Emily
My dog's 2nd birthday is coming up fast, and we're going to through a party for him and all of his puppy friends. I'm just looking for ideas for the party. Anything helps, I'd love a recipe for a dog safe cake, but I also need ideas for activities, party favors, things to have on hand just in case, etc.
He is a chihuahua, but there will be dogs of all sizes, including huskies, pit bulls, other chihuahuas, little terriers... So, any activities should be easy for any dog to do.
Answer
Pet Birthday Party Ideas
Decorations
If the festivities are for Fido or Fluffy, draw paw prints leading to your door with sidewalk chalk. Then cut pet-appropriate shapes out of poster board (bones or fire hydrants for dogs, fish or mouse shapes for cats, etc.) and hang them from the ceiling or from trees if you're having the party outside.
And don't forget to decorate the pets themselves. If your pup digs dress-up, go ahead and put on the dog with a party hat or even a tuxedo shirt or tutu. If not, give man's best friend girl's best friend, courtesy of a collar studded with diamonds (okay, rhinestones). If you're celebrating a feline, stick to the fancy collars (leopard print, perhaps?), since most kitties don't care for fashion shows.
Tips
If you're throwing a pooch party, by all means, invite your pet's canine pals as well as their owners. Just keep the guest list small and the party time to two hours so the dogs don't get too stressed with too many animals around for too long. Plus, you need to know that all the guests play well with your pet as well as other dogs, so save introducing your Rex to your new buddy's Spot for another outing. Should you invite compadres without canines? Only if they're rabid dog lovers who absolutely adore your pet.
Hold the party in your fenced-in backyard or at a nearby dog park for less muss, less fuss, but be sure to indicate an alternate date or location in case of bad weather. And keep lots of pooch poop bags on hand for any presents your pals' pets may leave behind.
If you're celebrating your kitty, limit the guests to just your family â cats prefer to keep to their own turf. Likewise if the party's for your iguana, hamster, cockatoo, clownfish or tree frog. While you and your immediate relatives are no doubt devoted to your animal pal, your human pals won't likely be as psyched about partying with your pet.
Activities
No matter what kind of pet you have, build in time for playtime. Get dogs' tails wagging with fetch or tug-of-war. If your party's in the dog days of summer, fill a kiddie pool with water and let the canine guests go for a dip. Let Kitty chase a piece of yarn or a flashlight beam in a dark room for feline fun (just expect a catnap for both of you afterward).
For a dog party, have a pet parade, particularly if the canine guests came in costume. You might also hold a talent show where old dogs show off their new tricks. If there will be kids at your dog's party, paint their faces to look like a puppy's.
If kids are attending, have them woof, meow or otherwise "sing" "Happy Birthday" to your pet in his or her own language. At parties just for your pet and your family, take time to present your pet's presents and play with them with him or her.
Food
Keep your top dog (or cat) top of mind when planning your menu. For a pooch party, make puppy chow (or, as Chex calls them, Muddy Buddies), the snack food that looks like Purina but tastes a lot better, and serve it in small dog bowls personalized with each pup's name in paint pen so their owners can take them home later. Add hot dogs with all the fixings and a bone-shaped birthday cake and you're set for human food.
For your canine guests, offer dog biscuits and other treats from the pet store or a pet bakery. Just make sure to keep the pooch food on a separate table from the people food, since some doggie delicacies can be easily confused with human ones.
Kitty parties call for fish â fish flakes for the guest of honor and filets for the humans. You might also set out bowls of Swedish fish and Kit Kats for your people and catnip for your pet. For a purrfect kitty birthday "cake," give your cat a can-shaped helping of Fancy Feast with optional mayonnaise frosting.
Drinks
For a pup party, offer people water, a Salty Dog or a Red Dog or Southpaw Light brew, making sure to stick a bottle in a doggy bag for a little hair of the dog the next day. Give the Rovers Bowser Beer, a nonalcoholic, noncarbonated beer for dogs made with malt barley and beef broth (no, we're not kidding).
For a cat party, whip up a punch bowl of Tom and Jerry, and serve water or milk flavored with chocolate malt powder or vanilla syrup. Just save the milk for the humans, not your feline, since many adult kitties are actually lactose intolerant.
As a final flourish to truly pamper your dog or cat â it is their birthday, after all â pour a Bark Vineyards' varietal (a nonalcoholic "fine wine for the canine and feline" made with meat juices) over their food. Cheers!
Pet Birthday Party Ideas
Decorations
If the festivities are for Fido or Fluffy, draw paw prints leading to your door with sidewalk chalk. Then cut pet-appropriate shapes out of poster board (bones or fire hydrants for dogs, fish or mouse shapes for cats, etc.) and hang them from the ceiling or from trees if you're having the party outside.
And don't forget to decorate the pets themselves. If your pup digs dress-up, go ahead and put on the dog with a party hat or even a tuxedo shirt or tutu. If not, give man's best friend girl's best friend, courtesy of a collar studded with diamonds (okay, rhinestones). If you're celebrating a feline, stick to the fancy collars (leopard print, perhaps?), since most kitties don't care for fashion shows.
Tips
If you're throwing a pooch party, by all means, invite your pet's canine pals as well as their owners. Just keep the guest list small and the party time to two hours so the dogs don't get too stressed with too many animals around for too long. Plus, you need to know that all the guests play well with your pet as well as other dogs, so save introducing your Rex to your new buddy's Spot for another outing. Should you invite compadres without canines? Only if they're rabid dog lovers who absolutely adore your pet.
Hold the party in your fenced-in backyard or at a nearby dog park for less muss, less fuss, but be sure to indicate an alternate date or location in case of bad weather. And keep lots of pooch poop bags on hand for any presents your pals' pets may leave behind.
If you're celebrating your kitty, limit the guests to just your family â cats prefer to keep to their own turf. Likewise if the party's for your iguana, hamster, cockatoo, clownfish or tree frog. While you and your immediate relatives are no doubt devoted to your animal pal, your human pals won't likely be as psyched about partying with your pet.
Activities
No matter what kind of pet you have, build in time for playtime. Get dogs' tails wagging with fetch or tug-of-war. If your party's in the dog days of summer, fill a kiddie pool with water and let the canine guests go for a dip. Let Kitty chase a piece of yarn or a flashlight beam in a dark room for feline fun (just expect a catnap for both of you afterward).
For a dog party, have a pet parade, particularly if the canine guests came in costume. You might also hold a talent show where old dogs show off their new tricks. If there will be kids at your dog's party, paint their faces to look like a puppy's.
If kids are attending, have them woof, meow or otherwise "sing" "Happy Birthday" to your pet in his or her own language. At parties just for your pet and your family, take time to present your pet's presents and play with them with him or her.
Food
Keep your top dog (or cat) top of mind when planning your menu. For a pooch party, make puppy chow (or, as Chex calls them, Muddy Buddies), the snack food that looks like Purina but tastes a lot better, and serve it in small dog bowls personalized with each pup's name in paint pen so their owners can take them home later. Add hot dogs with all the fixings and a bone-shaped birthday cake and you're set for human food.
For your canine guests, offer dog biscuits and other treats from the pet store or a pet bakery. Just make sure to keep the pooch food on a separate table from the people food, since some doggie delicacies can be easily confused with human ones.
Kitty parties call for fish â fish flakes for the guest of honor and filets for the humans. You might also set out bowls of Swedish fish and Kit Kats for your people and catnip for your pet. For a purrfect kitty birthday "cake," give your cat a can-shaped helping of Fancy Feast with optional mayonnaise frosting.
Drinks
For a pup party, offer people water, a Salty Dog or a Red Dog or Southpaw Light brew, making sure to stick a bottle in a doggy bag for a little hair of the dog the next day. Give the Rovers Bowser Beer, a nonalcoholic, noncarbonated beer for dogs made with malt barley and beef broth (no, we're not kidding).
For a cat party, whip up a punch bowl of Tom and Jerry, and serve water or milk flavored with chocolate malt powder or vanilla syrup. Just save the milk for the humans, not your feline, since many adult kitties are actually lactose intolerant.
As a final flourish to truly pamper your dog or cat â it is their birthday, after all â pour a Bark Vineyards' varietal (a nonalcoholic "fine wine for the canine and feline" made with meat juices) over their food. Cheers!
Question about DIY vaccines for dogs?
Erin
I'm going to order the combo vaccine for my dogs and do it myself. They already have their 3 year rabies, and have already had a physical exam done this year. I'm just unhappy with my Vet right now and want to save myself the hassle and money of them doing it. I'd get charged another exam fee, a travel fee since they are a mobile Vet, on top of $20 per vaccine.
My question is about vaccine manufacturers though. I'm ordering from Dr. Foster & Smith, and they have 3 different manufacturers for the vaccine I'm looking at. Does anyone have any recommendations on which to go with?
-Canine Spectra 7
-Solo-Jec 7 Plus
- Univac 7
I would love to hear from people who have done this on their own!
You actually don't have to go through your Vet for combo vaccines. In my State you only have to go through them for the Rabies Vaccine, which they already have. I'm very comfortable with my dogs and I have no worries about it.
Vaccines are actually very easy to administer. Vets would like to make you think otherwise because they want you to pay them to do it. Many Vets also don't tell you that doing vaccines EVERY single year can be very harmful to your pet and shorten it's lifespan.
I've done so much research on this, I know what I'm doing. My question is about the manufactureres (and I know for a fact that many Vets use these manufacturers), so please don't answer if you can't help with my question.
I also wish people would read my question. My dogs have their rabies shot, have had their yearly exam @$45 a dog, have been tested for h/w and are on prevenative!
OBVIOUSLY I take care of them and they are not being kept from the Vet! MY pets see the Vet more often in a year then some do in their whole lives!
I'm beating a dead horse here... but yes, I have done my research! I've spoke with my Vet about this too! Dr. foster & Smith requires you ship 2 day air, so they are shipped properly and I have no worries about that. I don't really care if another Vet will accept my vaccines, the rabies is the only one even required here and that has already been done by a Vet.
My dogs are big. A Belgian Malinois and a GSD. We take them for walks in the woods, and we also live near a wooded area where there are racoons, skunks, opposums, you name it. I feel that Lepto is the right choice for us, and I wouldn't even do it if they were small. I already know that small dogs can react very badly to it. Some people really need to just answer my question or don't say anything at all!
Thank you to those who have actually answered my question! I REALLY do appreciate it. :)
And P.S. $20 a vaccine + $45 for another exam= $65 x 2 dogs = $130 + a $20 travel fee = $150!!!
So it is way more econonomical to do it myself! Thanks
Thanks for the tip felicia! I will do that.
Answer
I have vaccinated my own dogs/horses for years (excluding canine Rabies and Bordetella which has to be done by a vet). In the state I moved from most vets would willingly sell vaccines OTC, but in the state I'm in now they don't.
I have never purchased vaccines from a catalog.
I get my vaccines from a very busy local Co-Op feed store. The things I am careful about is that I don't want some vaccine that's been handled improperly (allowed to sit out at room temp for a day). Those become basically worthless when given (leaving the dog poorly or completely unprotected). For me personally.. I worry about them getting hung up in the mail system somewhere and/or sitting in a warm post office over the weekend. I like our busy co-op because they have a high volume of farmers / ranchers in there and I believe if they had problems with their vaccines people wouldn't be trusting them to buy their vaccines from them. I take a cooler with me and have an ice pack in it. When I buy them.. they go right into the cooler and when home if I don't give them right away they go into the fridge. Most always I give the vaccine the same day I buy it.
You indicate your dogs are mature so I always go with the full combo Distemper/Parvo + Corona etc. My personal dogs are large so I always go with the 7 way. There have been reports in years past that the 7 ways were causing to much stress reaction in the tiny breeds so people backed off to the 5 way.
Fort Dodge and Vanguard are manufacturers that I always look for but it doesn't mean the other brands are bad. I'm just a creature of habit.
Always CHECK the expiration date on the vaccine before you buy it.
ADDED:
evsrin
There are little stickers that you can peel off of the vaccine bottles. Keep those...put them on a piece of computer paper. Under each set of vial stickers write down the date you gave the vaccines, and the dog(s) - name, breed, description & age - on each page. I have never had a boarding facility (or my vet) not accept those as valid proof of vaccination.
.
ADDED #2
You're welcome Evsrin.
Legit -
I have a dog file in my file cabinet and I just keep everything all in one place to keep it easy. I even lay my dogs rabies tags on my scanner and make copies of those in case they lose a tag. Since most dog parks require that your dogs be vaccinated (and occasionally ask for proof) I do keep an envelope of pertinent dog vacc copies in there too. Easy Peasy..
.
.
I have vaccinated my own dogs/horses for years (excluding canine Rabies and Bordetella which has to be done by a vet). In the state I moved from most vets would willingly sell vaccines OTC, but in the state I'm in now they don't.
I have never purchased vaccines from a catalog.
I get my vaccines from a very busy local Co-Op feed store. The things I am careful about is that I don't want some vaccine that's been handled improperly (allowed to sit out at room temp for a day). Those become basically worthless when given (leaving the dog poorly or completely unprotected). For me personally.. I worry about them getting hung up in the mail system somewhere and/or sitting in a warm post office over the weekend. I like our busy co-op because they have a high volume of farmers / ranchers in there and I believe if they had problems with their vaccines people wouldn't be trusting them to buy their vaccines from them. I take a cooler with me and have an ice pack in it. When I buy them.. they go right into the cooler and when home if I don't give them right away they go into the fridge. Most always I give the vaccine the same day I buy it.
You indicate your dogs are mature so I always go with the full combo Distemper/Parvo + Corona etc. My personal dogs are large so I always go with the 7 way. There have been reports in years past that the 7 ways were causing to much stress reaction in the tiny breeds so people backed off to the 5 way.
Fort Dodge and Vanguard are manufacturers that I always look for but it doesn't mean the other brands are bad. I'm just a creature of habit.
Always CHECK the expiration date on the vaccine before you buy it.
ADDED:
evsrin
There are little stickers that you can peel off of the vaccine bottles. Keep those...put them on a piece of computer paper. Under each set of vial stickers write down the date you gave the vaccines, and the dog(s) - name, breed, description & age - on each page. I have never had a boarding facility (or my vet) not accept those as valid proof of vaccination.
.
ADDED #2
You're welcome Evsrin.
Legit -
I have a dog file in my file cabinet and I just keep everything all in one place to keep it easy. I even lay my dogs rabies tags on my scanner and make copies of those in case they lose a tag. Since most dog parks require that your dogs be vaccinated (and occasionally ask for proof) I do keep an envelope of pertinent dog vacc copies in there too. Easy Peasy..
.
.
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Title Post: Dog Birthday Party Ideas?
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Thanks For Coming To My Blog
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