Ten Ways to Save Money (and still keep your dogs)

Because it is a truth universally acknowledged that the owner of a pet must spend a lot of money, pet stores frequently try to persuade pet owners into parting with their cash in the name of love. Since I have more principles than I have money, here are ten money-saving tips I use every day:

1. Use dog kibble as treats. Despite dog kibble being marketed in large quantities as food, they taste and look like small, bite sized treats to dogs. Some dogs are fussy about variety, namely they don't like eating something that tastes the same day in and day out. To these dogs, kibble aren't treats because they're boring. But other brands and flavours of kibble still are! If you have a dog like this at home, pick up tester packs from dog magazines, vets and pet stores and use them as treats. Buy a small pack of kibble (maybe the posher kind if you like) and use them only as treats to your dog. As an added benefit, they are one treat that can be eaten by puppies as soon as they are weaned, since many manufacturers tend to avoid making treats that are tolerated by very young puppies.
2. Find out your dog's toy texture preference so you can pick toys that he'll like. Different ages of puppies and dogs have different texture preferences. For example, Beanie likes hard, almost wood like, or plasticky textures that she can crunch into. She also prefers chicken flavoured toys to bacon flavoured ones. Bailey likes string, rope and cloth textures. Neither of them like soft rubber very much and both love shredding paper and cardboard. My winning combination of cheap toys are: a towel or rope soaked in gravy, braided then air dried; used water bottles, the harder the plastic the better. Boxes or toilet rolls (subject to supervision).
3. Use your old discarded pillows as dog beds. Obviously there's a size constraint to this one, but it should work up to a medium size dog. There are several benefits: 1) there isn't really a difference between an old pillow and a specially made, dog friendly, flat bed. Except the price. 2) Your scent on the pillow would make a world of difference to your dog. It would be reassuring and demonstrate your presence to a puppy, and even an adult dog will be able to sniff 'you' on it. 3) Because you were throwing it out anyway, the obvious damage your dog may do to it is limited to being suddenly far less naughty.
4. Newspapers can be pee'd on just fine. This is one of those things that I keep telling myself: what did people use to use before pee pads were invented? There are special solutions out there that attract your puppy to pee on newspapers, in case they aren't used to the texture or smell of it. These do work. If you're not parting with your penny buying eau de toilet, take a tissue sample of real puppy pee from one of the accident clean-up sessions and smear it on the newspapers. They trick the puppy into thinking they did it right in the first place, which sets off a positive spiral.
5. Buy life-time products only once... in a lifetime. There are some things you only need one of, regardless how many dogs you have. These are: nail clippers, slicker brush, a round ended pair of scissors, a doggy first aid kit (if you do get those). With these items, especially if you are planning to DIY for most of the grooming, it's worthwhile investing a fair bit of money and getting a good set, especially one that you protect from the kids and well meaning in-laws, so that you can learn to use them and use them well, for the rest of your or your dog's life.
6. Human things frequently cost much less than doggy things. Especially, grooming scissors, shampoo and conditioner, food/treats, vitamins, towels and fleeces. Increasingly, good and relatively inexpensive human stores have also cleverly branched out to selling doggy things. See my other post for Favourite Doggy Things to Buy from Human Stores.
7. Gain economies of scale with more than one dog. Buy certain non-perishables in bulk. Unless there are special medical reasons for doing so, my dogs are on the same shampoo and conditioner, the same brand of worming tablets, the same flea and tick treatment, the same food, obviously they use the same pooh bags, towels, cleaning up stuff and have different coloured leads. They also share the same treats and chews, in general. It's the stuff you end up buying and using infrequently that add to the cost of doggy ownership, not necessarily the things you think about - food and water and shelter - that a dog relies on every day.
8. The simple solutions are the best solutions. One of the things I've noticed with pretty much all pet stores is the increasing number of pet-keeping/managing/grooming/training gadgets there are out there in the market. No doubt the burgeoning dog owning population is one of the most untapped and profitable markets out there, but you gotta wonder how people had dogs that were well trained before all these inventions came about, and why homeless people have the best behaved dogs. Decide for yourself what the bare essentials are for you and your dog, and resist the urge to get another gadget that promises to save you xx minutes of your time. Dogs are creatures of habit, chances are all the time you'd save doing things a new and easier way would be outweighed by the learning curve you and your dog have to go through anyway.
9. Human food can cost significantly less than specialized dog food. It's a sad time of our lives when the food we eat cost significantly less than the food our dogs eat. Either our dogs are eating particularly well (which I doubt) or we are eating particularly poorly as a civilization. One dual-dog owning friend of mine switched recently to cooking simple recipes for her dogs with food and meat obtained from the supermarket. Not only are they far less processed and therefore healthier for the dog, they're also much more economical to run in bulk. Just remember that if you're taking on cooking all of your pet's food that you're consulting appropriate recipes to ensure a healthy and balanced diet (that's the one thing kibble takes care of!). More recipes can be found at My Dog Eats Better than my Husband.
10. Stop paying for the gym membership and use your best friend. Odd as I thought it would be, doggy owning friends of mine complain about needing to walk their dogs 3 times a day, and yet find the time to go to the gym to work out at least 3 times a week after work, not including those classes offered by the gym to help one stay healthy. Two most frequently quoted reasons were: 1) my gym instructor is a hard nut and would kill me if I quit, so I need the persuasion to work out. And 2) You get a balance of cardio and weights at the gym which you won't get at home. #1 makes me laugh - for one, there isn't a human I know that is more persuasive than my dog, and despite getting me to brave all sorts of weather to walk with him, I can still never get mad at my dog (or stay mad for long). And as for #2 - dog walking and spending time with your dog isn't only about a slow, long, leisurely walk, which is the frequent impression most people have. Build in sprints and games to vary the pace for a good cardio workout, play tug games with your dog, or practice lifting/carrying them around the house for endurance/weight training (overweight retrievers please apply!).