Wednesday, August 10, 2022 is National Spoil Your Dog Day. And just as you’d expect, at Plato Pet Treats we love dog-themed holidays!
The word “spoil” can have a bit of a negative feel to it, especially when you think about spoiled food, spoiled kids, and yes...spoiled pets. But spoiling someone or something isn’t always a bad thing. When spoiling involves over-the-top pampering on a rare special occasion, such as a birthday or holiday, we don’t think anyone would argue against it.
As pet parents, we’ll take any excuse to pamper our pets. But catering to our critters shouldn’t involve treats, foods, or activities that endanger their health. So, let’s explore how to safely spoil your dog on National Spoil Your Dog Day.
Our 3 Favorite Tips to Safely Spoil Your Dog
1 – Give Your Dog Loads of Cuddles, Play Time, and Attention
When life gets busy, we can unknowingly overlook or ignore our pets more than normal (and trust us, they notice). Our dogs don’t have to work, or raise kids, or keep up with household chores. Our furry friends basically just spend their days waiting for our attention.
So, the perfect way to spoil your pet is with loads of cuddles, play time, and undivided attention. The best part is, your pet will reciprocate all that love and attention right back to you with licks, tail wags, and playful engagement, which will make your effort just as special for you as it is for them.
*EXTRA READING - More tips on how to spoil your dog
- Article from AKC - 7 Fun and Safe Ways to Spoil Your Dog
- Article from Animal Wellness Magazine - 10 Ways to Spoil Your Dog
2 – Celebrate another August holiday - Picnic with Your Pet Day
There are actually two dog-themed holidays in August. Picnic with Your Pet Day happens to fall on August 4, just a little under a week before National Spoil Your Dog Day. So, why not celebrate both?
Take your dog to a pet-friendly park, beach, cabin, or other outdoor getaway to slow down, enjoy some food, and spend some peaceful time in the great outdoors. You can get in a memorable Picnic with Your Pet Day and then follow it up a few days later with even more extra attention for National Spoil Your Pet Day.
*EXTRA READING – Check out our recent blog, Dog Friendly Summer Activities Near Me, for additional pet-spoiling activity ideas
3 - Provide your pet with tasty (and healthy) treats
Well, we are a pet treats business, so of course we recommend high-quality and delicious dog treats as a way to spoil your pet. Spoil your pet by giving them meat-based dog treats. Avoid dog biscuits full of grains, fillers, and meat byproducts, and avoid almost all human food (more on that below).
Dogs love the taste of real meat treats. The most common real meat treats will have whole beef or chicken as the #1 ingredient. But while sticking with standard treats is fine, if you’ve never fed your pooch fish treats such as salmon, cod, or Baltic sprat, or lamb meat treats, or duck meat treats, why not give your pet something new to try? You may discover a new favorite food for your furry friend.
*EXTRA READING – Want to know more about these meat treats? Check out these recent blog articles:
Fish Treats for Dogs – A Quick Guide for Dog Owners
Lamb Treats for Dogs – A Quick Guide for Dog Owners
Duck Treats for Dogs – A Quick Guide for Dog Owners
While we're on the subject of treats...
Should You Give Your Dog Human Food?
If you’re hosting a party, odds are you’ll have food like sandwich platters, dip, and bowls of chips out for your guests to enjoy. It might be tempting for them to grab a chip and feed it to your dog, but is that safe? It’s done with the best intentions, but if they don’t ask you first it can cause problems. Dogs’ stomachs are different than ours, which means foods that are okay for us to eat might not be okay for them.
Here are a few human foods that can be dangerous for dogs:
- Grapes
- Any mushroom plant
- Salt (in high volumes)
- Walnuts
- Chocolate
- Avocados
- Onions in any form
If you’re hosting a big group of people for the Fourth of July, it can be good to have some dog-friendly treats on hand that your guests can freely give out. A fun way to do this is by having a boldly labeled container filled with dog treats. You’ll be able to tell guests as they arrive not to feed human food to your dog, but to use the dog treats provided in the marked container instead.
Here are some dog-friendly human foods:
- Carrots
- Peanut butter
- Salmon
- Limited cheese
- Blueberries
- Watermelon
Why Does Plato Pet Treats Care about National Spoil Your Dog Day?
If you’re not familiar with our company, Plato Pet Treats, then you may not know about the story of our founder, Aaron Merrell, and his Border Collie. After learning that his dog was in poor health and on the verge of being put down, Aaron decided to make her remaining days as enjoyable as possible by “spoiling” her with delicious, high-quality pet food. After she went on to live another four years (wow!), Aaron saw the connection between food made with wholesome, nourishing ingredients and the quality of a pet’s life.
(Watch Aaron Merrell share the story of Plato Pet Treats in this 2-minute video.)
So, we invite you to celebrate National Spoil Your Dog Day with us. Take this opportunity to pour love into your furry friend and then soak up the love that your pet reflects back to you. Spoil your fuzzy companion safely and feel good that you’re both pampering and protecting your pet at the same time.
The Plato Pet Treats Cycle of Virtue
The Cycle of Virtue can be defined like this: a chain of events in which one desirable occurrence leads to another which further promotes the first occurrence and so on resulting in a continuous process of improvement. We love our pets and want to provide the best we can for them, and when we bless them in this way, they continue to bless us with a better quality of life and increased lifespan. This is a beautiful thing.
