Tips, Tricks, and Safety Advice for Buying Dog Gifts this Holiday Season

Do you need some help selecting dog gifts for this holiday season? You're not alone. There are only so many different kinds of balls, chew toys, and Frisbees that you can buy. Sure, the dog doesn't care if you get him the same thing you bought last year, but there has to be something different, maybe a gift that you can appreciate as much as the dog does. Get him the chew toy and maybe get a dog picture for the wall. Both are popular with dog owners and make great conversational pieces. Gather a group of pet owners together in a room where they can examine a detailed and unique picture of your dog and you'll be certain to have a stimulating discussion.

Many pet owners leave the animal presents till last, so not much thought goes into the selection process. A typical dog owner will choose something that is on the shelf in the dog food isle when he's buying that batch of food for the holiday week. If you shop at a pet store for food, you have more of a selection to choose from, but most folks that go to pet stores for food only do so every so often. If the holiday you want to buy gifts for isn't right around the corner, you probably won't pick something out that day. You'll figure you'll make at least one more trip to that store before the holiday, so you hold off on buying the gift.

Planning Ahead instead of Buying the First Item Seen

If you plan ahead, you won't need to just grab the first item you see that classifies as a dog gift when you go shopping. Remember, you're buying for the dog, but you also want to find something that will be enjoyed and appreciated by you and other family members. That's why balls and Frisbees are so popular. The dog will be playing with someone and not alone, though many dogs do like to bring their ball into a hiding place with them. They crawl into a cubby hole or their dog house and keep it close where they can get to it. It's possible that you might get the privilege of playing with that ball again, but that is entirely up to the dog.

When buying a ball for your dog, make sure it's not small enough for him to choke on. Dogs will eat anything you put in front of them and the purpose of a ball is to give them something to play with, not a snack. Smaller balls can be dangerous because a dog will, get over-zealous and choke on it if you're not careful. Ask at the pet store when you go which ball to get for a dog your size. You can even bring the animal with you. He won't know it's a dog gift for the holidays. Make the trip early enough on the shopping season and you will have a larger variety of toys to choose from. Pet stores sell out during the holiday season just as quickly as human retail stores.

Safety Tips on Frisbees and Chew Toys

Your dog will destroy anything he puts in his mouth eventually. That's what dogs do. If you've given your dog a Frisbee or chew toy in the past, you know that the life expectancy of those toys is not long. For that reason, you need to be careful when you select a Frisbee or chew toy. If the item is going to come apart into little pieces, are those pieces a danger to your dog? Can he swallow and choke on them? Is the paint or dye harmful to your dog? If you buy a standard Frisbee and expect to use it as a dog toy, are you buying the one that was made for that purpose? They do exist, you know. If you go to the pet store you can buy a disc that is specifically made to play catch with your dog. That's a dog gift you'll both appreciate.

Not all chew toys are a good bargain and some are even harmful to your dog. Some of the chew toys marketed specifically for dogs have toxic foam or small beads inside which can be harmful or even fatal to smaller breeds. If you're looking for safe chew toy, try plain cotton rope or go to the infant isle of a supermarket and buy chew toys made for children. They need to go through more rigorous testing and inspection before they're allowed on the shelves. Our pets are very much like our children in that they need us to take care of them, so make sure the toys you're buying for them are safe.

Dog Pictures

Dog pictures, and we're not talking about the famous "Dogs Playing Cards", are another item that sells pretty well around the holidays. One of the trends this year, with digital cameras being the rage these days, is to have a print created from an existing digital picture you took of your dog. This is easily done by any art gallery or photography studio that utilizes digital technology. You don't need to have the taking of the picture itself done professionally, but the printing and mounting in a frame should be left to the experts if you want to have a clear, sharp picture of your dog on the wall.

Pets have been loved by man kind for years. The dog gift industry has been a growing industry since anyone can remember. Thoughtful dog gifts always make a pet owner smile.