Five Ways to Avoid Being a Bad Dog Owner
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Generally speaking, dog owners want to be the best dog owners possible. After all, they tend to have a strong commitment to the well-being of their canine companions. Fortunately, there are a lot of resources out there that can help them prevent common mistakes. Something that should make for much better outcomes in the long run. Here are some of the best ways to avoid being a bad dog owner:
1. Choosing the Right Dog
For starters, interested individuals need to choose the right dog for themselves. This is important because different dog breeds have been bred for different roles, meaning that they can have very different circumstances that make them better-suited for very different living situations. For proof, look no further than the fact that Chihuahuas and Caucasian Shepherds are considered to be members of the same species in spite of their considerable divergence from one another.
As for how interested individuals can choose the right dog for themselves, well, the process is laborious and time-consuming but also simple and straightforward. Essentially, they need to think about they are expecting out of their dog as well as the conditions that their dog can be expected to live under. After which, interested individuals can look through the available animals while researching their heritage as well as other components of their background to get a better understanding of whether they would or would not be suitable.
This research is critical because there are many, many stories of dog owners who bring home a dog based on a superficial characteristic before proceeding to find out that they are incompatible with one another. Something that doesn’t do wonders for the dog’s wellbeing to say the least.
2. Providing Enough Exercise
Moving on, dogs need regular exercise. After all, they are like humans in that they can get fat by eating too much while moving around too little. This is a very common problem because our sedentary lifestyle has translated into a sedentary lifestyle for our canine companions as well. Similarly, just as how our chances for serious medical problems shoot up when we are heavier than we should be, the same is true for dogs as well.
Thanks to this, dogs can expect shorter lifespans. Furthermore, they can expect a poorer quality of life because it is very common for complications to start showing up long before they reach the end. Besides this, it should be mentioned that dogs also need exercise to stave off boredom. As such, if they don’t get enough of it as well as other forms of stimulation, dog owners could very well come home to find that their dogs have found something to occupy themselves on their own initiative.
Something that will often prove very unwelcome to dog owners. Of course, there are plenty of dog breeds that are less energetic in this regard, but even so, they still need some exercise rather than no exercise at all.
3. Training the Dog
There are some creatures that are so simple that they operate on pure instinct. However, dogs aren’t one of them. Instead, they are like humans in that they act on a mixture of both nature and nurture, meaning that interested individuals can’t afford to neglect the latter component. In other words, dog owners need to train their dogs as well as socialize their dogs from a young age.
Otherwise, they can expect their dogs to develop behavioral issues, which will be much more difficult to correct than preventing them from the very start. There are some dog owners who assume that some dog breeds will be just fine without any intervention on their part. Unfortunately, that is how interested individuals wind up with the stereotypical small yappy dog. Sure, said animals can’t do as much damage as their bigger counterparts, but that is still very far from saying that they are harmless.
4. Bringing the Dog to See the Veterinarian On a Regular Basis
Generally speaking, earlier detection of a medical problem makes for an easier treatment. Furthermore, this results in increased chances of success treatment as well as successful mitigation, which have very real consequences for a patient’s wellbeing in the long run.
As such, interested individuals should bring their dog to see their local veterinarian on a regular basis because that is the best way for them to pick up on medical problems before they start showing up in the form of very blatant and very unpleasant symptoms. In fact, regular visits might be even more important for dogs than for humans.
This is because dogs can’t communicate exact information about what they are feeling to their dog owners. Similarly, dog owners may or may not be able to pick up on their dog acting strange because of some kind of symptom that has showed up. Due to this, a visit to the local veterinarian is the best way for interested individuals to make sure that potential medical problems are picked up on sooner rather than later.
5. Never Assuming that a Problem Will Just Go Away On Its Own
Procrastination is a serious issue when it comes to dog ownership. Simply put, it is very common for people to believe that a particular problem will just go away on its own because intervention tends to require time, effort, and perhaps even other resources. Unfortunately, this is an extremely counter-productive way of thinking about such things.
After all, letting an issue stand can actually give it time to worsen, which will make it even more difficult and thus even more expensive to correct. This is true for behavioral issues. Similarly, this is true for medical issues. This doesn’t mean that interested individuals should be rushing to either a veterinarian or some other dog expert whenever even the slightest problem comes up.
However, they should definitely keep a close thing on things while doing their best to help out. If the situation clears up with relatively minimal intervention, great. In contrast, if the situation shows no signs of getting better over time, well, suffice to say that interested individuals should seek out professional assistance for their sake as well as their dog’s sake.
