The Lost Dog - Don’t Let It Happen To You (Part 2)
Submitted by Natural Pet Health Blog
The Lost Dog - Don’t Let It Happen To You (Part 2)
Don’t let your dog off the leash if you value him or her as a pet. It’s only looking for trouble. Even the best trained dog will stray from your house or yard to follow a female in season or a companionable pooch eager for a side-kick.
Keeping your dog confined helps keep him safe. If he is allowed outside alone in your yard, make sure that the fence is too high for him to scale, too deep for him to dig under, and latched with a lock that he cannot learn to open up by himself (never underestimate a dog’s intelligence to do this).
Be sure your fence, doghouse, or run can be locked at night, or when you are not at home to prevent thieves or vandals from turning your dog loose.
Teaching Your Dog The Impossible
It is a good idea, too, to teach your dog food refusal. While this may seem to be an insane concept to consider (a dog refusing food? Yeah right!), it is indeed possible to make your dog to understand, that while he is out of doors, he is under no circumstances allowed to accept food handed to him or thrown to him over the fence.
Any good dog training manual will instruct you how to teach him this important lesson. It could very well save his life one day!
The Busy City
For city dwellers, it is important to know that tying your dog outside a store while you shop is inviting disaster, especially if your pet is or looks like a purebred. Thieves planning to sell your dog or to return it to you in exchange for a steep reward may be on the lookout for just such a tempting situation.
And kind-hearted people, positive that the poor pup has been abandoned, have been known to innocently walk off with the dog without checking if the owner is anywhere nearby. For these same reasons, a dog should never be left unattended in a car.
To keep the dog from suffocating, it is necessary to leave the window partially open. Only a small space is needed for a thief to successfully enter a locked car. If you must enter an establishment where pets are prohibited, leave your dog at home!
Countless times I have heard stories of pet owners that loved their pups too much to keep them at home, only to have lost their dog forever, and without knowing where they are, or if they are being kept from harm. It’s just not worth it.
