July 29, 2017 In Uncategorized By Jessica Shyba

Bringing Puppy Home

This post is sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim, a research-driven pharmaceutical company standing for innovative healthcare products for people and animals for more than 130 years. All opinions are my own. Please see below for additional disclosure.

We hadn’t been living in the suburbs of the Bay Area for a week before we started seriously considering adopting a puppy. Our lives in NYC prevented us from having a car or a dog, so our first order of business when we moved was purchasing a vehicle that would fit the five of us. Somehow we managed to find a decent sized rental home in a heavily saturated market that would also consider allowing our car and potentially a dog, too. Soon after we purchased the car, we began taking trips to our local shelters and doing a little research. Having spent our childhoods with dogs, my husband and I were eager and excited to bring a puppy into our young family’s lives.

Theo came home with us when he was just a puppy. He’d been picked up on the side of the road with his siblings, his mother nowhere in sight, and while he needed the warmth and comfort of his siblings, the shelter was also ready to find loving homes for these young babies. My own children were also young, Beau being just 17 months old at the time – relatively similar in human to dog years. We spent a lot of time holding him and watching him explore his new surroundings. I wasn’t mentally prepared for the constant attention he needed or the logistics of basic care: feeding, healthcare and housetraining.

I’m working with the NexGard® (afoxolaner) team to share with you their new pet gift registry, a service I would have used and appreciated in those first weeks with Theo. ItsADog.com simplifies the process of finding products that meet your animal’s needs. New and experienced dog owners can find pet advice and register for essentials. I was overwhelmed with the vast options and selection of products to help care for our new puppy, and would have been grateful for an online destination like this to not only help me narrow down the selection, but also answer the copious amount of questions we had. NexGard is approved for us in dogs and puppies 8 weeks of age and older weighing 4 pounds or more.

From now to October, dog owners can create a pet profile and customize a pet gift registry on ItsADog.com to be entered for a chance to win one of two prizes. Each month, one Grand Prize winner will receive $500 towards their gift registry and a coupon for six doses of NexGard (with a prescription from a veterinarian), while two Runners-Up will receive $100 towards their gift registry and a coupon for three doses of NexGard. Twenty-one lucky dog owners will win!

Our lives instantly changed the day we brought our Theo home. Our hearts grew – and continue to grow – with empathy and compassion for him and for all animals. Three years with Theo and we’re learning every day how to best care for him and feeling how much joy and love he brings into our lives and the lives of so many in our neighborhood and remarkably, outside of our neighborhood, too! I am grateful for the resources that I am able to use and share to help make this process of caring for our pets easy.

The maker of NexGard® (afoxolaner) worked with bloggers like me for its It’s a Dog! program. This blog has been written by me on behalf of the NexGard team. I received compensation for my time.

®NexGard is a registered trademark of Merial.