I don't know that I can give a 100% guarantee on that, but we can do an excellent job with the products on the market now. The current product that we're using is called Simparica TRIO. It's all-in-one flea, tick, and heartworm prevention in a single pill, given once a month. I think it's the easiest thing that we've had in recent history to control fleas and ticks, but it's also extremely effective and super safe. The best we can do is give that prevention. And then, especially with ticks, we have to do those daily tick checks, as dogs and even our cats come inside. Just do that once-over check on your pets. One thing I've heard that works well is using a lint roller when your dog comes inside. Just kind of roll that down their back, and you can pick up those tiny little ticks that you may not be able to see very well on your fuzzy dog.

Preventative care can mean many different things, but the gist of it is knowing what you can do to keep your dog as healthy as possible for as long as possible. I think we all want our pets to live forever. I certainly do. That's not realistic. So our second-best goal is to keep them going as well as possible for as long as possible. Preventative care is the best tool that we have for that, by being proactive rather than reactive.

Pilling a cat is a funny concept, but some cats really handle it well. So the best thing to do is kind of grab the top of their jaw. It's called the maxilla, this bone here. Maybe bring down their lower part of the jaw and just pop the pill in, close their mouth, and massage their throat. But oftentimes cats take liquids better, so measure up the prescribed amount, pop it in the mouth, and encourage them to swallow.

Change in behavior is a really big indicator for cats. Like I said, a lot of times they're very stoic when something wrong is going on, so definitely consider how they are normally, so if they aren't so normal now, bring them into your vet to be assessed.

We don't always want to just throw medications at animals. We want to consider things like how they are at home. Are they eating too much? Could they lose some weight? Do they have arthritis? If they lose some weight, that will really help a lot.

Enrichment is one of the most important things you can do for your pet. It’s easy to think my dog's happy sleeping on the couch while I'm gone because that's what they do. And in some ways, that's true, but it's imperative to think about the fact that our dogs are intelligent creatures that need stimulation. That doesn't mean that we need to be entertaining them 24 hours a day, but it does mean that we need to consider that in our daily lives. And it doesn't have to be labor-intensive, as there are so many different YouTube videos and resources on the website on DIY enrichment.

It could be as simple as taking a cardboard box and feeding half of your dog's dinner in there mixed with some paper shreds so that they have to dig around and tear a little bit to get their dinner for the night. Keep in mind that anything like that should always be supervised, so they're not consuming things they're not supposed to, but enrichment means working your dog's brain and making their life more than just the box that is your house. Get out and let them sniff on walks. Also, walks don't have to be a 20-minute speed-walking marathon. Really let them sniff, let them see the world, and let them interact with the world—obviously on a leash and in a controlled way.