dog beach Archives

02/19/2018

5 Ways to Include Your Pup in Your Health Goals

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CheckYourPetFood #CollectiveBias

Health Goals for Your Dog

We consider ourselves an active family. We like to be outdoors as much as possible, especially if it involves camping and hiking. This quality time together is part of how we focus on our mental and physical well-being. I’ve recently shared my own fitness and well-being goals for 2018, but there’s one family member whom I also include in our wellness aspirations: our dog Capone. If you’re new around here, Capone has been with us since 2011, when my husband found him abandoned in the Phoenix heat. He had no owner and he was scared, hungry and thirsty. Since my husband fed him that first day, he never left his side, and since then he has accompanied us on many of our camping and travel adventures. (Now, he’s also our toddler’s trusted companion!) We need to keep Capone happy and healthy so he can tag along with us for a long time to come. This is why I offer this reminder: Include your dog in the health goals you set this year!

Health Goals for Your Pet

How to include your pup in your health goals:

1. Take your dog(s) along on your workouts. Besides walks, consider having your dog join any hikes, runs or beach/swimming trips you might have planned. You can also find fitness classes that include your dogs. In Chicago, for example, where we live, you can find stand-up paddleboard with your pup classes in the summer.

Health Goals for Your Dog — Hiking in the Sedona area a few years ago.

2. Make sure all family members have their regular checkups and get their preventive care done. Capone started this year by visiting the vet for his vaccinations and a checkup. He’s doing great!

3. In addition to tracking your own habits and progress, keep an eye on your dog’s moods, changes, symptoms, exercise, etc. A bullet journal is a great place for this. That way you can notice any patterns or behaviors that need to be addressed and keep everyone in good shape!

Health Goals for Your Dog

4. While reassessing what your diet looks like, take a look at what your pup is eating, too. Check your dog’s food label to make sure he or she is getting quality ingredients. Does your dog’s food contain real meat? Is it grain free? We like Purina® Beneful® Originals With Real Chicken Dog Food (12.5 or 31.1 lb) and Purina® Beneful® Grain Free With Real Farm-Raised Chicken Adult Dry Dog Food (12.5 lb) because both options help us feed Capone real meat and quality ingredients for the right price. You can find these two options, plus all the dog toys and items you need, at Meijer.

Health Goals for Your Dog

Bonus: You can save time by using Meijer’s Shipt or Curbside services. Shipt lets you order your groceries online and have them delivered to your home, while Curbside allows you to add items to your cart and select when you want to pick them up at the store in the curbside lane. Both are super convenient! Just be sure to verify whether your Meijer location offers these services by typing in your ZIP code when you check out Shipt and Curbside online.

You’ll also save on your next Purina® purchase with this MPerk offer: Dog Chow – $1 off 32 lb bag or smaller and $1 off any size of Beneful Dog Food!

5. In addition to watching what you put inside your dog’s body, keep the outside healthy as well with regular grooming, washing and looking for any abnormalities.

When’s the last time you checked your dog food ingredients? Do you like to exercise with your pup?

Connect with Purina®:

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Connect with Meijer:

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MPerk offer:

Dog Chow – $1 off 32 lb bag or smaller and $1 off any size of Beneful Dog Food!

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Health Goals for Your Dog

08/07/2017

Warren Dunes State Park | Testing the Drone!

Recently I shared my camping and road trip essentials and prep list in anticipation of our weekend. We had planned to go to Indiana Dunes, but at the last minute we decided to change our destination to Warren Dunes State Park. It reminded us a lot of Nordhouse Dunes, where we camped last summer.

We tested out the DJI Mavic Pro drone for the first time, too! We only have a little bit of footage because the flying time is only 27 minutes, which was longer than most of the other drones we saw available.

About Warren Dunes:

It’s dog-friendly and the dog areas are clearly marked. They must be on leashes though.
Alcoholic beverages are prohibited and rangers/officers patrol the beach, citing anyone who has them.
You can rent kayaks and paddleboards!
You’ll need an umbrella, because there’s no shade.
Out-of-state residents pay $9 per day or $32 for an annual pass.
It’s only an hour and a half from Chicago, but it took us more than two hours to get home on Sunday evening.

Watch our video at Warren Dunes!

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11/10/2015

Taylor and Capone’s Beach Day

The beach has gone to the dogs. Ask Taylor and Capone, they’ll tell you all about it. We took them to Montrose Dog Beach, their favorite place in Chicago, over the weekend, and they had a blast. In fact, they had so much fun that they napped for the rest of the day. Taylor’s not as young as she thought she was during their beach day, and now she whines when she gets up because her body aches. That’s how I feel the day after I go out. I feel your pain, Taylor.
Check out my GoPro video from their little outing.

Again, we used the GoPro dog harness to capture the fun. As you can see, Taylor guards her ball. Capone doesn’t stand a chance at retrieving it, but he has fun running around.

Montrose Dog Beach, Chicago, dogs, taylor and capone

Montrose Dog Beach, Chicago, dogs, taylor

When she’s ready for you to throw the ball, she has no patience. Throw it already!

Taylor was in her happy place.

I love to see them so happy. I wish every day were a beach day!
post signature Interested in the GoPro dog harness? Shop here.

09/14/2015

Taylor & Capone Take Montrose Dog Beach

Weekends when Graham doesn’t have to work are a blur. We squeeze in as much as we can. This weekend we made time to take Taylor and Capone to their favorite place in Chicago: Montrose Dog Beach.
The dogs know when we are getting ready to leave the apartment, so the excitement begins as we grab their leashes. Capone could not stop squealing.
Montrose is only a few minutes from our place. We suspected it might be crowded and thus tough to find a spot, but it was no trouble at all. I noticed last week that fewer people are out at the lakefront parks. I guess summer really is over. …
I am a Nervous Nelly when we encounter other dogs, and Taylor and Capone can sense that. It’s always nerve-racking the first few minutes we get to the dog beach, but luckily our dogs have never given us cause to worry.
As soon as Capone’s leash came off, he bolted. “Welp, we lost him,” I said. He loves to chase other dogs. He often runs to the other side of the beach before he realizes he can’t see us and hurries back.
Taylor runs straight to the water. It’s her zen. She wants us to throw her ball in the water for her to fetch all day long. She doesn’t tire. If you don’t throw the ball fast enough, she barks “Hurry up!”
The dogs are always good for a laugh, whether it’s when they shake off water directly next to you or when one rams into the back of your knee while playing with another dog. (OK, that actually kind of hurt but it was also funny.)