New Year’s Eve is upon us; it’s time to celebrate all the best parts of the past year and look forward to a new start in 2020 - not only the start of a new year, but a new decade! Whether you’re watching the fireworks on tv or at home; having a few drinks with loved ones; or just having a quiet night in, it’s important to think about our pets at this time of year. Like halloween and Guy Fawkes Night, New Year celebrations often involve fireworks which can be detrimental to your pet’s stress levels. If you live in town, noisy New Year’s party goers may also cause your pet distress. Here we suggest a few things to help keep your pet happy and stress-free this New Year:
Exercise Your Pets
Ensuring your dog or cat has plenty of stimulation during the day, will hopefully wear them out enough to keep them restful in the evening. Take dogs on a long walk in the afternoon. If it’s a nice enough day, perhaps play a Game of Fetch to get their mind stimulated. Cat owners should get the Cat Toys out of the toy box and encourage your cat to get hunting those feathers and catnip toys. Hopefully, tired pets will be less bothered by any fireworks or, for those in towns, noisy revellers out and about in the early hours.
Also, getting out and about with your pets is a great start to those New Year’s get-fit(ter) resolutions too!
Distract Your Pets
If they’re not sleepy or the noise levels wake them from their slumber, offering your pet something nice to focus on will distract them from everything else going on. Give them some tasty treats, perhaps a puzzle toy with some treats inside which should keep them occupied for a while. Hopefully this will help keep their stress levels down.
For dogs, we have a host of chew toys, some with tasty treat prizes, that will keep them playing for ours - chew toys are a great solution for all kinds of destructive behaviours caused by boredom or stress.
For cats, the range of Senses toys and activities by Catit are a great idea. Each item can be used alone or in conjunction with other items from the range to create a multi-sensory playground for your felines. They'll be so enthralled with their new toys that they won't notice the fireworks going off in the background!
Prepare a Cosy Den For Your Pet
We advise giving your pet a safe space at all times of year, but it’s essential on occasions such as New Year when the festivities might get too much for them. A crate furnished with bedding and a cover is our recommendation for dogs as it offers privacy and comfort when they just want to get away from the rest of the house - pop a Chew toy in too to keep boredom levels low.
For a cat, we’d suggest a high scratch tree with covered hideout. Cat’s like to be high up and feel safe when they can retreat to a private space. Whatever space you provide your pet, make sure they are comfortable and maybe add a blanket so they can curl up and feel protected if need be.
Background Noise
We mentioned distraction earlier - if toys aren’t enough, then turning on the tv or radio may help drown out any noises outside. Pick something calming if possible; the last thing you want to do is add the noise of a loud action film to the New Year’s celebrations.
Pet Calming Products
We have a range of premium calming products for pets that are great for any situations that could cause them distress or nerves. These are ideal for travelling, moving home or any other time when your pet might get stressed by a change to routine. We have sourced balms, sprays, room diffusers, calming jackets and edible treats. Shop our range here: anxious-pet
We hope our tips help you and your pets this New Year's Eve. However you decide to celebrate this New Year, we hope you have a happy and healthy one and wish you all the best for 2020.
If you have any questions about this article or have any other queries, please do get in touch. We’ll do our best to help in any way we can.
