01 Grooming / 02 Enrichment / 03 Best things bought / 04 Walks
As we reach Tallie’s first birthday, I am writing a series of articles that summarise what I have learned and what I continue to do for her to have the best life possible. If you find any information useful, please add a comment at the bottom…
Here’s a list and pictures of the best and most useful things things I think I have bought over the last year. At the bottom of the post are the things I wish I hadn’t wasted money on.
20. Best retrieval toys – Kong Flubbers… Tallie loves shaking them and retrieving …
19. Treats for training. I have tried loads, but I have finally found kibble that is tasty enough to use for training:
18. Treats for the evening. Tallie gets a read kong with 3 bits of kibble and a teaspoon of peamutt butter pushed to the bottom.
17. Soft Frisbees. I don’t want Tallie to become ball obsessed, so I have decided to train her to retrieve a frisbee, using these two soft frisbees. See enrichment for training.
You need 2 frisbees for the training in the video so that you can easily swap from one to the other for training purposes. Soft frisbees are ideal so that the dog does not hurt its mouth and not be put off from the frisbee from the start.
https://youtu.be/EKUNPApYgr0?si=VxRDctsMqIpvOl-R
Tallie has already found an easy way to carry the frisbee around.
16. Smart Harness: Now that Tallie has stopped growing we have invested in a decent harness. I particularly like the fit of this one, and the fact that it can be attached from the side as Tallie doesn’t really like a harness going over her head.
15. Drying Robe. We were on the beach the other day and Tallie got cold and was shivering. This drying robe is a really good addition for keeping her warm when wet road from the Campervan.
14. This car seat cover has been great for the backseat of our C max.
13. Non spill water bowl. As for any Labradoodle, Tallie has whiskers and a beard and a normal water bowl means that she gets quite wet around the mouth. This bowl has been perfect to keep her mouth is dry as possible and it also great for taking in the campervan.
12. Dog Whistle. Our second trainer has explained that there are two gun dog whistles with different sounding noises. I like the pitch of the 211.5 and this make of whistle has been very good.
11. Mum Mummy: For a more muddy dog and outside bath times, I splashed out on a mud mummy which has a USB rechargeable brush. I like the fact that you can put warm water in it, so it is much more pleasant than a hosepipe.
10. Mud buster: Two ways of washing after walks. If it’s only a little muddy, then I recommend the mudbuster, which has a whole load of soft, silicone bristles cleaning each paw when you move it in and out of the water.
9. Bio disposable bags. What else can I say?
8. Dental Finger Wipes: Having been warned off dental sticks or anything similar, we have been using these finger wipes for Tallie’s teeth. We started very early so that she was used to us wiping her teeth.
7: This Reolink camera was easy to set up, and somehow, I don’t know how, it works on a mobile phone signal for when we are out of the house. It has proved invaluable to know that Tilly is safe when we are upstairs or out of the house. It also has infrared for when it is dull or dark.
6. As soon as I was letting tally off the lead, I wanted a small, effective tracker in case she got scared and ran off. I have been very pleased with this tracker.
5. We started with a little silicone pop-up dog bowl for water for Tallie on walks which meant carrying a separate water bottle. Very soon on walks. I saw people with these all in one water bottles and we have found this one really useful.
4. We found this car seat to be excellent for Tallie’s first miles in the van. Now we just have the same make of dog bed as she has at home, either in the seat or in the passenger well if a human needs to sit there too.
3. Having had gerbils in the past, as soon as we had a crate I wanted a water bottle that would work at night time fixed to the side of the crate.
2. One of the most important things about training, to my mind, it’s really limiting the number of things that go wrong, and making sure they are as brief as possible. Having a trailing lead indoors meant that I could catch Tallie as soon as she showed signs of doing something I didn’t want her to do…
1. A v good collar:
Wish I had known better – Bells for going out; Poo bag holder; Dog drying bag (no good if traps here legs); Dog seat belt holder (better over head rest); Silent dog whistle.
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