Keep Your Pets Safe for Chinese New Year!

Hi everyone,

With Christmas and New Years eve behind us, that should be it for many of us as far as the festival seasons are concerned! But Chinese New Year is more and more becoming something celebrated not just by those with roots in Asia but becoming a fun and cool festival to get us out of the January blues and look forward to a fun day out in early February.

Now that’s great for us humans and just like most of us I too enjoy a fun-filled day out, sadly as far as our four-legged (or three in the case of Nubia) companions are concerned this means yet more disturbing noises! From fireworks to loud music or simply just the change from having friends and family over to celebrate this event.

This is why it’s important to ensure that your fur-friend is safe and happy during this time! After all, they ARE part of our family!

How to best approach this will obviously vary a bit depending on whether you have a cat, dog or another type of animal companion but the basics are the same!

1. Ensure your pet has a safe hiding place in the house to which they can come back to at any time. Ideally, you’ll want to set up a type of den / hidden bed a few weeks in advance of the event that’s expected to be causing loud noises from fireworks or music. Think about which part of the house your pet likes to spend most of their time in!
2. If your cat is an outdoor cat DO NOT let them out shortly before the event or during the event. While fireworks and music can already be quite annoying to your companion while they are indoors it can be absolutely terrifying to them in the open! In fact this doesn’t just apply to cats a good friend of ours went out for a walk with her dog and a fireworks cracker went off literally just above her and the puppy and sadly the puppy has never been the same since, always frightened outside that something might “attack him”
3. Use extra calming remedies to help your pet(s) cope with the event. Our purrsonal recommendation here is Pet Remedy which offers a natural solution to stress using their unique and patented blend of Valerian absolute oil with Vetiver, Basil & Clary Sage. These essential oils have a tiny molecular structure which makes them very concentrated, aromatic, and easily able to cross the brain-blood barrier. What’s even better as it’s not pheromone-based you do not require to have a different remedy for each species in your household! May it be that you have a household with cats, dogs, birds, rabbits or even reptiles, this product will work on all of them as it mimics the bodies GABA (gamma amino butyric acid) which is a natural calming agent present in all mammals, reptiles, and birds.
   

   Their products are available in plug-in diffusers, battery operated atomisers for rooms without plugs or difficult to reach plugs, sprays and wipes to give you the choice of what works best. Again remember to start using a plugin or atomosier at least a few days before the event as you don’t want to wait for your pet being totally stressed out by the event.

4. If you have a young pet in your household that might be experiencing this for the first time try and make it a “positive encounter”. The first time encounter is what your pet will often remember for their whole life so the less stressful you can make it the more likely your pet will cope well with these in the future! It’s especially important to be with your pet during their first encounter of fireworks as you simply can’t anticipate how they will react.
5. If it’s an event during the cold season of the year such as now it would also be worth creating a warm space in one of their safety zones. When opting for a heated pad to do so, ensure to pick one that complies with safety standards. Our own recommendation is once again to go for a Pet Remedy product as their heated pad was originally created for the veterinary industry for post-ops, doesn’t get too hot and features two internal thermostats for extra safety.
6. So you have followed our tips but your pet still got frightened? Try to be calm, give your pet the space it needs to relax and let it find one of the comfort zones you created. The last thing you want to do is panic yoursel as this is likely to further upset your pet. Instead be calm so that your pet knows it’s safe and will calm down themselves.

We hope you found these tips useful and do let us know in the comments what your own top tips are when it comes to keeping your fur-friend calm!

Thanks,

Marc