When we came across this brilliant feed on Reddit of dog owner’s sharing simple hacks to make their lives easier, we knew we’d met kindred spirits and we just HAD to share their gems with you. So here are 20 Dog Hacks to make yours (and your dog’s!) life easier:
1. Thrifty Fun
“If your dog destroys pillows and stuffed dog beds, instead of buying new one go to the thrift store and buy an old comforter. The dog can wrestle and nudge and burrow into it, and all you have to do is refold it when you want to tidy up.”
submitted by ‘k9centipede’
2. Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail
“I fully open two poobags and stuff them in my pocket before leaving on the walk so I don’t fumble later when I need to pick up the poop quickly.”
submitted by ‘je-taime’
Poop A Trooper – taken by Justin Henry via Flickr/Creative Commons Search:
3. Hide and Seek
“Play “hide and seek” with your dog. Put a long lead on it, and when it’s not paying attention to you, go hide behind a nearby tree. Teach it that you are unpredictable, and it will be much more likely to pay attention to where you are!”
submitted by ‘mysled’
4. The Simplest Dog Walk Hack
“Put a carabiner clip on the handle of your leash, to easily attach your dog to a pole, yourself etc if you need to.”
submitted by ‘bindsaybindsay’
5. A Sour Surprise
“Dog destroys tennis balls? Play fetch with a lemon. Suddenly they become very gentle with their toys.”
submitted by ‘KT421’
6. The Secret To Dog Owner Happiness
“A tired dog makes a happy owner. Exercise your dog thoroughly, daily.”
submitted by ‘chzplz’
7. Whistle While You Work
“If you can whistle, always whistle three times before giving your dog each meal or a treat they love. It doesn’t take long at all for them to associate the whistling with food. We use this as our emergency recall. Our dogs might ignore “come” if distracted by something more interesting but will come every time to our whistling.”
submitted by ‘tookynh’
8. A Secondary Use for Your Vacuum
“Maybe this only works with my dogs. A vacuum cleaner placed in a doorway makes a good temporary dog gate.”
submitted by ‘radiumdial’
Colt Vs Dyson – taken by Emery Way via Flickr/Creative Commons Search
9. The Many Uses of Exercise Pens
“Exercise pens (the movable wire type) are glorious and underused. They keep dogs from scratching up the windows when they see a cat outside, or block off unsafe parts of rooms. Also great for puppies who you don’t necessarily want to crate, but want to keep away from certain areas or other dogs in your house. When camping we put one around the tent, so we don’t have to worry about the dog running out.”
submitted by ‘salukis’
10. Train Randomly For The Future
“If you think you may ever need to do something with your dog start doing it from the beginning. Want to ever pick up your dog? Pick them up sometimes for the hell of it. I want to emphasize this one for big dog owners. After helping carry a big dog in a stretcher that wanted off asap I talked to some other big dog owners that said they actually find ways to pick up their dogs sometimes so if it came to that their dogs wouldn’t be totally freaked out….and make these positive experiences. The goal is for your dogs to learn to be ok with these things. Give treats or lots of love.”
submitted by ‘stopbuffering’
11. Patient Pups
“When your dog is a puppy wipe his/her feet every time they come in the door. Every time. Even if it’s summer. I did this and my dog walker says that my pup is the most patient to have his feet wiped when it’s muddy out and he also just stands perfectly still while we apply protector stuff to his feet in the winter!”
submitted by ‘bingalings1’
12. High Five!
“Teach your dog to high-five you. It’s awesome to have a best bud with endless high-fives.”
submitted by ‘cosmonaut_kramer’
13. Ice Ice Baby
“Ice cubes as treats! I don’t know if this is something everyone knows, but anyway. I read about it somewhere, and decided to give it a try. Turns out my dog loves it! It’s quite healthy for them too, especially in the summer. But like most things, it’s all about moderation”
submitted by ‘elawe’
14. Get Stuffed
“Does your dog love to gut stuffed toys? I have a couple of his larger de-stuffed toys, I will load a treat into the appendages and then “stuff” the toy again with random cloth (ok, I use dirty socks, he loves them and doesn’t tear them up). He then gets the joy of unstuffing the toy and burrowing into it’s guts to get the treats. Voila, interactive food toy that he adores.”
submitted by ‘cygnuswomyn’
15. Scrappy Dappy Doo
“If you’re going to feed your dog table scraps, don’t do it at the table. Put the scraps in their bowl at the end of the meal, or better yet, save them for the dog’s normal meal time.
This is my compromise with a partner who loves giving scraps to our dog. He begs less this way and we can keep better track of how much he’s getting.”
submitted by ‘unknown’
16. Safety Commands
“For me the most important things I ever taught my dog are “leave it” and “drop it”. It is one of the best was to keep him safe. Cause you never know what they will pick up on walks or even if you drop something in the kitchen you know it’s all good.”
submitted by ‘Draganess’
17. Reduce Car Anxiety
“Train your dog to stay in the car until you tell them they can jump out. It prevents that moment of panic between opening the door and getting the leash on the dog. Especially if you’re parked near a busy road.”
submitted by ‘Kaedylee’
Dog in Car – taken by Yoichiro Haga via Flickr/Creative Commons Search:
18. Jingle Bells
“Quiet puppy wants out and won’t bark or just whines quietly or scratches, so you don’t hear them when they want out? Train them to ring a bell. We hung a jingle bell at puppy-height from the doorknob and jingled it every time we took Usagi (Maltese-Yorkie) out. She started ringing it herself within a week, and no scratching the door (She can also be quite insistent with her jingling, too, which is hilarious.)”
submitted by ‘victoryfanfare’
19. The Need For Speed
“If you want to teach your dog to walk with you, and not stop and sniff every little thing on the walk, then SPEED UP. This also works if you are trying to train your dog for obedience competitions.
If you walk fast, and do not stop for the dogs sniffing, he will learn to stay with you and keep going. Make sure you have designated ‘pee spots’ where the dog can stop and sniff around. Once the dog gets used to the route, he will happily stay up with you until he gets to the pee spot.”
submitted by ‘indipit’
20. The Kitchen Is Just For The Cook
“I have a rule: No pets in the kitchen. I started doing it when we lived in a townhouse with a teeeeny kitchen and it wasn’t safe to cook with a dog underfoot. It turned out to be a huge stress relief, so even now that we have a big kitchen I’ve done the same with two other dogs and a cat. NO worries about counter surfing, animals eating onions or something dangerous off the floor, no messing with the garbage, no picking pet hair out of the soup, no begging for people food.
The other bonus is that whenever kids come over who are afraid of dogs, they have a place to go where dogs aren’t allowed.”
submitted by ‘miparasito’
Alice and Lemons – taken by BazzaDaRambler via Flickr/Creative Commons Search:
Over to you – tell us in the comments what one tip would you give to other dog owner’s that makes yours, and your dog’s life easier, more fun and simple?
Image Credits:
Poop A Trooper – taken by Justin Henry via Flickr/Creative Commons Search:
Alice and Lemons – taken by BazzaDaRambler via Flickr/Creative Commons Search:
Colt Vs Dyson – taken by Emery Way via Flickr/Creative Commons Search:
Dog in Car – taken by Yoichiro Haga via Flickr/Creative Commons Search:
Contributor – Jen Smith Social Media
Jen Smith
Jen Smith Social Media
