By Duncan Kingori
A dog is an inherently curious animal, which means it will chase anything from its own tail to the neighbor’s cat, and even cars that pass by your house. This makes the risk of losing your dog that much higher. As you go along, it is crucial to ensure you invest in your pet’s safety by taking some key precautions.
So what can you do to reduce the chances of losing your dog? And is there a full-proof way to achieve this end? Here are some key steps from https://www.authenticdogs.com/ that will be a dab hand at safeguarding your dog’s safety.
Train Your Dog
The first and most important way to ensure your dog knows where to, and most crucially, where not to venture, is to train it! Many people don’t realize just how effective professional dog training can be until they see it in action. Teaching your dog how to obey such commands as “stay” or “come” is a sure shot way of ensuring it knows when to stay put.
Have you ever noticed dogs have a nasty habit of being easily distracted? Even a little rustling of leaves is enough to get a rise out of them. This is why beginning your dog’s training from an early age is so important, it will save you a world of trouble when your dog gets older.
Sterilization
Now, this may seem a little drastic, but at some point, it does become necessary. This is especially due to the erratic nature of male dogs when they sense a female in or around the area. You’d be surprised just how great a digger your dog is, and when left to its own devices, a dog in heat will burrow right under your fence and disappear.
Sterilization limits this behavior, and it makes your dog less likely to run off. Now, for most people with the resources to care for multiple dogs, this may be a last resort, but if you are not too crazy about a litter running around, especially if you have a female dog, then sterilization is a viable option.
Home Containment
Image Credit: Pexels
If you constantly take your dog out for walks and exercises on a routine basis, then you probably don’t have to worry about it jumping or burrowing under the fence. If, however, your dog doesn’t have that much activity, then you can be guaranteed it will get creative. That said, you can always increase the height of your perimeter fence to a point beyond where your dog can jump, or you can build a concrete trench right under the fence to prevent burrowing.
Dogs bore easily, and as such, they will try to run riot when they are trying to get your attention or they just want to run wild and free. Ensure you give them enough of time to prevent them from seeking attention elsewhere.
Invest In An I.D Tag
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Identification tags are a great fail-safe when it comes to finding your dog in case it wonders off. These little, mostly metallic tags indicate the dog’s details and a contact number, and a return address that can easily be traced back to in case someone finds your dogs.
The Microchip
Implanted microchips are the latest in dog tracking technology, and are a practice that has been embraced by many countries. These painless chips are implanted into your dog, and they make recovery much simpler, and the information on the microchip will lead straight to the dog owner. It’s barely the size of a grain of rice, it causes zero discomforts, and doesn’t require any intrusive surgical procedure to the implant.
Bottom Line
Keeping your dog safe requires time and sacrifice. Sometimes the difference may just be giving your dog that little bit of extra attention.
