10 Healthy Dog Tips to Keep Your Dog Looking & Feeling Their Best

If you’re a dog person, then you love having your little four-legged friend around—and you want to do everything you can to make sure your dog stays happy and healthy for as long as possible.

With that in mind, we’ve put together 10 of the most important things you can do to keep your dog healthy

Read through this list of healthy dog tips and see if you can put at least 7 of them in practice. Bonus points if you can implement all 10!

1: Make Sure They Get Exercise, And Plenty Of It

Exercise is essential for good health in us humans, and the same is true for your dog, too. It helps keep their heart & lungs healthy while keeping their muscles toned. Your dog needs exercise on a regular basis (they should get 30 minutes or more of activity every day). Even if your dog is older or handicapped, they still need exercise—even if it’s just two 15-minute walks every day. Here’s a few exercise tips to keep your dog in top shape: https://shop.bullymax.com/blogs/news/dog-muscle-building-exercises/

2: Keep Their Mind Sharp With Tricks

Your dog needs more than just physical exercise; mental stimulation is important, too. To help keep your dog’s mind sharp, you can teach them tricks, introduce them to new games or toys, and take them on new walking paths. Anything you can do to get your dog thinking is good for them, especially as they start to get older.

Here’s a leash training tip from DarkDynastyK9s (Sponsored by Bully Max):

3: Give Them Lots Of Love And Affection

Dogs are compassionate creatures, and they thrive in a situation where they get lots of love, attention, and affection from their owners. So take some time to show your dog that you care. Pet them, sit with them, walk them, and let them know that they’re a loved and valued member of the family. This is easy with a brand-new puppy, but when you’ve had the same dog for 5-7 years or more you might need to remind yourself just how important your affection is to your dog.

4: Take Them To The Vet Regularly

If you want your dog to live a long and happy life, this might be the most important item on this list. The vet will be able to diagnose your dog if they happen to come down with any diseases or conditions that they might contract. This is really important, because there’s always a chance that your dog might contract some sort of illness—no matter how well you care for them. And in many cases, early diagnosis can dramatically help improve the outcome of any medical condition.

5: Keep Their Teeth & Gums Clean

If you’ve ever had a cavity or a toothache, then you know just how important oral health can be to your overall happiness and sense of well-being. If your dog is showing signs of unhealthy teeth or gums—like tartar, bad breath, or inflamed gums—then you’ll want to take steps to improve your dog’s oral health. Some things you can do are to give your dog raw bones, consider using dental chew toys, and you can even brush your dog’s teeth.

6: Don’t Let Them Roam Unsupervised

You should always keep your dog confined to an area that you know is safe. Don’t let them roam completely unsupervised, unless they are within the confines of a fence or are somehow restrained. As much as your dog would love to roam freely, remember that it only takes one careless driver to end your dog’s life prematurely. Roaming dogs can also find their way into all kinds of other dangers, such as walking through poison ivy or picking fights with other animals. This is one of those situations where you have to do what you know is best, even if your dog doesn’t like it, and keep them confined to a safe place.

7: Make Sure Their Vaccinations Are Up-To-Date

Hopefully your dog was vaccinated as a puppy. But that’s not the end of your dog’s shots—all dogs should get an annual booster shot to help protect them against a variety of diseases. This is a simple step that could potentially save your dog’s life by preventing serious illnesses like hepatitis and canine parvovirus. You’ll also want to keep a record of all vaccinations, because you may need to prove that they’re up-to-date someday if you choose to book your dog at a boarding kennel.

8: Discuss Neutering With Your Vet

Generally speaking, if you’re not planning to breed you should get your dog neutered. This is the RSPCA’s advice, and it makes a lot of sense. Un-neutered female dogs will go into heat; un-neutered male dogs will exert more aggressive behavior. In both cases, neutering your dog will relieve them of the urge to procreate, and may also help protect them against several serious diseases and cancers.

9: Give Them A Quiet, Warm Place To Sleep

Some owners seem to think that dogs should sleep outside. But in most cases your dog will be spending plenty of time outdoors during the day—and given that temperatures can get cold at night, it’s better to give your dog an indoor bed in a place that’s quiet, shaded, and away from air drafts. That way your dog will be warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, helping them to get more restful sleep.

10: Give Them The Healthiest Dog Food You Can

When it comes to health, eating a nutritious diet is one of the most important things you can do. That’s why one of the best things you can do for your dog’s health is to feed them a high-quality dog food. Our Bully Max high perforamnce high protein dog food was created to be the healthiest performance dog food on the market. With 2x the calories as the other brands, you’ll feed your dog half as much food. Every cup of Bully Max dog food contains 535 calories. It’s no wonder it’s the best-selling brand. But, don’t just take our word for it — see what dogfoodadvisor.com had to say: Bully Max High Performance dog food review.