10 Items Every Dog Parent Should Have

| You already have a phone full of pictures and a heart full of love for your dog, but I thought I would share a list of some of my all-time favorite dog products that you should probably have as well! I’m sure you actually have some of these products at home already, but hopefully my list will introduce you to at least one thing you hadn’t thought about getting yet.

I’m not sponsored by nor do I make money directly from any of these brands or companies, but I do receive compensation for sales through these custom Amazon ads that I’ve made for you. If you see something that you like in this article, these links are safe and placed there by me for you to click through and shop!

Preview the List:

  1. Emergency Window Decals
  2. Hand-Held Shower Head
  3. Removable Dog Door
  4. A Carseat or Seatbelt
  5. Pet Wipes
  6. A Good Carrier Bag
  7. Doggy Doorbells
  8. Nanny Cam
  9. A Good Clean-Up Plan
  10. A Night Light

PS – How freaking adorable is baby Penny in her carseat?! I can’t even…

#1 – Emergency Window Decals

Why You Need This:

These emergency stickers are crucial for all pet owners, especially those of us here in California. Thankfully, where we live is southern enough that we haven’t been personally affected, but it’s so difficult to conceptualize the fact that our state is constantly on fire. One tiny thing we can do to be safer is to put one at every entrance to your house so that firefighters know there are pets inside if there’s an emergency when you’re not home. This is especially important to me because I crate Penny when I’m not home, so she’d be totally trapped if they didn’t know to go help her! There are tons of options for these online, but I’m pretty sure they also sell them at home improvement stores. If you have multiple pets, make sure you get one where you can specify how many of each type are inside.

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#2 – Hand-Held Shower Head

Why You Need This:

If you’re bathing your pet without using one of these, you’re probably working way too hard! It looks and works like a regular shower when it’s up in the top clip, but you can take it down to bathe your dogs. There are tons of options for controlling the flow of the water, which is nice because I like the harder pressure standard setting and Penny prefers the lower pressure standard setting. Trust me, I can tell by her body language – when I use the softer pressure, she sits down and makes that adorable satisfied-squinty face. Having one of these makes bathing Penny so easy because I can rinse underneath her and get all of the suds out of her long hair without having to use a cup or my hands. She also enjoys the feeling of a shower versus just having water dumped over her head!

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#3 – Removable Dog Door

Why You Need This:

These things are amazing because they allow you to add a pet door to any sliding glass door! That way, there’s no need to ruin your regular doors by cutting holes in them or to hire expensive contractors to install a dog door in your house. In order to install these removable dog doors, especially if you want to install the locking mechanism, you will need to drill a couple of small holes into the sliding door frame. This doesn’t cause much damage to the door frame and is usually fine in a rental property, but if you’re worried about it, you should probably talk to your landlord first. The size of the actual pet door increases with the overall width of the panel, so be sure to consult the sizing guide when ordering. You want to get a door that your pet can fit through without having to crouch their legs at all; I actually bought Penny the next size up so that she could fit out there with her toys and more of her friends could use the door too. Large dog owners should be mindful of the security risks involved with getting a door big enough that people can easily crawl through. Almost all of the dog doors, however, come with a sliding cover panel that locks from the inside.

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#4 – Doggy Carseat or Seatbelt

Why You Need This:

It’s extremely important to keep your dog safe and secure in the car, especially when you’re driving alone with them. Holding a small dog in your lap while you drive is so dangerous for both of you… Even if your dog is in the backseat, having any size dog loose in the car can be a huge distraction. If somebody else is driving and you want to hold your pet in your lap, that’s fine – I’m not going to say I don’t also do that all the time! However, when I am driving, I try to make a conscious effort to buckle Penny into her carseat. If you watch all of my IG stories, you’ve probably seen her riding shotgun in a little bed and that is because she wants me to pet her with my right hand while I’m driving with my left, which is something I’m working on doing less of. Carseat training (teaching them to ride quietly in the carseat) does take some practice and needs to become a habit for both dog and owner. If you have a larger dog, there are tons of seatbelts on the market that clip onto their harness and into the seatbelt buckle. Remember to use a harness – never tether your dog by collar in the car – because whether they are in a carseat or on a seatbelt, they could launch forward in an accident.

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#5 – Pet Wipes

Why You Need This:

When your pet has a dirty face or messy paws and you don’t feel like giving them a full bath or taking them to the groomer, these wipes come in so handy!  Wipe down their whole body to freshen them up in general or just clean their snout after a particularly stinky meal or treat. Be careful to keep the lid closed because the wipes will dry out pretty easily if exposed to air for too long, but you can always rehydrate them with a splash of water. Pet wipes come in a variety of different scents and formulas, but they’re all equally necessary for dog parents to have on hand!

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#6 – A Good Carrier Bag

Why You Need This:

This one obviously is for small dog owners, so skip it if your dog is too big/heavy to carry in a bag! However, if you do have a small dog, you know that a lot of times they either need to or want to be carried and having your hands full is never a good thing. Having a carrier bag is the perfect way to carry your small dog, as well as some of their stuff, and have both hands available at the same time. A carrier bag is different than a travel carrier because it’s a lot smaller, which makes it so much easier to handle, and doesn’t fully enclose the dog. There are a million options for dog carrier bags online and I’ve seen them at almost every store that sells pet stuff, so you shouldn’t have a hard time finding one that works for you and your dog!

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#7 – Doggy Doorbells

Why You Need This:

How does your dog let you know that they need to go outside? Do they bark, whine, scratch the door, scratch at you, or all of the above? It’s so much easier when they can just go over and ring a bell, letting whoever’s closest to the door know that they’re ready to go out! It was very easy for us to teach Penny how to ring the bell (we have the little hotel style one) by putting it on the floor by the back door and ringing it whenever we opened the door for any reason. After a few days, I heard it ring from across the room and knew my little genius had figured it out! There are a lot of videos online about teaching your dog how to ring each different style of doggy doorbell.

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#8 – A Nanny Cam

Why You Need This:

To be honest, we actually don’t use our dog camera (we have the Furbo) that often, but when we do, it’s a true lifesaver. It allows you to check on your pet remotely, through both video and audio, over an app on your phone and you can even throw them a treat via the machine! Every camera has different features, but they all are equally useful for pet owners that have to leave their pets home alone for any amount of time. I don’t really think I need to list all of the reasons you might want to spy on your dog!

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#9 – A Good Clean-Up Plan

Why You Need This:

Dogs make so many different types of messes in your house… Their treats can leave gross marks on the carpet, their feet can track dirt and mud all over the house, and even the best trained dogs have accidents every once in a while. You need to have a good multipurpose pet stain cleaner in your arsenal and there are so many on the market. I’ve actually tried all of the ones in the ad block below and honestly they all work about the same, which is very well!

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#10 – A Night Light

Why You Need This:

Here in San Diego, during Day Light Savings Time, it gets dark at like 4:30 in the afternoon… However, no matter where you live, it’s important to have a lighted collar or a light on your dog’s collar when you’re walking them after dark. If you’re walking your dog on a leash at night, it helps other people be able to see where they are and gauge how long the leash is, especially when they’re lowriders like Penny. Even if you’re just letting your dog out into the backyard at night, it’s important that you can see where they are.

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