5 Secrets to Saving Big When Ordering Pet Supplies Online

5 Secrets to Saving Big When Ordering Pet Supplies Online

Photo A. Higgins

If you are like most pet parents, you enjoy scoring a great discount every now and then. Pet expenses are always on the rise and your goal as a pet parent should be to buy quality products and supplies without paying more than you should.



While wholesale places like Costco offer great discounts on pet products, they often fail to match the prices offered online. However, finding the best prices on pet supply stores takes a bit of effort. There are a few tricks you can employ to get the best discounts consistently. Few of these tips are going to be pretty obvious, but you would be surprised how many pet parents actually forget to utilize them. Before we reveal our tips, remember our one and only rule.

#1 Rule: Never Trust a Shady Online Pet Store

Without further ado, the following are 5 secret tips to save big when ordering pet supplies online.

When Possible Buy Generic Pet Medications

Did the vet prescribe an expensive pet medication? Stop the urge to shop at the vet’s office, where you are least likely to get a proper discount. Instead, ask the vet to write down the generic name of the medication. Generic meds are usually significantly cheaper than their branded counterparts and they are identical in efficacy and quality. However, when you order pet meds online, it’s important to buy it from a reputed store (remember our #1 rule). A lot of unethical stores sell counterfeit pet medications and generic drugs are even easier to fake than branded ones.

Become a Member

If you shop at one particular store, then it makes complete sense to become a member. Online pet stores reward members by giving them assured discounts on both pet supplies and medications. The cost of the membership fee is usually recovered in the first few months if you buy all your pet products from one store.

Buy Pet Food in Bulk

Pet food is one of the few supplies you know you are going to need. As long as you have the space to store them safely, it makes sense to buy dog and cat food in bulk. Here’s an example to help you understand how much are likely to save. We compared the same pet food product of different pack sizes after all the discounts. The 15lb pack costed us $2.15 per pound. When we bought the bigger 28lb bag we paid $1.89 per pound. Simply put, you can buy the same exact pet food for a cheaper price per pound if you buy in bulk. This is barring the fact that most online pet stores give you additional discount coupons for buying more at a time.

Keep Multiple Tabs Open to Quickly Compare Prices

Okay, this one’s super obvious, but something that most shoppers simply forget to do. Before you do this, however, remember our #1 rule. Don’t trust a shady online pet store offering massive discounts. Keep multiple tabs open of sites you know and trust and compare the prices after adding items to the cart and applying coupons. This is the final price and that’s what matters at the end of the day.

Hunt For Coupons

Hunting for coupons at independent coupon sites is a great way to score additional discounts. You can even check the coupons section on the online pet store website.

Healthy Pets, Happy Owners

Your best friend is loyal, loving and always has your back, so it makes sense that you want to take the very best care of him that you can. Naturally, you give him all the best quality food he needs and exercise him regularly, not to mention all the cuddles he gets but when it comes to his medical needs, what can you do to keep him in tip-top condition?

Like finding a doctor, sometimes finding the right vet can require a little research and patience. There are vets who definitely prefer one type of animal over another and when you’re spending out good money on treatments you want a professional who knows your dog’s needs inside and out.

Here’s what you can do to make sure you’re getting the best healthcare for your best furry friend:

Take A Trip

When you book your first appointment with the vet make sure you take a good look at the facilities. 

How clean and well kept is the waiting area? Are there any obvious hazards or signs that it’s not well cared for or cleaned regularly?

Make sure you get a sense if the reception staff are well organised and seem on top of signing in new patients.

When you talk to the vet about your dog, do they seem interested and friendly? Look for a rapport that you can build on and monitor how friendly and genuine they are with you pet. It might seem inconsequential, but do they talk to your dog in friendly terms and actively seek to reassure them or just get on with the job at hand?

Go with your gut feeling and if you don’t feel comfortable with the vet, ask to change or seek out a new practice.

Image courtesy of Pexels

Insurance

Unless you want to take the risk, you’ll probably want to insure your pet so make sure the practice you register your pet at accepts your insurance provider.

If you don’t have dog insurance then shop around for the best deals and find out how much it’s going to cost to protect your pet. The older the dog, the steeper the premiums are likely to be so it’s worth covering them as puppies with a lifetime plan. As your dog ages and trips to the vet become more frequent, you’ll be glad you opted to keep up your monthly premiums.

Your best friend is so much more than just a pet, they’re who you come home to after a long day at work and who you can rely on to always be there to cheer you up or make you laugh with their antics. 

Pay them back for their unswerving loyalty with healthcare tailored just for them. A friendly vet who makes the process of a visit that much easier and a practice that takes care of its guests properly.

Take out insurance that helps ease the financial burden of vet bills and enjoy the immense privilege and fun of being a dog owner.

Bella to the Rescue-Search Dog Training Video

Here is Team Bella in training.

Owner handler Mark is working Bella.

They are training with the author to be certified 

for K9 Search and Rescue (SAR) 

This is Trailing not Tracking! 

Enjoy the show!

Bella is a 3 year old family pet who really enjoys her new job!

Follow Bella's progress on Facebook 

How to Train Dog to Return to Owner or Handler

 Teaching Refind or Return to Handler

Teaching your family dog to “refind” or return to handler after they find a person or object is another way your dog can indicate or alert you of the find. 

Area search dogs and air scenting dogs who work off leash to cover large areas of land like in an avalanche are usually taught upon finding a person or evidence to return to their handler and bring the handler back to the person or location. 

Dogs who work on a leash have the handler with them; therefore there is no need to go back to the handler. I teach my Bloodhounds to take me back to my truck or home on command because I seldom know where I am once we trail a person several miles in the woods. 

Back to the truck !

I teach my dogs by simply telling them “let’s go home” or “back to the truck” each time we start back after we are finished with the training session or real search. Then if I am ever lost, I know, I can ask my dog to take me home or to the truck. 

Family Disaster Dogs on and off a leash can use this skill to bring people and items back to you if you are unable to move or wish to stay with another person. If you are sheltering in place then you can send your dog out to get an item and bring the item back to you.

Let it be known that some breeds of dogs will not “backtrack” or return the way they came. Bloodhounds and other hounds especially do not like to go backwards on the same scent trail. Some breeds and bloodlines are bred not to backtrack and when a dog is trailing and tracking we do not want them to backtrack because this defeats the purpose. 

Another reason backtracking is not encouraged or bred for is that if a dog encounters a place where the quarry or person walked in circles the dog will get lost in the scent overlapping on its own trail.  

A good hound will hit a place where a person or animal walked in circles and go right in one side of the circle then out the side the person exited while another dog will smell and smell, going in circles themselves trying to figure this puzzle out. Give time they might figure it out or sit there and look at you to figure it out.

Daisy doesn't want to go back the way we came

With backtracking in mind, if your family dog refuses to go backwards on a course to return to you or the person then you may have a very smart dog on your hands that you have to out smart by taking a different route back.  Just move a little bit to one side of the original trail the dog traveled on, maybe 30-50ft so your dog gets a chance to use a different path to reach you.

We do not want to teach them to backtrack either so moving off of the course is a good idea and changing the locations will help too.

Refind and return to handler can be taught at the same time as all the lessons here at Family Disaster Dogs.  This skill is incorporated into your other lessons as you practice with your dog you will add the instructions below into the end of the lessons.

Always praise your dog for a job well done.

Instructions

To teach your dog to return to you after finding a person you will send your dog to search or find them as detailed in the other lessons.

When your dog arrives at the person the dog is rewarded by that person then told by the person to “go back” or use your own name, like “Go to Joe”. 

You stay a distance away when your dog finds the person and you call your dog back to you after the other person praises your dog. 

You praise your dog when they come back to you then ask your dog to find the person again, sending the dog back to “refind” the person.  When the dog refinds the person the second time, if you are not there by then, the person should send your dog back to you again until you reach them as a team. 

Repeating this will help your dog learn they are bringing you to what they have found a person. And, they are not only running between two people. Dog’s like to have a purpose for what they are doing otherwise it is play.

You should adjust the distance between you and your dog according to your own dog’s way of working. Some dogs run along at a fast pace while others work slowly. Some find the person long before you get there no matter how hard you try to keep up while others might seem to take their time smelling every bush. Each dog is different. 

The trick is to give your dog space to find the person and return to you. So don’t follow to close at first then later add more distance to the space your dog has to cover to return to you. As you give the dog more distance to cover they will learn to find you as you get out of sight and to bring you back to the person as both of you come back together.

In time and with practice your dog can be sent out to search over a large area of land to scout and pin point locations for you then come back and take you to those locations.

Adding refind or return to handler to area searching and evidence or building searches saves you valuable time because your dog alone can cover much more ground that we can. 

When your dog is searching every item they find that holds the scent of the person they are looking for will be found too. This is evidence of where the person has been.

When your dog takes you to objects you must always believe the item belonged to the person you seek because your dog is showing you a clue. Trust your dog.

In the next lesson we’ll be discussing sending your dog to retrieve first aid kits, food and other emergency supplies by name that you might need if you are trapped or unable to leave people who are injured. 

After over 30 years working with dogs, I really do believe any dog, any age, any breed can learn to do some of the lessons here to help their families and loved ones be safe and survive in an emergency situation. 

The smallest or oldest dog can learn to bark or nudge you in an emergency to alert you to danger, every dog is able to help in some way just as they would as a group or pack. Never underestimate your dog. 

Please pass these lessons on so others may benefit.