Pet management and safety

As a dog owner, do you ever say to yourself, “my dog is not aggressive, he would never hurt anyone”?

Of course, most dogs are lovable and peaceful creatures – they are as much part of the family as any human. The vast majority mean no harm and seldom cause it. But, sometimes harm happens... innocently.

A study on animal-related falls by the Center for Disease Control found that more than 76,000 people each year receive emergency room treatment for falls caused by dogs. All sizes of happy dogs knock people over. Jumping up or circling their leash around someones legs are two ways. Smaller dogs can trip people by getting between their legs, unnoticed .

Rare? Very rare. With 90 million dogs in the United States, it there is less than a .008% chance your dog will send someone to the emergency room is his lifetime. It’s 1,500 times more likely that someone will be shot with a gun than hurt by a pet dog.

Serious? Very serious.  An elderly person taking even a simple spill could end up suffering significantly from a fall. Home health workers will often say “a fall (any fall) can often be the beginning of the end for an elderly person”.

Pets vs safety.  As a community, we don’t want to pick one over the other. We want everyone living together in harmony.

• Leash training dogs to be calm (or keeping distance if they are not) is every owners obligation. The Association encourages orange vests or bandanas for any dog that is still working on their social skills (read more here). If your dog is pulling and jumping up and down on the end of its leash to get to other people or other dogs, this can be trained out. Most every pet dog was this way until it was trained out. One of the fastest/humane remedies is a prong collar (used correctly)- see video here.
  

• Citronella Sprays are good for fearful or infirm walkers wanting the security of being able to turn away a loose dog without harming a neighbor's pet.

Bexx Hunt, the women in the photo, by the way, tripped over her own dog on the way to bathroom late one night. She broke her neck. It was a freak accident in the UK that was rare enough to make international news. It is being shared here because it is an image that would give any dog owner pause - rare as the accident was.