How To Be A Sustainable Dog Owner
In March 2019, my husband (Tim) and I came across our biggest sustainable living challenge we’ve ever faced: owning a dog.
Tim and I re-homed Tchaikovsky ‘Chai’ as a 6 month old pup. It was a slightly unplanned re-home. Although I’m a vets daughter and grew up in a mini-zoo (not literally), we went into dog ownership with little ‘sustainable dog owning’ research. There were zero late nights spent reading ‘sustainable dog owning’ books and no understanding around what the heck to do with dog poo that doesn’t involve the usual bag-it-throw-it mentality.
But after learning on the job, I think we’re nailing it. Chai cannot claim zero waste status; but neither can I. Its not about perfection, it’s about doing your best. We have found a great balance between honouring Chai’s health, respecting our budget, and looking after the planet.
Here’s how we do it!
This blog post is sponsored by Feed My Furbaby: the food Chai exclusively eats, and the best we have found in New Zealand.
Toys
Let’s start with the fun stuff! We have never bought new toys for Chai. Just like his parents (oh gosh, I promised myself I’d never be THAT dog mum), he prefers second hand toys and utilising what nature provides. Chai is a very clever pup (here I go with that dog mum stuff again) who needs two decent sized walks a day, plus toys to stimulate him in between walk times.
Chai’s toys include
Sticks: he plays fetch with them, but also chews them up into little bits (we compost these)
Shells: he throws them around on the beach
Second hand teddy bears
A plaited rope
Toilet paper rolls: he chews these up into little pieces, which make them much easier to break down in our home compost
Ball & ball thrower: second hand ball thrower and tennis balls we find on the beach
Image by Francisco Photos
I’m not lying when I say Chai once found four tennis balls on our morning walks, in one week. He found one on our walk this morning too. They are EVERYWHERE. We have a bag full of about 20 tennis balls that Chai has collected from parks and beaches. It’s amazing what you can find at second hand shops too.
If you can, refrain from buying new toys. Use what you already own, what exists in nature, or what is passed on from others.
Image by Yellow Lab Photography
Food
The most important thing to get right for your pup, is their food. Your dog’s food affects all aspects of their health. For Tim and I, it was also crucial to find an affordable dog food with less plastic, grown locally, and produced ethically.
After 6+ months of compromising and many diet trials, Feed My Furbaby is what we have happily stuck with.
Ingredients
Natural & Grain free: Feed My Furbaby is 100% natural dog food without the harsh flavours and preservatives that you find in so many dog foods. They use peas, potatoes and casava root instead of cheap fillers like wheat, corn, soy and other grains; the food is entirely grain free.
You can find a complete list of the ingredients in the Feed My Furbaby Chicken Box here.
Local: Generally, the pet food available in NZ is filled with ingredients imported from overseas where there are lower standards of animal welfare and generally lower food standards too. At Feed My Furbaby, every ingredient is sourced here in NZ. The ingredients include cage free chicken and grass fed beef - Chai is part Labrador, so he will eat most things we give him, but he definitely LOVES it.
Tim and I try our best to purchase food grown locally for ourselves, so choosing a food for Chai with locally sourced ingredients was a must. Not only is the quality at Feed My Furbaby much higher (his poos are way easier to manage), but it also means the carbon footprint associated with shipping the product all over the world before it reaches the shelves in NZ, is reduced dramatically. The fact that Feed My Furbaby food is locally produced and in small bathes, also ensures the food Chai eats is never more than 8 weeks old. It’s alway fresh and he never misses out on the nutrients (as food ages, it declines in nutritional output).
Packaging
You may be surprised to hear we have settled on a dog food that still has some plastic. Feed My Furbaby are very aware of this too, but it currently cannot be helped.
The main issue with plastic free dog food, is the inability to keep it fresh enough to meet safety standards. Plastic is currently a manufacturing requirement, but Feed My Furbaby continue to experiment with different options, and we love what they have come up with.
Their dog food is packaged in 60% less plastic than traditional pet food packaging. This package can be placed in your local soft plastic recycling. Feed My Furbaby are the most innovative and transparent dog food company I have found in NZ, so I am confident they will be the ones to come up with the first high quality plastic free dog food in the future!
If you have a dog, you’ll know that one of the most wasteful techniques pet food companies use, is multi-layered packaging; the combination of plastic and paper. Mixing materials means the entire package cannot be recycled or composted. Feed My Furbaby have avoided this and are constantly assessing how they can do better. Their food is bagged in one thin plastic bag, and contained in one cardboard box. To add to our decision to feed Chai Feed My Furbaby, all their packaging is made in NZ too. Paired with their local ingredients, Chai’s food-miles are very low!
You’ll see in the pictures above, that the food comes with a cardboard scoop . The top of the box has a scoop pop out that is easy to pull out and fold into a scoop shape. No extra cardboard needed!
Feed My Furbaby have gone the extra mile with their sustainable packaging innovation; the food is packed in the factory, stored, shipped, and used by the customer, all in the same box. This is a unique design exclusive to Feed My Furbaby, and reduces the masses of packaging that are usually added and wasted at each manufacturing step. For example, a product is often boxed in something to be stored, and then packaged in something else to be shipped. This is not the case for Feed My Furbaby! It literally comes off the manufacturing line in the box you see above. Feed My Furbaby won Australian packaging awards and a Best Design Award for their brilliant efforts.
Simple Ordering Systems
Aside from their planet friendly ethics and thoughtful business practices, one of the main draw cards to Feed My Furbaby is their ease of ordering. Now that Chai eats Feed My Furbaby food, we don’t have to think about ordering dog food ever again.
The process is easy: enter your dogs details so Feed My Furbaby can understand how many calories a day you pooch needs, then they’re calculate a feeding plan and set up your subscription. Dog food will arrive on your doorstep every time you need it! You can add compostable dog poo bags and yummy dog treats onto your subscription too. The less things you need to think about buying at the shops, the easy your life will be so you have more time to play with your pup (that’s my motto anyway!).
To give you an idea of what a plan looks like, Chai is 17kgs, an active dog, and eats two scoops a day (one morning, one night). We receive a box every 21 days. It costs us $2.57 to feed Chai every day. You can check out what it would cost to feed your own dog here.
Image by Nectar Photography
Note: I know someone will ask, so just to clarify: a raw diet works well, but it wasn’t something we wanted to continue with.
Read more about our Feed My Furbaby reviews.
Poo
What goes in, must come out. Unfortunately.
Dealing with Chai’s poo has been the biggest challenge to date. But we’ve finally (I think!) figured it out.
How to pick up the goods
Poop on the lawn? Use a scoop (a gutter scoop from a hardware store works a treat).
Poop on a walk? I use a jar, a little scoop, and a reusable sandwich bag to contain the scoop.
Poop out and about? We use Little Green Dog compostable poo bags that you can add to your Feed My Furbaby subscription. Tim also uses these when he walks Chai, as he’s not ready for the poo-jar experience. I use compostable poo bags occasionally on a walk, but generally only when we are out and about and it’s inappropriate for me to walk around with a jar of poo in my handbag.
How to dispose of the goods
We have two dog poo composts. One of them is a proper dog poo compost, gifted to us from friends who didn’t need it. You can buy these from Eco Warehouse (code ETHICALLYKATE for 10% off). The second one was a DIY job (pictured below), using the helpful video that The Green Hub made which walks you through how to make one yourself. All you need is a bucket/tub (we repurposed an unusable one from our local bulk bin store owners) and some tools!
We sprinkle EnsoPet starter into the dog poo compost and mix it around with water every week. This helps to break it down. It’s not the most lovely experience, but throwing Chai’s poo in the rubbish bin every day isn’t a responsible option in my opinion.
Accessories
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to source dog accessories that are sustainable. Chai’s lead is the only thing we have bought brand new; it’s made in NZ by Wild Dog NZ. The long lead we attached to it (really helpful when we walk on the beach in the dark, and for training) was repurposed, and the handle was from the second hand shop. His ball thrower and harness were also second hand, and the scoop and jar pictured are the previously mentioned dog poo collectors!
Leads, dog poo jar and scoop, ball and thrower. Image by Nectar Photography
Dog beds can be the biggest upfront expense when you first welcome a pup into your home. However, it was the cheapest item for us! We spent $2.
I found a few old sheets at a second hand shop and sewed them into a bed shape. I then cut up all our old underwear, socks, and clothes that were not worthy of re-homing or re-wearing, and used them to stuff the bed. I sewed up the inner cover, and we treat the outer cover just like a duvet. We wash the cover every few weeks. Chai loves it!
Chai has a second ‘day bed’ in the lounge. It is made from a folded up duvet inner, covered with an old blanket. Both of these things we found at the back of cupboards and were most likely from past flatmates.
Look around, use what you have, and scout your local second hand stores.
Chai sitting on his bed in the laundry. Image by Nectar Photography
Owning a dog will look different for everyone, but when it comes to sustainable dog owning, there are a few key mentalities to hold onto:
Use what you have
Don’t compromise on high quality food
Get creative
Ask friends and family for hand-me-downs
Being a sustainable dog owner involves a little more thought than usual, but it’s SO worth it. For you, your pup, and the planet.
Chai & I when he was a puppy. Image by Nectar Photography
As a rule, I only work with brands I love, use, and can whole heartedly back. This is a sponsored blog (I can't pay my electricity bill with free products), but 100% my own words, photos, and opinion.
Main image and grid images by Nectar Photography.