How to Take Care of a Pet with Disabilities

A Man's Best Friend

A man's best friend comes in all shapes and sizes. For some, it may be another human that we get together with to talk, work on projects, or to go do an activity with; but for others it may be in the form of a pet whether it be a dog, cat, horse, or who knows maybe even a lizard. No matter what a friend looks like to us in life they were still put in our lives for a reason.

My Vision for This Blog

In this blog I am going to share my experience with taking care of animals, different technics I have used over the years, what I have learned, and dig into the advantages/ disadvantages of having a pet.

My Expirience 

In my opinion, I think that owning a pet can be a really fun and rewarding experience.

Over the course of 20 years, my family has owned pets including about a million fish, lizards, hamsters, bunnies, birds that my sister would try to rescue, cats, a horse, and of course dogs. I can't be sure but I think we like animals just a little bit😉. With having this many animals though, each of them taught me a different level of

• Responsibility
• Time management
• Loyalty
• Compassion
• Living in the moment 
• Unconditinal love

But more resently with dealing with four dogs at once with two having massive behavior problems it has taught me to 

•  Be Patient
• Analysis how I react to stressful situations
•  Not make quick decisions when stressed and frustrated
• Be proactive in finding a solution
• Keep working with them because practice makes perfect 

As I continue to work on learning these different lessons with our four current dogs I have noticed that by talking in a calm voice even when frustrated to them will allow them to feel more calm in which they will be more willing to do what we want them to do at the time rather than them shying away because they are scared and resisting what we want them to do, using training tools like barxbuddy to correct bad behavior that doesn't hurt them, and being patient as we work with them will is beginning to help in changing a stressful situation into an enjoyable one like we had with a previous pets.

Bang! I want that dog!!!

Choosing a pet can be a challenging process with trying to decide on a pet, finding a good place that has that type of pet, and choosing the one that has the personality that is the right fit for our family. This wasn't a problem for my sister and I when we were trying to decide on a golden retriever to adopt. It was a sunny spring day and after searching online for the perfect place that still had golden retreivors that were available for adoption we made the decision to make the drive out in the middle of nowhere to see if any of the puppies would be a good match for our family. After what felt like the longest car ride in history we finally arrived to a cute white house that was surrounded by beautiful green rolling hills on all sides in which the owner greeted us in the drive way. From there she lead us around the back of her house where there were roughly ten to twelve babies and their mom. For roughly forty-five minutes our parents stood there talking to the owner while we played with the dogs trying to decide which one we wanted. It was a tough descion at first because all the puppies looked the same, were all fluffy, and very playful; but just varied in size. We stood there in the middle of the sea of puppies asking ourselves how we were going to make the final descion on a dog. A few moments later our dad picked up a tennis ball to throw for the mom. As she ran off into the distance to get the ball one of the babies; which happened to be the runt of the litter chased after her as fast as he could to keep up with her. At one point they came across a brick wall that the mom leaped over to catch the ball; but the baby was too small that he attempted to just over the wall but instead ended up running face first into it with a big bang. He stumbled backwards to sit down, shook his head, and let out the saddest cry. We set down one of the other puppies and bolted to his rescue and as we lifted him up into our arms we turn to the direction our parents are standing and yell out "we want this one."

That is one of my favorite memories. Henry was such a good boy and to this day is still one of my favorite dogs we have owned along with our  pomeranian chihuahua Annie.

Technics to Easily Take Care of a Pet as a Disabled person

I have always been really mature for my age with being responsible for doing things like my school work or chores without being told; but with taking care of a pet I've always been on top of taking care of all our pets from the time I could walk and physically do everything that was required to take care of that pet to my ability. As I got older I came across a few technics that helped make some of these tasks a little easier to do with my disabilities. These technics include;

• Putting the dog food in a easy to open dog food container 
• Putting the serving size offood for each dog on a plastic cup for easy measuring 
• Add clean up after pets to my chore list since that was one thing I always got done no matter what 
• Use a gardening bucket with a Walmart bag inside and a one handed poop scoop to clean up after dogs

Yes these may just be simple technics that some people may already use, but to a person with disabilities it makes a big difference when helping out with taking care of pets. By having a good routine down has helped me easily take care of my pets while still having time for the fun moments with them and time for myself. With this being said, what are some advantages and disadvantages of taking care of a pet.

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Owning a Pet?

Taking care of a pet I will say brings along a mixture of emotions with one moment be glad that my family has our four legged furry friends and the next wishing that it would just be easier if it were just us. Come to think of it though, there are many different advantages that comes up with owning a pet.

Advantages of Taking Care of a Pet

There are so many reasons why having a pet is one of the best experiences with each pet providing it's own advantages, but for me I am glad I have pets because

• They have their own unique personality
•  They will love us no matter what
• They are people pleasers
• Teach us valuable lessons
• They love to be with us 
• They assist us when we are in need

These are just a few of the many advantages of owning a pet; but there are also some disadvantages of owning a pet.

Disadvantages of Owning a Pet

On the other hand though with having a pet also comes with some challenges when being a pet owner. Some of these disadvantages include;

• Finding someone to take care of them when going on vacation
• Having the money for vet costs when they come up
• Worrying about them when gone for a long period of time
• Meeting the needs of the pet

To Conclude

Owning a pet is a wonderful experience that people with disabilities can easily do on their own. Best friends look different to everyone. For stone they may have a stronger relationship with other humans, others may have a stronger relationship with pets, or they may fall in the middle like my family; but the important thing to keep in mind is that their is a friend out there for everyone and they are put into our lives for a reason.