I think if you have a short coated dog and they just need a good bath and their nails trimmed a little bit, that's certainly something that you can do at home. But when dogs really need their hair to be cut, it’s probably best left to groomers. They know how to do it safely. They know what the breed standards are and they are trained professionals on how to get it done so they can get it done quickly and your dog is happy to have that done.

There are a lot. I'll just go through some of the most common ones. If fleas and ticks ingest enough of your dog's blood, this ingestion can cause anemia or low red blood cell count, which can be life-threatening to your dog—also, there are some common tick-borne diseases that we know. Lyme would be one of the most common ones. And dogs can also be clinical with Lyme disease as well.

When fleas bite, the dog can get irritated skin, including dogs with allergies who may have flea allergy dermatitis. Their skin gets red and bumpy can even get infected. The other thing about fleas is when a dog eats a flea because it's bothering them, they can feel it in their fur; then they can get tapeworms from the flea.

Ticks carry a multitude of tick-borne diseases. The one we most commonly heard about is Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Babesia, Ehrlichiosis, and Anaplasma. Those are just some of the many diseases that ticks can cause in people and dogs.

Heartworm is prevented in dogs by giving a monthly dewormer that kills the larva in the bloodstream and prevents them from developing into adult heartworms.

If your dog is bored, they're going to enrich themselves. If we look in this room, it's not a very exciting room, but this door handle looks pretty chewable. This trim looks nice. My in-laws' dog ripped all of those things off their house. What are you going to give your dog to keep them happy? Lots of attention. You want to make sure that you are not leaving them alone for prolonged periods. If you can give them toys that are safe to play with, that can help. However, you should first observe them play with said toy to make sure the dog isn't going to chew the toy to pieces and swallow bits. Otherwise, that could be a risk. Think of agility dogs. They have holes and tunnels to weave through. You could have rope ties for tug-o-war. You could use a ball to play catch with them, or maybe a paddling pool.

It depends on the dog. If it's a dog that just needs to be bathed and brushed, you've gotten them very comfortable doing that at home, and you can ensure that the ears get cleaned out appropriately, we're not getting soap in the eyes, and that it's not super stressful for the pet, then there's nothing wrong with doing that type of grooming care at home. And I would encourage it to get the pet used to it and make it a positive experience. Anything beyond that, though, such as any grooming that involves clipping or shaving, should really be done by a professional groomer.

They should have all their core vaccinations. Your dog will need four vaccines to be safe around other dogs. The first is a rabies vaccine. Dogs can pick up rabies from wild animals or other dogs, so rabies is a must. They can pick up parvovirus. That's the most common infection that we vaccinate for. That's part of a combo vaccination called a five-way. So we would make sure they all have the five-way vaccine and rabies.

And then for dogs that are socializing, there are two respiratory vaccines—bordetella, otherwise known as kennel cough, and canine influenza. Just like social distancing for COVID, if the dog is not socially distant and they are socializing, then they need those vaccines.

I think that maybe you should ask a veterinarian for recommendations, your neighbors for recommendations. Meet them or read reviews on their website, and then make sure that they have the same goals that you do, which is a good dog. Also, ensure that they believe in the same type of training principles that you do, which would be positive reinforcement. Trainers are usually very knowledgeable. They're very patient. They're very calm. They've seen almost everything before and likely have some excellent recommendations for you to be successful with your dog.

Environmental enrichment is a lot of interactions that you can have with your dog. For instance, when you have puppies, if you take them for long walks and get them outside, and they've seen different things, they're going to come in and be tired. You can play inside games; dogs love to play hide and seek. You can hide and then call them, and they'll come running and looking for you. There are such things as puzzles where you have food, and they have to do a specific little activity to get the food, which exercises their brains a lot.

Tired animals are happy animals; they behave better. Some people take them to daycare so that they've had a whole fun day and experience, and they come in, and they sleep a little bit better that day and the next day. One of the most fun things a dog loves is to explore an environment. They just love to go for a walk; they love the smell things and see things. So all of that is part of their environmental enrichment.

All the dogs should have a distemper and parvo vaccine. Also, they need to have Bordetella, which we commonly call kennel cough. Grooming, boarding, daycare, and obedience facilities will recommend the canine influenza vaccine as well. And then certainly when they're old enough - at 12 to 16 weeks - they need to have their rabies vaccine.