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032: Pet admin
679 Plays4 years ago
This episode will give you all the hacks to ensure your pets are a stress reducer not a stress inducer
Looking after a pet properly is a long term proposition. Cats and dogs live on average 10 human years and the responsibility of their welfare adds up over time. It's important to think about how to make it easier for yourself and use your life admin systems to share it with other members of your family.
Mia and Dinah discuss:
- all the admin related to pet ownership, including:
- pet registration
- purchasing pet food
- veterinarian visits
- pet insurance
- grooming
- obedience training
- exercise
- pet daycare
- putting together a pet emergency kit
- holiday care.
- how to use your life admin systems including cloud storage, shared calendars, To-Do Lists and Reference Lists to make all your pet admin as simple as possible
- other hacks including pet supply subscription services, online options for obedience training and sharing the load with friends with pets.
Money Smart advice on pet ownership including pet insurance
SHAREPlease head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook page to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.
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Transcript
Introduction to Savings and Life Admin Hacks
00:00:00
Speaker
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00:00:30
Speaker
This is Life Admin Life Hacks, a podcast that gives you techniques, tips and tools to tackle your life admin more efficiently, to save your time, your money and improve your household harmony. I'm Diana Roberts, an operations manager who now owns a dog, but in the past has had the joys of pet scorpions, guinea pigs and even stick insects.
00:00:53
Speaker
I'm Mia Northrop, a researcher and writer who has an ancient cat and fends off weekly requests from my kids for sausage dogs. It's not going to happen kids.
Managing Pet Responsibilities Efficiently
00:01:02
Speaker
This episode will give you all the hacks to ensure your pets are a stress reducer, not a stress inducer.
00:01:09
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Life Admin Life Hacks. We all want a cuddly warm friend to come home to, but responsibilities and costs required to properly take care of your pets are real and they can easily become just one more part of the mental load that falls to you. This episode will talk about all of the admin related to pet ownership and how you can use your life admin systems like cloud storage, shared calendar and to-do lists
00:01:34
Speaker
to reduce the burden of your pet ownership. Looking after a pet properly is a long-term proposition. Cats and dogs live on average 10 human years, and so the responsibility of their welfare does add up over time. There's lots of things to think about, aren't there, Mayor? Let's go through some of the things that you really need to take care of when you're looking after a pet.
00:01:57
Speaker
I got lots of resources out of Animal Welfare Victoria, the government website for this research, and I learned some things. I learned some things and I felt like a bad pet owner after reading some of it. I'm like, oh my God, I'd never do that. And it's interesting because some of the things they talk about, they actually provide stats of
00:02:17
Speaker
What is the, you know, what is the prevalence of this going on in society? So obviously there's a bit of a disconnect about best practices and what people actually do.
Benefits of Pet Registration
00:02:27
Speaker
But, you know, they start off with the ideas around pet registration and making sure that your pets registered with your local council, which you might do when you first get your pet and it's brought home from the vet and it's got its microchip and it might have its tags. But then when you move, if you move, you know, you need to register it with the next council
00:02:44
Speaker
And a lot of people don't bother with that. They kind of feel like, I don't know, what do my fees go to? It's a bit of a money grab situation. But those fees actually go towards maintaining dog parks and providing poo bags and shelters and providing all the people that look after animal welfare in your area. So it's not just about the little tags that you get in the mail.
00:03:04
Speaker
you're supporting the whole infrastructure in your council area about how they look after dogs and cats and train people and manage restricted breeds and all that kind of thing. So registration is something that I really still had to sort out when I moved and I learned a lot about.
00:03:21
Speaker
Where my fees go? And I think that's a really good thing to make sure you save in your shared storage, like your cloud storage drive. We've got a little folder with our pet and all of the things related to that in there. So I think that's a really great document to keep. Yeah. Yep. Good idea.
Vet Visits and Pet Insurance: Is it Worth it?
00:03:38
Speaker
And so I guess, you know, pet registration is one of those things that might happen once or once every X number of years, but there are a lot of day to day concerns, often, you know, food, the feeding, I feel like I'm always feeding my cat.
00:03:50
Speaker
Yeah, so food's one of those things that's inevitable for pets as well as humans. So thinking about making it easier for yourself in terms of bulk shopping. If you've got the storage, you're using Costco or going to a pet supply store so that you can get the largest packs you can afford, which will usually save you money in the long term. And just the convenience of having it on hand and not running out.
00:04:14
Speaker
Yeah, and that's where subscriptions can also help. So there's increasingly online pets, food supplies, subscription services, which can actually deliver it right to your door on a regular cycle. So you can really sit and forget in terms of making sure that those necessary supplies arrive all the time.
00:04:33
Speaker
Yeah. Another major aspect of pet admin is their health and thinking about how often they're going to the vet, having a vet that you like and that your pet likes. You hear horror stories of some vets in their manner with humans and you kind of
00:04:51
Speaker
understand, yeah, I can see why you're working with animals. A good vet is amazing the way that they can connect with your animal. So you should be thinking about an annual wellness visit for your pet as like a preventative measure, not just taking them when they're sick or they're injured.
00:05:07
Speaker
Some animals are very good at hiding when they're in pain or they're discomfort because it's an instinctual thing so they don't look weak, so they don't look like they, you know, can lose their territory or be dominated. So you might not actually know when your cat or your dog or your little small mammal is sick. So you should be taking it to the vet on an annual basis. And that's where they'll do the vaccinations and worming and fleas and dental care. And you can pick up subscriptions for some of those things as well.
00:05:35
Speaker
And that's the kind of thing that needs to go in the shared calendar as well. Unless your vet sends reminders, you know, once a year, put it in the calendar so that it doesn't fall off the radar and you realize, oh God, when was the last time I took Snoopy to the vet? It's probably time.
00:05:50
Speaker
And unfortunately the vet, it's not a cheap visit usually. So we really need to think about the cost of it. So that's where you might want to think about taking out pet insurance. There are different types of pet insurance and there are lots of parallels here to wading through the complexity that you have with private health insurance. But really with pre-existing conditions, meaning that you can't, it's very difficult to get cover for a pet that is older or already has an illness.
00:06:20
Speaker
So it's something really to think about very early on when you first get your pet. You might also decide not to take out pet insurance and to put aside some money over time to think about putting it towards the cost of treatments. And that might be a better option for you and your pet. You can have a look on the Money Smart website. They've got some great summary information that might help you decide whether you should get pet insurance.
Pet Grooming and Training Resources
00:06:43
Speaker
Yeah, we'll include a link to that in the show notes. What was interesting about researching pet insurance is I thought, okay, well, if you kind of need to get it at the puppy stage, you might want to get it if you've got one of those breeds that are notorious for getting certain illnesses or complaints. But often those breeds, everyone knows that they're notorious for getting
00:07:02
Speaker
sick and so they can be either really expensive to insure or you can't actually get insurance for those. So yeah, it is an interesting area in terms of the cover that they provide for accidental illness or comprehensive, which might include some of the routine vet checks. It is a little tricky to work out the value that you might be getting. But yeah, Money Smart can help you in that direction.
00:07:25
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Another factor that you might want to consider about how you're planning is grooming your pet. So you might have a breed that needs regular coat clipping, or you might have a cat that needs regular brushing. And your vet can recommend a good service if you're not sure where to go. And there's lots of Facebook groups that we can recommend local options as well.
00:07:45
Speaker
But again, that's something that you might want to schedule in the calendar and have a discussion so that it's a shared responsibility if you're living in a household with others and not always up to you. And I did learn from that animal welfare website that elderly cats need brushing once per week because when they get old, they can't reach all the places they used to be able to reach. And so I suggested you help them out each week with a little brush, which I have started doing and my cat's like looking at me like, you know,
00:08:15
Speaker
I'm 16. What are you doing? This has never happened before. I think that it can get more complicated. I know that our vet recommended that we brush our dog's teeth. Things like that. If you really want to be diligent about looking after your pet, setting up systems to remind yourself to do that, either in a to-do list or a shared calendar, means that if it's important to you, that you'll actually remember to do it.
Planning for Pet Emergencies and Holidays
00:08:42
Speaker
That does make me laugh because half the time I can't even get my children to brush their teeth, let alone try and get my cat's gum selfie. Obedience training, again, this is where a vet can recommend a service. It's good to remember that training is as much for the humans as it is for a dog.
00:09:00
Speaker
I know you were mentioning before that during the pandemic when dog training isn't as readily available in some places, that there are a lot of resources online, a lot of YouTube videos that have some really good advice and techniques on the dog training front. Is that something that you've had to do for your little whipper snapper?
00:09:18
Speaker
Yeah. So we actually used a person who came to the house and gave us a family training session rather than going to puppy schools. So that was a really much more time-effective way of intensively agreeing how we were going to work with our dog rather than committing ourselves to group training over six weeks. Yeah. Okay. And in terms of your, you know, exercise and play is also a big factor with a dog. What's your approach for that? What's the, what are the best practices there?
00:09:46
Speaker
Pre-pandemic times, it was really important to make sure that there was a daily schedule for who was going to exercise the dog in terms of whether it was myself, my daughter, my husband, or whether it was our babysitter or a paid dog walker because getting that daily walk in. So that was really important part of our weekly schedule.
00:10:05
Speaker
I was shocked to learn that only 37% of owners take their dogs on a walk every day. I reckon that's gone up since the pandemic. Everyone's out there as much as they can with their dog. The dog parks look pretty full.
00:10:18
Speaker
Actually, one thing we haven't talked about, Mia, is doggy daycare, because I know that that's also something that people use on a regular basis and thinking about that's just as much complexity as childcare in terms of both choosing one, but also agreeing drop off and pick up. So that's again, something you need to think about putting into calendars so that it's clear who's doing the drop off and pick
Efficient Pet Care Management Tips
00:10:39
Speaker
up.
00:10:39
Speaker
Absolutely. What's becoming sort of more necessary these days is thinking about having a pet emergency kit. So if you live in a bushfire or a flood prone area or a cyclone area or some other area where there can be extreme weather events or these sorts of natural disasters.
00:10:57
Speaker
then you need to factor your pet into your emergency plan. So this needs to include food and water supply. You want the water in some kind of bottle that's not going to be spillable. You need about three days worth. And also thinking about, all right, if we have to leave in a hurry and evacuate, take our pet with us, you want to be able to easily get leads, some kind of carrier or cage and some bedding, and if it's a cat, some litter.
00:11:21
Speaker
You also want to might not need to nominate a backup person to care for your pet if something happens to you or you can't get to your property for some reason. So if there's a neighbor or people at a local that you know from that have pets as well, talk about what that backup arrangement might be.
00:11:37
Speaker
I'd also have a handy list of any boarding canals or catteries or animal shelters so that if you have to leave hurriedly and you need to temporarily rehouse your pet, you know where it can go. Because in a very stressful situation, it's not something that you want to leave to the last minute. And also you should ensure that your cat or dog or other pet is microchipped and tagged so that if there is some kind of emergency and emergency services, find your animal that you can be reunited with it as swiftly as possible.
00:12:07
Speaker
And the final thing to think about is going on holiday, although it might be some time that happens for us again. But I must admit it has been a tension point in our household because it really puts me off even for going away just for one night, thinking about the complexity of organizing care for our dog. So having some systems in place to make that as easy as possible.
00:12:32
Speaker
having a kennel that you can use. Some kennels offer online bookings and pick up and drop off. So using something like that might really reduce the hassle of getting away.
00:12:43
Speaker
making sure that including this responsibility is on your holiday reference list. So when you're planning a holiday that you think about it really early and also developing a reciprocal arrangement with friends can really help if you will look after their pet and they can look after yours and getting that established really can make things much easier.
00:13:04
Speaker
Yeah, there's been a lot of instances where we've been going on holiday literally the day before, or the morning of, you're like, the pet, the cat. Oh my God, we have, you know, what are we doing? We have to make an arrangement. We've used a service called Lonely Pets Club before where it's a pet sitting service. Obviously with cats would prefer to stay at home because they're so territorial. So they have a service where they'll come to your home and
00:13:28
Speaker
play with the cat and feed it. And they'll also bring in your mail and water your plants and do a few other things. So it's quite a good service. But yes, definitely needs to be factored in to the planning process. And ideally, again, a shared responsibility that it's not just you thinking about what's going to happen to the cat while we're away. So, Mia, we've already talked about a bit of it, but what other things have you done to make the admin of your pet ownership a bit easier?
00:13:57
Speaker
Yeah, so in terms of food, I do buy bulk. I go to our local pet supply store and buy the biggest sack of kibble that I can lift and get it into the back of the car. And similarly,
Financial Aspects of Pet Ownership
00:14:09
Speaker
I buy the biggest packs of meat pouch food or if I'm getting fresh meat, just the biggest I can.
00:14:15
Speaker
And it all goes in a cupboard to reduce the number of times I need to go to the supermarket and also to bring down that cost. I do wonder when I buy the massive sack of chicken flavored kibble, how sick of it she gets because it lasts for months and months.
00:14:30
Speaker
By the end of the sack, she's like, really this against you? Yep, sorry. And then because I've moved recently, I did have to go through the registration process and it was very smooth. Just filling in a form online, got the tags sent in the mail. And with my annual vet visit for her, it was something that used to slip off the radar. My vet went from a manual
00:14:51
Speaker
kind of system to putting everything online. And then suddenly I'd start to get reminded that's been useful. But often my cue for that is when her worming medicine goes out. So there's these little, you know, those little things you squeeze on the back of their neck and there's a certain supply of them for a certain number of months. I usually got like a year's worth at a time. And I know that when that runs out, it must be time to go back to the vet. How about you, Diane? What's your admin look like for your dog?
00:15:19
Speaker
Well, we did actually put off buying a dog for a very long time because I knew that the extra burden would fall on me. So I have actually put quite a bit of thought into making sure that it's as simple as possible. So I use petcircle.com.au, which is a food and supply subscription service. So that takes care of all of our food, the flea and worm medication, and also even the bags to pick up the dog poo in.
00:15:47
Speaker
So it means that it comes on the right cycle, so the pet food comes every six weeks, and together with that comes the poo bags and the flea thing comes when... So all of that means all of those supplies we don't have to think about, but also if we need to get something new like a new lead or a new bed, you can very easily add it to that order and it just gets delivered. So that's one less thing to worry about.
00:16:13
Speaker
In terms of grooming, we have added the washing of the dog to the shared calendar. We really try and get her washed once a month on a Sunday afternoon. So making sure that it's clear whose responsibility that is. Our daughter does the washing, but she just needs someone to take her to the dog wash place. So making sure that that's in the calendar once a month. The poor dog is not getting washed at the moment in pandemic days, which is stinky.
00:16:40
Speaker
and washing her at home is just a debacle. So when you say a dog wash place, is that like where the car washes are and there's usually like a dog wash bed? Yeah, so the special sink thing that you can wash the dog in. We have also, you can have the dog wash that comes to the house, so we've tried that out.
00:16:59
Speaker
But actually, this one's way cheaper, so we've agreed that. And my daughter's happy to do it. It's just that she needs someone to drive her there with the dog. So just keeping that in the calendar. We also have put the phone number for the kennel in our holiday planning reference list. One of the things you have to hand over when you take your dog to a kennel is having a vaccination certificate. So making sure that that's saved in the cloud storage drive so it's much easier to have it accessible to give to the kennel when you drop the dog off.
00:17:29
Speaker
And in terms of dog walking, I already mentioned that, but making sure that it's really clear every day whose responsibility that is so that the dog doesn't miss out on her walk, which results in a barking dog, which is not fun for anyone. And did you explore pet insurance? What was your take on it?
00:17:48
Speaker
Yeah, so I, of course, did all the maths of the pet insurance, as I'm prone to do. I might have even created a spreadsheet. And I really, I decided against it because it doesn't really cover everything. You know, they have all these kind of copayments and, you know, limits. So on balance, I think it's better for our family to put money aside in case something happens and to pay for it when it happens rather than paying into pet insurance. Yeah. What about you, Mia? Have you got pet insurance for your cat?
00:18:18
Speaker
No, no. I just go, and if something needs to happen, I just hand over my credit card and just look at the ceiling while I watch how many digits they type in and all that, you know, she deserves good care. The vet has provided excellent service. This is how much it costs. I think it's another whole episode to actually figure out the cost of pet ownership and whether you should really get a pet. Because I think that's probably the main challenge is that people
Engaging Listeners with Admin Tools
00:18:48
Speaker
get a pet when they actually probably can't afford one for me to think about. So pet admin is clearly something that can just sort of happen on autopilot, but it's worth taking some time to implement some hacks. Our top hacks are to use your calendar, to do and reference lists to make sure these activities are captured and planned for. And if you're in a shared household that you can delegate and share these responsibilities.
00:19:13
Speaker
consider a recurring order for pet supplies from a website like Pet Circle and make sure that the health care for your pet is something that you plan for and isn't left to when they get ill or hurt.
00:19:25
Speaker
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