As pet parents, our four-legged family is one of the most important part of your lives.  Of course, as good pet parents we want to give them a happy and healthy life.  But with how crazy and fast paced life is, we barely have time to take care of ourselves.  So how then, do we make sure to keep our dogs lives positive and meaningful? With some fast and simple daily behavioral routine, we can ensure our dogs are able to take care of themselves, and be independent and empowered. 

Why Routine is Important

There are a multitude of reasons why routine is important for both us and our pets.  It not only promotes positive behaviors in our fur-babies, but it also has mental benefits as well. Not to mention, it just makes life easier when things run like clock work! 

In order to build a stable routine, one that allows dogs to have a healthy lifestyle and behavior, we must provide positive support to our dogs. It’s important they know what to expect from their pet parents, and they know what we expect of them.  We must build a consistent routine in every aspect of their lives, which will spill over to other aspects and improve our overall relationship with them. 

Lack of a routine and inconsistency both in their environment and the interaction with their pet parents, can cause our dogs to exhibit negative emotional and behavioral issues such as, stress or anxiety.                       

Keep it simple, consistent, and positive!

How to Build Routine in our Dogs Lives 

Building a new routine into our dog’s lives is simple.  Just as we start training them to do tricks, or potty training them, we can build other positive behaviors into their daily routine.

4 Easy Steps to Building a Daily Routine:

• Be consistent: do the routine daily, and at around the same time
• Make sure the routine is done the same way each time
• Always use positive reinforcement to make the behavior stick!
• Repeat

How to Build Tooth Brushing into our Dogs Routine

One of the most important routines, which can be both live saving and quality of life enhancing, is brushing their teeth.  Trying to brush our dogs teeth is difficult, because they don’t like it, and will fight us on it. The best way to reach the most positive outcome is to let them brush their own teeth.

When we build other routines in their life, the routine will spill over into their brushing behavior as well. We must build brushing as part of a daily routine for dogs, just like we do with ourselves or our kids! This will not only make them comfortable with brushing, but they will also look forward to it. 

Benefits of a Tooth Brushing Routine

It’s all about balance! Routine makes it easier for dogs to develop healthy behaviors. We can build on their routine by introducing Bristly so they can utilize it daily to brush their own teeth.

Follow This Simple How-To Guide To Building A Daily Brushing Routine:

You can also find a video for this guide here. 

• Be consistent in the behavior you want to establish
  • Introduce the Bristly to your dog the same time every day.
  • Let them brush for about 5 to 10 minutes, then remove the brush. (this prevents them from becoming bored of the brush) .
  • Give your dog a treat to reinforce the behavior.
• Use verbal & visual cues around the brushing experience.
  • Like with other routines: walking à the leash and verbally saying “let’s go on a walk” is associated with walking, and gets dogs excited.
  • Similarly, with brushing: Show the Bristly and add a verbal cue, “who wants to brush!” or “let’s brush!”.
  • Verbal and visual cues really reinforce the routine and act as triggers that lets our dogs know what routine they will be doing. They love it!
• What if my Dog is stubborn and wont brush?
  • Kids don’t like brushing at first either! Just be consistent!
  • Bristly scented and flavored, so they should like it. Using flavored toothpaste also acts as an attractant.
  • If your dog is not wanting to brush, try to encourage them by applying peanut butter onto the brush (or another favorite treat).
  • Gradually remove this, once the behavior becomes routine.

Just as our dogs have daily walks, play time, or sleep & wake time, we need to build daily brushing into their lives. It’s important for a healthy lifestyle!