If only it was simple and telling a pooch to be safe. Trained though your pet may be, he or she is an animal and can’t be controlled. Anyone who welcomes a dog into their home should know this off the bat. They should also be aware of the dangers that properties present. Owners are worried about the outside world, the likes of water hazards, cars and other mutts, but it’s essential to sort out your room first. Let’s face facts – a home should be a castle, for the dog as well as the homeowner.

Here are four ways to ensure this is the case.

Lock The Drawers

Canines are a curious bunch and they will follow their noses. Seen as household cleaners give off a pungent smell, there’s a good chance the dog will be attracted to the bleach and other detergents. Like small kids, it’s imperative to keep them out of the reach of pets as they can be fatal. Locking the drawers is the only option if there isn’t enough space to move them to a higher storage unit. Latches, similar to the ones on baby gates, prevent dogs from poking their nose in and doing their insides harm. A key and lock also work a treat, too.

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Prune The Plants

It’s an easy mistake to make because you’re human and not a canine. However, as the owner, it’s your responsibility to ensure everything in the house is dog-friendly. As far as plants go, some variations are poisonous. In fact, there are lots but the two main strands are holly and Easter lily. The Spruce has a comprehensive list if you need more info. If you do use these flowers during the holiday seasons, then make sure they are easily out of reach. Also, ensure they are attached securely so that they don’t fall. A simple solution is to remove them completely.

Put Up A Fence

Outside is where dogs get to be themselves. Inside is a little tricky because they are energetic and there are plenty of valuables on display. The garden is a wide open space for them to play without worry. Well, it isn’t as there are tons of hazards in this space also. Clearing clutter is a good start as it reduces the chances of slips, trips and falls. But, don’t forget to secure the garden from external threats. DogsByNina has an interesting piece on electrified dog fences that is worth a read. As well as keeping the pooch penned in, it stops other mutts from attacking.

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Keep A Tight Leash

Don’t take this literally. There’s no need to choke your dog. Instead, it means to keep them close so that they don’t do anything stupid. Pooches aren’t as intelligent as humans and will run out into the middle of the road. Chasing cars is fun but it’s a dangerous pastime. By keeping them on a leash when they leave the house – front, not back – it gives you control during the occasions their instincts kick in.

Has this post made you think about doggy security and your home a little differently?

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Traveling is the great thing anyone can do with their time. It’s the most magical way to expand your mind, open your eyes and make your heart pound with unabashed excitement. It’s the best way to make memories as a family, lasting memories, the kind that will fill your mantlepiece and walls and turn your home into a living, breathing memory box. It’s the most thrilling way to help your kids grow and develop. Traveling is heart-stirring, spine-tingling and awe-inspiring. But it’s also super-expensive.

Sure, it’s got a whole lot cheaper since the days of the Titanic (where you needed to hand over half the family coffers to afford a room with a view), but it’s still packed full of hidden costs. Airport drop-off fees, holdall luggage fees, booking fees, transfers costs, high hotel prices and a thousand other little costs that add up to one massive headache.

That’s why you need to sit down with a pen and write these genius travel hacks into the first page of your passport-slash-diary. Trust us, you’ll save so much on your next holiday, you’ll be able to book three more the second you get back.

1. Find Flight Alerts

One of the most disruptive technologies to change the world of traveling is Skyscanner. But unless you are willing to trawl through each airport option and each day of each month, it can be a tedious process. Our advice: sign up for flight alerts from Scott’s Cheap Flights or Jack’s flight club. You’ll save hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

2. Change Currency Elsewhere

The worst place you can exchange currencies is at the airport. They are notorious for their daylight robbery. In fact, their rates are so bad you’ll go from happy holidaymaker to blood-boiling tyrant in a matter of milliseconds. Our advice: exchange your money at the bank. For not a lot of extra effort, you’ll save a significant amount.

3. Love Day Passes

If you’re going on some interrailing adventure that passes through 45 countries in five days, then this hack may not help you. But if you are going to be in the same city, town or region for a few days, then you’ll want to take advantage of the multi-use, all-day passes you can get. You can use them as many times as you want to get around and see the sights while pinching a pretty penny in the process.

4. Taxi-Free Vacation

We know that taxis can offer a much-needed lifeline when you are in a foreign country, completely lost and don’t know how to say “A to B” in Spanish, but taxis are expensive. Like really expensive. Just look at Ridester if you don’t believe us, which details just how much cheaper the likes of Uber and Lyft are in comparison. What we’re saying is, use Uber or Lyft instead.

5. Big Lunches Rule

For one, everyone loves that feeling of having a big lunch, laying down all afternoon and then only having a light bite in the evening. It’s one of the best. Secondly, you can save a ton of money by eating off a lunchtime menu compared to a dinner one.

Maintaining and improving our houses is something that is at the top of most homeowners lists. Unfortunately, when something goes wrong in the home or needs improving it can add to an already graining load of jobs that need to be done. However, it is possible to stop yourself drowning in a sea of unending jobs, and it entails knowing which ones to DIY and which to outsource to the professionals. Something you can read more on below.

Time

Time is one of the leading factors on whether we DIY a job or get someone in to help us instead. Yes, it is entirely possible that with a little elbow grease and some help from a few online tutorials like the below, you can repaint the entire house, or install a new bathroom from scratch. However, what is super important here is whether it’s a good use of your time to do so.

Will doing so make the rest of your life unmanageable? Will it affect the quality of the relationship you are having with your friends and family because you are too tired and stressed to connect with them in the usual way? Will it be quicker and easy all around to get someone else in? If so, then it’s probably a much better idea to get in a professional to help you out.

Cost

Cost is another critical factor when you are choosing to complete jobs yourself or get a professional to do them. After all, our money is precious, and we don’t want to have to pay more than we need for repairs or refits.

However, sometimes the idea of completing a job ourselves is better the reality. In fact, it can work out cheaper to get a professional like the ones at http://www.calrespainting.com/services/exterior-house-painting/ to paint the outside of your house rather than to do it yourself. Therefore It is essential that you do a realistic cost analysis before you decide to do any job yourself.

Urgency

Next, the urgency of a task has a huge role in whether you choose to hire a professional or do the job yourself. After all, if you have a burst pipe that is flooding your cellar, you will want it done straight away before it creates too much damage.

This can work both ways, however, because it actually might better to get in there and plug the leaks yourself with some rubber, a piece of wood, and a C clamp like they demonstrate at http://watersmartsystems.com/blogs/diy-plumbing-how-to-stop-leaky-pipes-for-beginners.htm.Then once the energy situation is over, you can consider carefully whether you have the right knowledge skills and to go ahead with pipe removal and fix a new one in with solder, or whether you would feel more comfortable asking a professional to do this.

Expertise

Last, of all, expertise is massively relevant in the decision on whether to do things yourself or get in a professional. This reason for this is because if you have the know how to perform a task, and it can be done easily, it would be a waste of money and time to wait for an outside company to come in a do it for you.

However, if you are concerned about your level of skill or safety, relying on an expert can ensure that the job is done right the first time, and you no longer have to worry about it.

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A lot of dog owners do not realize that their pet pooches can experience something that is akin to depression in humans, but it is a lot more common than you might think.

Signs of canine depression include behavioral changes such as becoming withdrawn and inactive, sleeping more and not being engaged in activities that they used to enjoy. If you suspect that your dog is depressed, you should take him to the vet immediately because other illnesses will need to be ruled out and medication may be required (although it is usually a last resort).

Once it has been established that your dog is most likely be depressed, you need to do everything you can to get him back to being his happy, healthy and enthusiastic self. Here are a few things that will help you with that:

Maintain a Regular Routine

When your puppy is down in the dumps, it’s a good idea to maintain a consistent routine so that your dog knows what to expect from his day. That means feeding, walking and playing with him at the same times of day, as well as ensuring that he gets to bed on time.

Engage His Body and Brain

Dogs often come depressed because they are bored. So, although your dog might not feel like it, it can be good to give him little doggy puzzle games to do or to enrol him in a dog obediance training class where he will have to exercise his mind and body, Even just taking him on long walks via new routes where he will see and experience new things could help to lift him out of his terrible mood.

Offer Him More Interesting Food

Although you should do your best to maintain your dog’s regular diet and keep his mealtimes regular, if your dog is depressed to the point where he has lost interest in food, try giving him tasty new treats after he does eat a little, to encourage him to keep eating and to give him something more interesting to look forward to.

Spend More Time with Him

Just spending more time with your dog giving him lots of cuddles and playing his favorite games could be enough to get him over his depression. He will appreciate the extra time and effort spent with you and feel even more loved, which will undoubtedly lift his mood.

Don’t Reward Depression

That being said, you have to walk a fine line between being there for him and rewarding his depression because if he works out that acting in a certain way gets him more attention and tasty treats, he may not have enough incentive to bounce back. It’s tough but most of the time the best way to get around this is by distracting him from the undesirable behavior by engaging him in a quick game of fetch or a little training session to make him forget the behavior completely.

Recovery from depression in dogs, as in humans takes time and effort. Try the above, but be patient and do not expect miracles and you will get there in the end.

Pets are an investment. When it comes to having an animal that depends entirely on you for survival, there’s going to be a lot of money you’re going to have to pay out to make sure your cute and furry friend is happy and healthy in your home. There’s a lot of your savings you’re going to have to use here, but at the end of the day, a lot of us would agree that it’s completely worth it!

However, what are the reasons behind this? Is it simply because they’re little cuties, barking when someone is at the door or meowing for their dinner if it’s even 2 minutes late? And let’s be real here, you might have just got a new puppy, and you don’t quite see how little legs ambling around the house is going to do much more than look cute! So let’s examine some of the best reasons why a pet is going to be so much help for you.

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Their Presence is Good for the Mind

The presence of the pet is going to do a lot for your frame of mind, and if you ever need a good time to calm down, simply stroking them is going to help melt a lot of those worries away. Hey, you don’t even need to have an emotional support cat to be sure when you get home from work or a strenuous day out with friends and family that you can be greeted by something that isn’t energy taxing but still so pleased to see you!

At the same time, you’re never going to feel alone when they’re around. So if someone can’t make it for a night out, or you’re stuck indoors on a Saturday night, put some music on and dance with your pet. Dogs in particular are always ready for a party!

You Can Learn a Lot from Them

Pets are something you’re going to have to take care of for the rest of their life, hopefully, and that means there’s a lot you’re going to have to learn from them to make sure it’s a well lived life. This works particularly well for kids, as when you’re growing up with an animal by your side, you can be a lot more socially developed compared to other kids your age.

You’ll learn how to be empathetic, have a good sense of responsibility, and how to communicate with other living things without always having to use words. And when you’re a child with no good grasp over language, that’s incredibly important! Even as adults we sometimes don’t know how to talk, and having a pet can really encourage you to open up in the right way.

A pet can do wonders for your health and happiness as an owner, and all because of the unconditional bond there is between the two of you. Don’t underestimate it, it’s going to be there as long as your pet is around to help you through the day!

As a pet owner, it’s natural to want the best for your furry friend. Dogs bring a whole heap of joy to family life, but they take a lot of looking after. If you’re thinking of getting a puppy or you’ve recently welcomed a pet pooch to your home, here are some tips to keep your new best friend in tip-top condition.

Exercise

Exercise is incredibly important for dogs. Some breeds require a lot more physical activity than others, but it’s beneficial for every dog to get out and about on a daily basis. Smaller breeds may trot happily around the block, but if you’ve got an athletic dog, for example, a Dalmatian, a collie or a labrador, you’ll need to ensure that your pup gets plenty of exercise. Exercise is good for your dog’s health, but it’s also an essential part of their development and an effective means of boosting your pup’s happiness and wellbeing. If you don’t have time to walk your dog every day due to work or family commitments, work out a schedule with friends or family members or enlist the services of a local dog walker. If your dog doesn’t get enough exercise, they may be prone to weight gain, and they might become unhappy and restless.

Image credit https://kaboompics.com/photo/6224/small-dog-with-warm-jacket

Grooming

Dogs are beautiful creatures, but they need a little TLC to look their best. Dog fur can become matted very quickly and easily, especially if you have a pooch that is adventurous and likes to swim in ponds or roll around in the mud. Brush your dog on a regular basis and consider treating them to some pampering treatments provided by local dog grooming services. It’s important for dogs to have their coats brushed, their teeth cleaned and their nails cut to ensure they look and feel their best.

A dog taking a shower with soap and water

Image by https://www.flickr.com/photos/aquamech-utah/24441595714

Diet

It can be very difficult to resist puppy dog eyes when you’re trying to eat your dinner, but try and make sure that your dog sticks to a strict diet. If you’ve got a bit of turkey or beef going spare, by all means, treat your dog, but avoid giving them foods that aren’t suitable for canine consumption, such as cakes or biscuits. Follow feeding guidelines for the breed and keep an eye on your dog’s weight. Being overweight can increase the risk of complications. A healthy, balanced diet will contribute to a glossy, shiny coat, bright eyes and sparkling teeth.

Image courtesy of https://pixabay.com/en/dog-bones-puppy-pet-dog-food-food-350092/

Health checks

If you’re a dog owner, it’s beneficial to keep in touch with your vet and take your dog for regular health checks and vaccinations. Dogs should be wormed regularly, and it’s also a good idea to check for fleas and ticks.

Picture credit https://www.flickr.com/photos/accdistrict/15641785888

If you have a puppy or an older dog, it’s natural to want them to look and feel as fit and healthy as possible. As a dog owner, it’s advisable to ensure your dog gets enough exercise, to keep an eye on your dog’s diet, to visit the vet for routine health checks and to provide them with a little pampering from time to time.

When you are working with limited outdoor space, it can often feel as if there is not enough room for ornamentation. After all, you don’t want it to feel crowded. However, you will be pleased to find out that as long as you carefully select the right type of ornament and place them well, you can achieve a pleasing result. With that in mind read on to discover two of the easiest and most attractive garden ornaments that you can create that suit a small area.

Concrete balls

Concrete balls are a modern and on-trend look for any size garden. However, they are usually pretty big and can be expensive. Luckily, it is possible to create your own in small sizes so they will fit perfectly in even the tiniest of gardens.

One way to create your own concrete balls first, you need source a glass globe of the right size, while doing this get larger and smaller ones too, as they look fantastic when placed together. Then you need to spray the inside of the globe with a releasing agent, cooking oil can work well. The next step is to make up the concrete and pour it into the ball. Allow this time to set and then break the glass to reveal a perfect ball with a flat bottom that will make it easier to place.

Just remember that safety is paramount when breaking the glass so be sure to use a hammer, safety goggles, gloves, and an old sheet over the globe. Then you can be sure that the glass doesn’t fly up everywhere and become a danger.

Once your ball is complete, it is a good idea to seal it to stop it weathering too quickly. Check out Seal With Ease’s concrete guide for some information on the right product to use for this. Once it is sealed, then your ball will be ready to place.

Hide it in long grass in the borders for a more layered textural effect, or make it the central focus of your small garden for a modern and Zen-like feel.

Clay pot fountain

The best thing about a clay pot fountain is that all you need to make it is a pump kit, a drill, and the pots themselves. Of course, you can use some waterproof glue to keep the different elements together, and some pebbles or slate in the different pools can enhance the look as well.

To create your foundation get hold of some clay dishes and flowerpots. Then pleasingly arrange them so that when you run the pump hose through the highest one the water will cascade down into the dishes. To do this, you can follow the guide below, or make your own design, just remember to place the dishes on top of the upturned pots for stability.

An easy to make fountain perfect for small gardens.

When placing your clay pot fountain remember that you will need to have access to electricity to ensure it runs, so close to the home is better. Although, if you choose a solar power unit you can pretty much place is wherever you like giving you a little more flexibility in your small space.

How much do you have in your savings? If you’re lucky, you might have a few thousand. You may even have ten, twenty or thirty depending on how smart you have been with savings over the past few years. It’s possible that you have always worked hard to save as much you can get each month. If that’s the case, you could have built up a massive amount. But what’s it doing? Usually, it’s just sitting there, and this isn’t a smart move at all. Instead, you should be thinking of how to use this nest egg so that it grows and becomes even more valuable. There are a few possibilities you can consider here.

Do You Own Your House?

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If you do, you can use that nest egg to make improvements on your property. Eventually, you will reach the point where it’s time to sell your home. If you make improvements, you can ensure that the house is more valuable and one day, when it’s time to sell, you can make a fantastic level of profit. It’s a great option if you’re worried that the economy could turn making the money that you have saved worthless. If you invest in your property, you can keep that cash safe and secure in a simple yet effective investment.

If you are going to do this, you should focus on the kitchen and the bathrooms in your home. These are the areas that will add the most value, even if you make smaller changes.

Should You buy Bitcoin?

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Bitcoin is the most valuable currency on the market today. Just one Bitcoin could be worth as much as nine thousand dollars depending on when you buy. Using Paypal for Bitcoin, it’s also easy to get involved in this type of investment securely. You can easily make sure that you get the new currency that you want. Even if you just buy 1 Bitcoin, that will quickly grow in value, and this is the benefit of the investment. Typically, when you invest, you’ll need to wait a while to gain that ROI. With a cryptocurrency investment, you will see massive gains immediately.

Buy A Holiday Home?

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Alternatively, you can think about purchasing a holiday home in a tourist hotspot. If you pick the right place, you will always have a profit coming in each month with people desperate to stay in your home. With this investment, you do need to think about the hidden costs such as maintenance. But you can usually cover most of these with one, easy to afford, management service.

The benefit of buying a holiday home is that one day you’ll be able to sell your old property and retire there. You won’t get rich with this type of investment, but you can make enough money with it each month or even annually to give you an easy life.

We hope you consider these possibilities. They could grow your current nest egg to a whole new level and give you the money you need for a fantastic quality of life now and in the future.

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If you struggle to convince your kids to eat their fruits and veggies and you’re tired of the struggle to get them to just eat something green, instead of trying to convince them by sheer force of will, you might have some success by being a little…well sneaky.

Using stealth to feed your kids healthier foods might not be a long-term solution, but it will ensure that they get the goodness they need until they get a little older and start to feel more comfortable trying new foods.

Sound good? Here are some simple, but stealthy ways to get the goodness in:

Replace Meat with Lentils

If your kids aren’t eating enough healthy beans and legumes, and you want to get more plant-based nutrition into their diets, a very stealthy way of doing so (which will also save you money) is by reducing the amount of minced meat in dishes like spaghetti bolognese with lentils. They blend in very easily, don’t really alter the taste and add some extra nutritional value to pretty much any dish.

Replace Sugary Drinks with Fruit Water

Instead of letting your kids have sugary soda or Kool-Aid, try giving them blackberry water or lemon infused water, and they won’t even realize how much more goodness they’re taking in because it will taste almost as sweet and delicious as the average soda. This is especially true if you use sparkling water as opposed to still.

Liquidize Them

If your kids are really picky and they can spot the tiniest bit of onion at 50 paces, simply cook your veggies and then pop them into the liquidizer before adding them back into your soups and stews. They’ll be virtually undetectable that way.

Make a Pizza Base

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If your kids love pizza, but they hate eating their veggies, trick them into thinking they’re eating their favorite, veggie free food by making a cauliflower pizza base, They’re extremely easy to make, look almost the same and once they’re topped with cheese, tomato and pepperoni, it’s unlikely that your kids will spot the very healthy swap.

Make Vegetable Fries

Kids love fries, right? It’s a shame then that regular potato fries don’t have much nutrition to offer, Sweet potato fries, carrot fries and zucchini fries, however, are a different matter, and they’re just as delicious and easy to make. If your kids are really picky, then choosing veggies that are close in color to fries is probably your best bet for getting them to eat them but if they’re a bit more willing, those orange veggies really do cook up well.

Bake Beets Into Your Cakes

It might sound a  little weird, but beets are a great addition to chocolate cake. You can find many beet cake recipes online, and they’re a really good way of sneaking in goodness because they are amazingly undetectable to the palette when disguised by chocolate. Other veggies that work well in cakes include carrots and zucchinis.

Give these ideas a try, and you’ll be cramming more veggies into your kids than you ever imagined you could.

If your garden was safe, your kids wouldn’t need to wear safety equipment when playing!  (image)

Warning!!! Your garden may be a hotbed for disaster, and we aren’t talking about your flower bed on a particularly hot day. Gardens can be a dangerous place to be, and with summer fast arriving, you need to focus on safety, for everybody in your family. Below is a handy checklist of warning signs to look out for. If you spot any of these dangers in your garden, take the necessary steps to make it more pet and child-friendly before disaster strikes.

Warning signs that your garden isn’t safe

1. There are gaps in your fence that need filling. Young children and pets are liable to escape/explore if there are unboarded exits, so fix any broken fencing as soon as you can.

2. Your lawn is an overgrown jungle. Who knows what lurks in the messed-up tangle that used to be your garden? From sharp stones to garden rakes, the dangers underfoot are many if your grass has grown out of control, so do the right thing, and deal with the undergrowth with strimmers and a mower.

3. The garden is poorly lit at night. When darkness falls, the dangers increase. You and your family can suffer a trip and a fall if you can’t see where you are going, and your unlit garden may also be a great hiding place for would-be burglars (especially if you didn’t follow the tip in #2). So, install some extra lighting, from pagoda lights to security lamps, and shed some light around your home.

4. You have a garden pond. A wonderful feature to be sure, but as you can probably expect if you have young children, there is the risk of them falling in and drowning. A terrifying prospect, but you can reduce the danger by covering it with a mesh or grille, and erecting a fence around the pond to prevent your child getting closer.

5. Garden chemicals are in the open. From weedkillers to pesticides, your children and pets are in danger of poisoning and burns if they get their hands/paws on any chemicals that have been left outside. For starters, store anything that could pose a danger away in your shed and garage, then consider natural methods of garden care that pose no threat to anybody in your household.

6. There are cracks in the paving. From your patio to your driveway, if there are cracks, loose tiles, or any other kinds of surface damage, you are increasing the chances of a fall both day and night, causing bodily injury. Get in a professional to fix your broken stonework, and make sure you have a first aid kit handy for any accidents that may take place.

7. Your children have play equipment. There may be nothing dangerous about your children’s play equipment, provided they adhere to safety regulations, but if there is a chance of a fall (from a climbing frame for example), make sure you have safety mats installed, especially if there are hard surfaces underneath.

Finally

The last thing you want to happen this summer is a trip to the A&E department of your local hospital, so check your garden thoroughly for any possible dangers, and safety-proof danger areas as much as possible. Even if no accidents take place, you will still have peace of mind if you do take precautions.