So you are planning on getting a new dog or you have just got one but trying to work out what you need for them is actually a lot harder than it looks. As an adult, I always had cats so when we became dog owners at the beginning of January I had no idea that a dog needed so much. The items featured in this post were sent to us to test out but we have only featured items that we actually believe are worth paying for.
Now our dog came to us with the essentials listed below but he was really missing so many items that we definitely recommend.
- Bowls
- Collar
- Harness
- Bed
- Crate
- lead
*Warning this post will include lots of cute pictures of our dog Sonny*
The first item that is an absolute essential if you travel with your dogs is the Mikki Car Harness. Available in a range of sizes the Mikki Car Harness is perfect for short or long car journeys. The chest belt is padded and there is a clever swivel-link which allows your dog to turn around without getting tangled. The harness can be left on when you stop and you can just attach your lead onto the D-Ring on the harness and unclip from the seatbelt restraint.
Ensuring your dog has toys to chew on is very important if you don’t want them chewing your furniture or shoes but don’t opt for cheap chew toys. I bought Sonny a few different ones but he was able to destroy them easily and we found chewed up bits of plastic everywhere. These Nylabone chews are absolutely perfect. They are strong and don’t break and they each have a different taste/smell. You can get the Nylabone chews in a variety of sizes, flavours and shapes so you can find the perfect one for your dog. I highly recommend these as we have had ours for over a month, he still loves them and they look almost like new.
A cool lead is essential, ok so maybe a cool one isn’t but a decent quality one is. The one we inherited was cold and had obviously been chewed in places so we were looking to replace it anyway. I couldn’t resist this light up Darth Vader lead from Menkind. It is a good length, great quality, fantastic design and it lights up. I mean what more could you want?
Another great pet product from Menkind is the Pet Puzzle search and snack dog toy. Having dog enrichment items like this helps to keep them interested in their food and get their brains active. This is one of Sonny’s favourite things to do and he would happily play it for hours. We definitely get bored of it before he does.
Sonny like most dogs requires a lot of training and with training comes treats. For the first few weeks, I always had a bag of dog treats in my pocket but they were hard to access and made my pockets smell awful. Thankfully I was sent this Mikki Deluxe training bag. The Mikki Deluxe training bag has an easy to remove inner treat pouch which can be washed easily. The bag is able to be opened and closed with one hand and there are extra pockets for you to put your own personal items in there. This bag is perfect at keeping all of the treats where they should be whilst also giving easy access to them when needed. If you have yet to try treat training with your dog I highly recommend it as the response we are getting after a few weeks is amazing.
If your new dog is a puppy then paying attention to what you feed them is very important. Forthglade produces natural nutrition for dogs and they have a fabulous Puppy Pack which comes with a selection of natural wet and dry food, training treats and a ‘One Paw at a Time’ – puppy care guide which is super cute and filled with lots of information for a happy and healthy puppy.
I am sure there are lots of other things that I could have included in my post, the fact that Sonny needs his own toy box is a testament to the number of items we have bought for him in the last six weeks but what a dog really needs is your time, your attention and your love.