit of testing to find out what works the best for your dog and your situation. We don't use any kind of flea bomb in our house because we have a family member who cannot tolerate it. I must say that after we bathe Buddy we put coconut oil on his skin and I love the results. It helps keep the fleas under control and helps keep his skin from getting dry. There is a residue for a few days, so you may want to cover your couch. But I like the smell and his silky coat and it won't hurt your dog in any way if they decide to lick it.

Helping Your Dog Lose Weight

I recommend this video because it's a common problem for a dog, especially a lab to become overweight. Then your dog is at risk for different health problems. I have had an overweight dog develop osteoarthritis and it is not fun at all. It's our job to take care of our doggies and know what is best to feed them.

We can learn to read the dog food labels and keep track of how much we feed our dogs and the calories they are getting. When need to be conscientious about keeping our dogs weight under control. Being overweight is bad for a dogs health and can even contribute to a shortened life span.

 I know we all like to spoil our labs, but follow some of the healthy suggestions in this video and you can do it in a healthy way!