Backyard Dangers for Dogs

Even in a secluded, fenced backyard, your dog’s life could be in danger. Many pet owners are unaware of the hidden dangers in their own backyard that could harm, threaten, or even take the life of your four-legged friend.

A backyard that appears to be a dog’s oasis can still be full of all sorts of dangers, especially for rambunctious puppies. Puppies are energetic and tend to explore everything they encounter. Their natural urge to chew can be deadly in a dangerous backyard.

The most common age for dogs to fall victim to harmful backyard dangers is between the ages of one and six months. Some breeds of dogs, like Golden Retrievers, have a tendency to chew and gnaw all throughout their lives.

What Are Backyard Dangers for Dogs? To protect your dog, it is best to eliminate all dangers in your backyard regardless of your dog’s age or breed. According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, ASPCA, the most common backyard dangers to watch out for are:

• Citronella candles that repel mosquitoes and contain chemicals that could poison your dog
• Mulching around trees, plants, and shrubs that contains cocoa
• Compost bins and garden or grass fertilizers
• Traps designed to catch snails or slugs and contain metaldehyde
• Fish ponds or decorative fountains that contain blue-green algae
• Insects, toads, snakes, and other animals that may leave behind harmful toxins
• Chemicals and supplies for swimming pools or hot tubs
• Azaleas, grape vines, sago palms, and other plants that are known to be poisonous
• Fly repellents and traps with metonym

Dog owners must play an active role in protecting their puppy from these dangers, as well as other common perils, both inside and outside of their home. Keep chemicals, lawn equipment, and gardening supplies secured and out of your dog’s reach. Make sure garbage cans and other containers are closed tightly at all times.

Always use fertilizers, pesticides, and other harmful agents exactly as instructed and heed any safety warnings on the labels. There are many organic and natural products that can be used in the place of hazardous chemicals for complete canine safety. Your vet or landscaper may be able to recommend quality products.

Learning How To Train A Dog

Learning how to train your dog and when to train your dog is going to be the most important aspect you should consider when you are choosing a dog for a pet. There are some dog breeds that do not train easily and others that just love to show off. When you consider the type of dog breed you would like to have you will need to understand the training process. While we can go into a few how to train your dog tips, you will find the best resource is going to be a dog training facility.

Dog training should be done as early as possible. While most dogs can learn new tricks at any age they will develop personalities, as they get older. It can make training a little harder for an older dog. They may not want to pay attention to the master. There are also different kinds of training. First there is just house training a dog, and then there is training the pet for tricks or working. The different breeds of dogs are going to tell you just what they can handle. For instance a golden retriever or German Shepard makes a great working dog. They are easily trained once you have them in a program and work well for their masters. On the other hand a Affenpinscher is going to be more difficult to train, even for house training.

Methods of training consist of crate training, clicker training, dog whistle training, and command training. First crate training is where you have the puppy in the crate overnight, when you are away from home, and at certain times when you are home. The idea behind crate training is that they will learn the behaviors that are bad. Reasons you may put your puppy in the crate include barking, being to hyper, having accidents, or getting into things they should not. You also want to train the dog that they can’t sleep on the bed with you and that bed time is going to be in their crate or bed you have bought for them. You may wish to use such things as noises from a clicker or a dog whistle to get them to come to you or do certain things when they hear the sound. Command training is one of the best training methods you can do. You want the dog to recognize commands so that they listen to your voice and do the behavior.

When you are training your dog you need to have a rewards system. If they succeed at the command or whatever you are trying to train them then they should get some type of reward whether it is a treat or just affection. You have to give the dog some sort of reassurance that they are doing something right. You also want to make them understand that bad behavior will not be rewarded. Think of training a dog a little like training younger children that may not understand everything yet. You need to give positive reinforcement, but also realize that you need to do something about the bad behavior. Just ignoring bad behavior with a dog is not going to do the trick. You have to keep repeating the behavior you do want while telling them “no” for behaviors you don’t want.

Dog training is going to be different depending on the dog. Some dogs have extremely high intelligence and patience to learn knew things and want to sit through training. Other breeds of dogs require a lot of stimulation during the activity while you are training them or they lose interest.