7 Simple Things That Instantly Improve Your Pet’s Life

Episode Title: 7 Simple Things That Instantly Improve Your Pet’s Life
Host: Amy Castro
Summary:
If you’ve been feeling like you’re not doing enough for your pet, this episode will reset that thinking. Amy breaks down seven simple, research-backed shifts that can improve your pet’s daily life without adding more time, money, or stress. From cleaning routines and predictable structure to reducing friction and catching early warning signs, this episode helps pet parents focus on what actually matters most.

Links:
Website: https://petparenthotline.com

Consults: https://petparenthotline.com/consult

Veterinary Disclaimer:
This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always contact your veterinarian or a qualified veterinary professional with questions about your pet’s health, behavior, or medical condition. If your pet is experiencing an emergency, seek veterinary care right away. 

Transcript:
Amy Castro: 00:00
If you've been feeling like you're not doing enough for your pet, like there's always something you should be fixing, buying, or figuring out, this episode is gonna change that. Because today I'm gonna walk you through seven simple things you can do right now that can instantly improve your pet's life. Without spending more money, without adding much to your schedule, and without overcomplicating things. You've reached the Pet Parent Hotline, your lifeline to practical solutions for your toughest pet parenting challenges. I'm your host, Amy Castro, and I'm here to help you cut through the noise and turn expert advice into step-by-step strategies so you can stop chasing your tail and start enjoying life with pets again. You'll also have more clarity on how your pet is actually experiencing their environment day to day and what's likely being missed that could turn into a bigger issue later. And make sure you stay with me until the end because the last one is the difference between catching a small issue early or dealing with something much bigger later. And oh, by the way, as you're listening, don't try to take on all seven of the things that I'm talking about. Just listen for one that you think, yep, that's probably where we're off a little bit, and let that be your starting point. So let's start with something that sounds basic but has a much bigger impact than people realize. So our number one tip is cleaning their living environment more than you probably think. And what I'm talking about here is cleaning the things that your pet actually lives in and uses on a daily basis. So not necessarily your floors or your countertops, but their environment. Things like their food bowls, water bowls, bedding, litter boxes, crates, and their toys. Because your pet's world is a lot smaller and much more concentrated than yours. So if a food bowl, for example, isn't being cleaned regularly, bacteria is for sure gonna build up, and that can affect your pet's appetite, their digestion, their oral health, and their overall health. And the same goes for water bowls, especially in warmer climates where nasty things can grow faster than you think. And I'll use my house as an example because we have well water, and as nice as that is, it's not chlorinated, so the water gets icky a lot faster than city water does. So something to keep in mind if you also have well water like I do. Another thing to look at is your pet's bedding. Even if it doesn't necessarily smell bad, bedding can hold oil, dander, and odors, and over time it can really change how comfortable it is for your pets to rest, especially when you think about how sensitive their noses are. And it can also contribute to skin irritation and infections. So make a point of routinely cleaning your pet's bedding, even if it doesn't look or even smell like it needs it. And I've done a whole episode on litter boxes and why cats might not use them. And I think litter boxes are a huge thing. Cats in particular are incredibly sensitive to changes in cleanliness or lack of cleanliness. And so what looks like fine to human beings might already be at a point where the cat's thinking about starting to avoid it, which is where accidents start to begin. And this isn't about being obsessive about cleaning. It's about recognizing that your pet doesn't have the ability to step away from their environment the way that you do. Imagine you go into a public restroom and you open a stall and it's filthy. Somebody else has left their filth on the seat and in the bowl, and you move to the next one and it's filthy, and you move to the next one and it's moderately filthy. You're gonna keep moving on. Well, your pet doesn't have that luxury. They've got one litter box, perhaps, or maybe they've got two. And so it's really important that the litter box is kept clean to their standards, not necessarily just to ours. And when you think about your pet's environment, you know, they eat, sleep, and spend most of their time in a lot of the same spaces. So when those spaces aren't maintained and kept clean, it really does affect them every single day. A lot of pet parents think that they need to do more for their pets. I hear people say that a lot and they worry about it and they feel guilty about it. You know, I need to take my dog on more walks, I need more playtime with my cat, my pet needs more stimulation. But in reality, what many pets actually really need is more predictability, and that's number two, creating one predictable daily anchor for you and your pet. Because when an animal can anticipate what's coming next, it actually reduces stress for them. They don't have to stay in that kind of constant state of alert trying to figure out what's happening or what's, you know, when something important is gonna happen, like when is the food gonna come, when is playtime gonna happen, when is the walk gonna occur? And that uncertainty of not knowing but anticipating and being excited about it often shows up in pets as anxiety, the restlessness that can drive us crazy, or clingy behavior. So I'm not talking about here trying to, you know, push you into creating a perfect routine. I've tried that, I've tried scheduling my routine from dawn to dusk, and it's very hard for me to stay to that. But I'm talking about focusing on one consistent anchor in your day. So one thing that your pet and you can count on. It could be something as simple as always getting fed about the same time every single morning and every single evening for your pet. It could be a walk that happens after work and just a little hint, don't make it right after work. Give yourself some time to get home, change, decompress. But maybe you set a goal of going for walks 30 minutes after you walk in the door to give yourself that time. That's something your pet can count on. It could be a consistent wind down period at night and W-I-N-D, not W-I-N-E, although wine could be involved. But a wind down period at night where things start to get quieter and more predictable. I think a bedtime routine, hey, it's great for you, it's great for me, and it's great for our pets to know that this is what we do in the evening as we get ready to go to bed and shut off the lights and expect quiet time. So having even just one reliable pattern gives your pet a sense of structure. And structure creates stability, and that's something that you and your pet will benefit from. And just as a reminder, again, you don't need to control every minute of their day. You just need to give them something that they can count on. And if you want to build on that once that becomes a habit and a routine, then more power to you. But start with just one. Number three is giving your pet some control. And this is a very big mindset shift for a lot of pet parents. In many instances, we tend to try to control nearly every aspect of our pets' lives, where they go, how they interact, when they rest, where they rest. And I think when pets don't have any room for choice, I think it can create frustration, which oftentimes show up in behavior issues. And that might look like reactivity, avoidance, it could be resistance, aggression, or even shutdown behaviors where a pet just stops engaging. And I'll use my cat Victoria as an example here. So for those of you who have seen pictures of her, you know she does not have eyes, so obviously she is blind. So I have a tendency of physically trying to manage her activity a lot. I feel like I pick her up and move her around a lot more than I do my other cats. And sometimes I'm doing it because I feel like, okay, maybe it's not safe for her to be up on that particular um table, or I don't want her knocking things off my nightstand, so I'll pick her up and move her. But if you think about it from her perspective especially, that doesn't give her any control. She's doing her thing, and the next thing she's being lifted up in the air and then moved to a completely different location, and that's not where she wanted to be. And so I'm not saying you should allow your cat or your pet to, you know, be in a dangerous situation, but you know, something as simple as letting her figure out how to get around the boxes that are in the foyer that just came from Amazon versus trying to carry her around them. Or I've got another cat, pickles, who likes to sit on the window ledge. I I don't get it. It doesn't look very comfortable. It's pretty narrow. She, you know, she squeezes herself on there, maybe she's got a leg dangling down, and I oftentimes have the urge to pick her up and move her to a cat tower where it's soft and padded and has a little bed on it. But, you know, if she wasn't comfortable sitting on that window ledge, she would move. So those are the kinds of things that I'm talking about. You know, it it giving your pet some level of control doesn't mean letting them run the house or allowing them to be in dangerous situations, but it could mean creating opportunities for them to make their own decisions within safe boundaries. So, you know, when you think about dogs, for example, so many times I'm on a mission, I'm trying to get to the park, and so therefore I'm pulling my dog along, not allowing them to sniff. But half of the enjoyment for a dog of going on a walk is sniffing. And I know it can be annoying that they will stop and sniff and sniff and sniff and stay in a spot for a really long time. But, you know, creating times where it's okay to do that, let them pick the direction that they walk in. Let them decide how long they're gonna stay and sniff that bush. That's what we're talking about here. And one final thing I'd add to that is making sure that your pets always have a space where they can go to be left alone. And it could be having a baby gate up that cats can go back to a different room in the house to get away from people or children. Not that children aren't people, hmm, questionable, but um to get away from adults or children or other pets. It could be that having a crate for your dog to get away from people and have their own quiet location. I think all pets need to have that. If it's a small animal like a, you know, a mouse or a guinea pig or a hamster, you know, having times where the children aren't handling them and that they can go back into their little den, into their enclosure, and have some peace and quiet and they're alone time. And I think having these choices reduces frustration in pets and increases confidence. I know for me with Victoria, you know, the more I manhandle her in those situations where she wants to be where she wants to be, the more agitated she gets. She'll start to growl, she'll try to bite me, and you know, I'm just I'm creating frustration for her that maybe I don't need to do, and I'm gonna pay a lot more attention to that. And I think when pets feel like they have some control over their environment, that behavior tends to become a lot more stable and a lot more predictable. So we've talked about enrichment before on the show, and number four is to stop overcomplicating enrichment. I think a huge industry in the pet industry has grown up and built around this idea of convincing us that our pet needs more products to be enriched. So, you know, that more toys, whatever it is, more tools, gadgets. I mean, I know we did a whole episode on gadgets, but enrichment is not about accumulating more stuff. It's engaging with your pet and possibly using those tools to do it. So at its core, enrichment is really about giving your pet a chance to use their brain and their natural instincts. So foraging, problem solving, hunting, exploring, investigating, you know, those are all things that, depending upon your pet, are needs that they have that need to be met for them to have a satisfying life. And when those needs aren't met, you get a pet who is bored. And boredom is one of the biggest drivers of unwanted behavior that people struggle with, like chewing things they're not supposed to, or scratching furniture, or digging in the yard, or constant attention seeking. And the good news is that enrichment doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. It could be as simple as changing how you feed your pet. You know, maybe instead of putting your food in a bowl, you hide it and you make an obstacle course for them to find it. We did a thing the other day in our front yard where I took a bunch of red cups around the yard with treats around for them to scavenge and find out. I mean, they were all cups we already had and treats we already had, but it just gave them something fun and different to do. Even the simple act, and this is a big one for those of you who have dogs or cats that you allow out into your backyard. Hopefully, if you've got cats, you do that in a safe manner. But a lot of times people think, oh, I've got a I've got a big yard, that's all my dog needs, or that's all my pet needs, is to go out in that yard. I guarantee you, if that's all you do is take your dog out back in the backyard, they're bored with that backyard by now. And I know that because, number one, the research backs it up. But also just in my personal experience, we tried a little experiment a while back where, and this is dumb, right? Instead of letting the dogs out in the backyard, we did a thing and it was timed. We kind of did it every afternoon around four o'clock. We took a break from work, and let's take them out front. You would have thought I was taking these dogs to Disney World. They were so excited to go out in the front yard instead of the backyard, because it's different, different smells, different experience, it's a different space, it's bigger, et cetera, et cetera. And it got to the point where now they sit at the front door waiting for that right around four o'clock. So if that's not a good example of that, that boredom is uh is something that can easily be remedied, that's the good news. You know, it doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. And it and it doesn't mean you have to be constantly entertaining your pet. It's just giving them opportunities to think and engage with their environment. There's all kinds of great ideas using everyday objects, for example, like towels or boxes to create simple changes that are basic boredom busters and enrichment opportunities for your pets. Because bottom line is when a pet is mentally engaged, they are far less likely to create their own, often undesirable, ways of staying busy. And I think many of you have probably experienced that. Number five is to handle your pets regularly in a way that builds trust. Now you're saying to yourself, well, I handle my pet all the time. I constantly pet them, pick them up, hold them, et cetera. But what I'm talking about here is a lot of pet parents only handle their pets in a very focused way when something is wrong. So when you need to check for an injury or when you need to give medicine, when you need to cut nails, when you need to pick them up, put them in a carrier to go to the vet. And that's oftentimes where resistance builds. If the only time your pet is being touched in certain ways is during stressful situations, they start to associate that contact with discomfort or fear. And so making a point of regular calm handling can help change that because it allows your pet to become familiar with being touched in ways that might otherwise feel unusual or invasive. So for example, checking ears, touching paws, brushing, feeling all along their body. You know, it doesn't have to be a long or complicated thing. It just needs to be consistent and very low pressure for the pet. And the second benefit that you get from that head-to-tail handling is early detection. Small changes are often the first sign that something isn't right. Maybe it's a lump on your pet's back that wasn't there before, or sensitivity when you touch their ears or other parts of their body, or changes in body condition. You know, are they gaining weight, losing weight? Those things can be really easy to miss if you're not regularly interacting with your pet in a very deliberate way. And I know this because I'll have people that will call and say, you know, I just discovered this golf ball-sized bump on my dog's hip. And the odds are that lump didn't appear overnight. It was something that started the size of a pea, and then it was the size of a nickel or marble, and then it got bigger. And so this regular handling can often help you identify things like that early. And the earlier that we catch things like that, the better the outcome is going to be if it turns into something that's serious or needs medical attention. And the other thing is, too, is that having your pet handled, like we always talk about with training puppies, or, you know, how how do you start the process of training puppies to get their nails cut? I mean, nail trimming should be something that any pet parent can do on their own and not spend 30, 50, whatever it costs to go to somebody else to get that done. However, if that process of getting the animal used to being handled, used to having their feet held, used to having the sound of the clipper or the grinder or whatever it might be, if that process didn't start young and hasn't been done in a gradual way, that's when you get people that say, oh, that's impossible. I can't do that. So think about opportunities where you can, let's say your pet does have an issue with having their nails cut. I'm not saying you should start cutting their nails, but you should start picking up their feet and holding them, touching each individual toe. Do one or two toes, stop, move on, and try it again the next day, and go from there, build from there. Number six is to fix one friction point in your pet's day. And this is something that causes a lot of problems, but most people don't recognize it for what it is. And it's just friction. Friction is just small repeated moments in your pet's day that are just harder than they need to be, right? It doesn't have to be big dramatic issues. It could be little things that create tension over time and occur again and again. And when those moments start to stack up, that's when you start to see behavior changes in your pet. So instead of asking what's stressing my pet out, which can feel a lot harder, ask yourself, where does my pet struggle in their normal day? This is where your biggest opportunity is. So for example, if your dog loses their mind every time somebody walks by the window of your apartment, that's friction. If your cat hesitates before using the litter box because the dryer buzzer goes off and startles them, that's friction. If your pet resists being picked up, handled, or moved, that's friction. If two pets are constantly having low level tension, staring or blocking each other or avoiding, that's friction. They're not necessarily emergencies, but they are daily stress points for your pets. And when they happen over and over again, the resulting stress builds. So instead of trying to fix everything, pick one. You know, one moment in your pet's day where things consistently feel tense, difficult, or reactive and focus on making that one thing easier. So for example, the pet that is distressed and goes ballistic every time somebody walks by your apartment window, maybe you get new window coverings so they don't see people going by. Maybe you put up a baby gate across your foyer to keep them from getting that close to the window to see people up front. Those are little things that we can do along the way. When it comes to the litter box issue, maybe it's putting the litter box in another part of the house or at least having a second litter box that if the dryer is running or the washing machine's running, that your cat can go to that quieter location instead of the noisier one where the quote unquote main litter box is. Those are just some things to consider. But anything that you can do to take those stress factors out of your pet's life is going to improve the quality of their life. And you're going to be surprised to find out that sometimes removing just one of these friction points is what allows everything else that might be going on with your pet to improve, because that friction point could be the trigger for many other things that are going wrong with your pet throughout their day. And finally, number seven is to watch your pet without distraction. And this is the one that really ties everything together because none of these things are going to work if you're not actually noticing what's going on with your pet. Most people are interacting with their pets while they're doing something else. Let's face it, you're watching TV, you're texting. And I just did this the other day. My cats are staying out in our dog kennel building because my house is on the market and I can't have a cat puking on my bed in the middle of a showing or running out the door. So the cats are out there. And so I go out multiple times a day and sit and visit with them. But am I really visiting with them? I could do better because I've got one hand on the cat and I've got one hand on my phone scrolling through Instagram. Um and I don't think I'm alone in that. I think that probably you, when you're interacting with your pet, are doing something else, watching TV, thinking about what's next, having a conversation with somebody at the dog park, whatever it is. But your pet is constantly giving you information. You know, changes in movement, posture, their energy level, appetite, behavior, those are small changes that are often the first indicators that something is shifting. And if you're not paying attention, you're gonna miss the early stage, which is when things are Generally easiest to address. So taking just a few minutes every day to really observe your pet without distraction can give you a much clearer picture about what's normal for them and what's changed. As an example, one time my cat pickles, I happened to notice that she was walking a little funny. I couldn't even really tell if it was a limp or not, but it just didn't seem right. And then the more I paid attention to her, the more I noticed, okay, not only is she walking a little bit hesitantly, but she's not jumping up and down on things like she usually does. She's avoiding getting up on things and getting down on the things. Long and short of it, she had a broken toe. And that toe took like six weeks to heal, and it took crate rest and everything else. But she had one of her little teeny tiny cat toes was broken. And I have no idea how it happened, but that's the kind of thing where, you know, it could have gone on and turned into something really painful for her. It obviously wasn't comfortable. And those are the kinds of things that you don't want to go on when you can give your pet some relief. The other thing I think that often happens, and this often shows up in the vet's office when something has gone wrong, is that you know the vet's going to ask you about your pet's normal behavior. How often do they sleep? Do they normally jump up and down on things? And if you've not been observing, then you're not going to be able to answer those questions and you're not going to be able to give the vet the background that they need to try to determine is this pet's behavior, you know, something that has increased, decreased, or stayed the same. So it's really important to just take a few minutes every day to observe your pet without distraction so you can kind of get a a feeling for what their quote unquote normal is. And once you know what's normal, it becomes a lot easier to spot when something's not normal. And that's what allows you to step in earlier, make better decisions, and prevent little issues from turning into bigger ones later on. So if you take nothing else from this episode, take this. You're not behind most of the time the issue isn't that you're not doing enough. It's that the right small things aren't happening consistently. So don't try to change everything after this. Just pick one. One thing from this episode and start there. And if you're not sure what actually matters most in your situation, that's exactly what I help people figure out. You can book a one-on-one session with me and we'll walk through what's going on with you and your pet and map out some clear, realistic next steps. Go to petparenthotline.com forward slash consult and find out more information there. Thanks for listening to the Pet Parent Hotline. If you enjoyed the show, don't keep it to yourself. Text a friend right now with a link and tell them I've got a show that you need to hear. And ask them to let you know what they think. And remember, your pet's best life starts with you living yours. So be sure to take good care of yourself this week and your pets.