10 Ways to Boost Immunity of Your Dog

Boost Immunity of Your Dog  by Leon Collier  |Updated 04-05-2021

There are many things that we yet don’t know or understand, but if one thing is sure is that dogs are the ultimate best friends of humans. Leaving alone that they will never betray you, unlike humans, they will offer unconditional love, protection, and joy.

Dogs are like a gift for us – the gift of taking all your worries away and making you happy in a matter of seconds when you come back from work. They are truly amazing, but it all comes with a great deal of responsibility.

A dog is very similar to a child, mostly because they need to be taken care of and when they do something wrong it is simply because they don’t understand things as we do. In other words, they have the innocence of a child who can’t take care of himself.

Dogs need three walks a day, a good diet for their needs, a dose of affection, and attention to spot out the red flags when there is something wrong with their health. Dogs communicate, but in ways, we are not yet accustomed to. Therefore, we need to prevent all possible health issues our furry friends might face.

Ten Best Ways to Boost Immunity of Your Dog

The best way to prevent it is by boosting your dog’s immune system and making it stronger in time. Beware that you shouldn’t play with your dog’s immune system. While you may think that your dog needs a lot of supplements and vitamins to be stronger, you might be wrong and cause him more harm than good.

Therefore, in today’s post, we’re presenting our top 10 steps to boost your dog’s immunity in a safe and healthy way.

1. Regular Exercise

Dogs are very much like us, humans if you think about it from simple perspectives. Our immune system is weaker without physical exercise, and the same happens to the dogs’ immune system. If the dog has a sedentary life their immune system can only become weaker.

Now you don’t have to prepare your dog for a marathon or to do all sorts of tricks. You just have to make sure that he used all his energy throughout the day. You can do that by throwing the ball, running in the park with him, or taking him to play with his best friend. 

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Rainy, hot or cold weather shouldn't be a problem for your dog to spend his energy outside. There can be exceptions, of course, and nothing bad will happen if you stay at home for a couple of times. Just make sure that during the rest of the days he will have his 2-3 hours of activity.

2. Nutritious Diet

Based on the same theory that dogs are like us in simple terms, it’s only natural to think that if they don’t have a proper diet, their immunity will not be able to work at a good rate. For that reason, one of the very first things you should do to boost your dog’s immunity is to reflect on his diet.

Look at the ingredients of his dog food, and if there are too many unknown ingredients and the meat percent is low, then you should consider changing his food. If your dog is a senior and you want to boost his immunity through diet, you should consult your vet because they’re more sensitive to this type of change.

3. Weight Balance

Going side-by-side with a nutritious diet, your dog must have a balanced weight so you can boost his immunity. If your dog is fat or he has more kg than he should (even if it’s 1-2 kg), the very first thing you should do is to put your dog on a diet and only then do more to boost his immunity.

Too thin is also not good. The best would be to ask your vet if your dog is in good shape or not. He can even recommend the diet if you don’t want to risk making some poor decisions. But the diet for a fat dog should basically mean less food than usual and more exercise.

4. Clean Bowls and Toys

While dirt and other things, unexpectedly, are not causing our dogs any harm, other things might. Exposure to most of the bacteria will help your dog strengthen his immune system, but there are also some bacteria that will harm his immunity.

For instance, the bacteria that is spawning on his dirty food and water bowls. I can’t stress enough how many dangerous bacteria can live on a dirty food bowl. Dirty toys can also be dangerous, especially if they’re used outside most of the time. Now I don’t mean to wash the toys constantly, like the bowls, but you should clean them at least sometimes.

Hard plastic toy chews can be safely washed in a dishwasher or with hot soapy water.  Soft toys can be thrown in the laundry.  Normally no extra laundry additive is needed to remove any toxins or bacteria that may have accumulated.

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5. Hydration

Dogs, like us – I told you we are very similar – are made of approximately 80% water. Therefore, according to several essay papers I read, a dog’s immune system and health is strongly connected with their proper hydration. Therefore, all you have to do – if you don’t already – is to make sure your dog has fresh water at all times.  Dogs can get dehydrated very quickly, so do make this one a priority.

6. Healthy Treats

There are all sorts of treats you can give to your dog, and many of them are not so healthy. The same way we have junk food and all sorts of toxic snacks. You might think that it’s nice that there is so much variety on the market for dog snacks, but if you don’t know what you’re buying, this food may threaten your dog’s immunity.

Therefore, if you want to do the opposite – to boost your dog’s immunity – you should always look for healthy treats. For instance, you can always give him apples, carrots, bananas, and strawberries. There are many different types of fruits and vegetables that are good for dogs.  The same way, you can opt for treats with vitamins or which promote healthy fur and so on. Anyway, just read the ingredient list before you buy the treats.

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7. Consider Supplements

Supplements can be a good thing for your dog. For instance, my baby girl – who is no longer a baby – is a small dog, and when I adopted her, she had a weak immune system, and fish oil worked wonders on her. She became stronger within a week.

Of course, I didn’t act on my own; the vet told me that she needs it. When it comes to supplements for their immune system, you should always ask the vet. The vet is familiar with your dog’s needs and his breed particularities. For that reason, not all supplements might be good for your beloved friend. As with anything else that you give your dog, you will want to research what ingredients are in the supplements you are considering.

8. Stress, Depression, and Anxiety Free Lifestyle

As much as I don’t like to repeat myself, here’s another good example in which our dogs and we are alike: they can suffer too from stress, depression, and anxiety. As you might already know, stress, depression, and anxiety are weakening our immune system.

Precisely the same thing happens to our dogs. If they are depressed, they will lose their appetite, they won’t be active, and they will basically do nothing but being upset all the time. Therefore, if you want to boost your dog’s activity, you must ensure that they’re emotionally stable at all times. The happier they are, the better and stronger their immune system will be.

9. Love and Attention

It’s only logical considering what we already established that you could boost your dog’s immunity by giving him enough love and attention. Dogs are fascinating creatures. All their life is about you. You are their life, and there’s nothing more important than you – except food for some dogs.

For that reason, to keep them healthy, you must make your life about them too, and the only way to show you are doing so is by being affectionate with your dog and by giving him attention whenever you can.

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10. Massage and Sniffing

You heard me right – you can improve your dog’s immunity by massaging him and by offering him longer walks to sniff. We all know that dogs love a good massage, especially behind the ears. But the question is why. Well, it’s not rocket science – they just love to relax as we do. Relaxation is a big part of their life too.

Sniffing, on the other hand, is about their nature – that’s what they do. Therefore, it’s important you offer them longer walks to fulfill their need to sniff. Sniffing is more important for their health than you can imagine. A dog can’t be healthy without sniffing.

10 Ways to Boost Immunity of Your Dog:  Conclusion

Our dogs deserve the best out of the best. Every dog owner knows, or at least he should know, that you should have time and resources to take care of a dog properly and to offer him a balanced, healthy life.

Above you have ten amazing steps to help you boost your dog’s immunity system and ensure that it will remain stronger in the long run. It is good to help your dog strengthen his immune system for a short period, but it’s essential to maintain it. Only if you maintain your dog’s immune system strong, you are able to improve his life quality.

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