Recently I witnessed a scary situation with a young pup I was asked to feed and walk.  It was something that can happen to anyone.  Luckily it happened while I was there.  When I took him out of his crate he was already wearing a collar, so I attached his leash and off we went for a walk, he did all his business and ate his lunch so it was time to go back in his crate.  I opened the crate door and tossed in a treat for him to get.   As he entered the crate his collar caught the latch of the door and pulled the door closed behind him, collar still snagged on the latch.  He started to panic, pulling against the door.  Then he started to alligator roll, his collar getting tighter right in front of me.  I tried to reach through the crate to undo the collar since I couldn’t get the door open as he is a large dog pulling in the opposite direction.  That didn’t work so I braced myself with my foot against the bottom of the crate and  yanked it open bending it in the process but I was able to reach in and release his collar.  He came out of the crate and dropped into my lap trying to catch his breath.  He was fine and just needed some soothing and calming down.  I couldn’t believe how bent and distorted the crate door and latch were (I wish I had have taken a photo).  Imagine if that collar got caught after I had left and he panicked and rolled, tightening his collar….Needless to say, I put him back in his crate WITHOUT his collar on his neck.

There are a lot of things in my time as a dog owner/trainer/pet sitter/dog walker that I may have seen or heard of, freak accidents likely, that others have not, simply because of the amount of exposure I have to many, many pets and their families.  I have seen lots of freaky or out of the ordinary things that might seem far-fetched or unlikely to happen to the average person but they do.  One of my own dogs got a grasshopper stuck up her nose! And of course the more I tried to grab it’s legs to pull it out, it made it’s way further up her nose.  The poor thing went into a sneezing fit which eventually got the grasshopper out but who would have ever thought that could happen!  Working in veterinary hospitals I have also seen things that you wouldn’t even imagine can happen, but they do.

Because of this knowledge there are things I do not allow for my own dogs.  For example, my dogs are not allowed to play with sticks because I’ve seen too many freak stick accidents – punctures in the roof of the mouth, wedged sideways across the roof of the mouth, punctures through other body parts, and so on.  One of my dogs cannot have stuffy toys unsupervised because he chews off and eats any part that sticks out – ears, tails, arms, legs and I’ve seen too many dogs requiring foreign body surgeries for things they have ingested.  Call me paranoid, that’s ok, but if I see something that I think could be a potential threat or cause problems for your pet I will report it to you and maybe make a suggestion to change something.  I will let you know if your dog pulled in the blanket you have covering his crate – not to tattle tale on your dog but if he decided to chew it, then swallow it you could be looking at a number of problems.  You can take my suggestions or reports as you wish and they may not always be bad, I love to give good reports too!  Your pets are important to me so please know that anything I see that could potentially be a hazard, I will point out to you out of care and concern for your pet.

Sticks are a no, no for my all of my dogs

Plush toys with ears, arms, legs, tails and so on are a no, no for Traffic.