Preventing Falls Around Your Pets

Our favorite furry companions can be loyal friends. They provide unconditional love, but pets, toys, and food bowls can also create fall hazards. Every year, over 86,000 fall injuries involve dogs and cats. Women are twice as likely to get injured, and fracture rates are among older adults. Below is a guide to preventing falls related to your pets.

Indoor Fall Prevention:

• Don’t step over pets – make them move out of your way. Often times if you attempt to step over a pet it will move and can cause a fall injury.
• Keep pet items like toys and food/water bowls out of paths and walkways to avoid tripping over them. Wipe up any spills immediately.
• Look around you to see where your pets are before walking, especially on steps and near doorways.
• Put a collar with a bell on your pet so that you can hear when it is near.
• Train your pets not to jump up on you or others while you are standing.
• Make sure your pet gets an appropriate amount of exercise; this will help it behave at home.

Outdoor Fall Prevention:

• Make sure your dog is well-behaved on the leash and can follow simple commands: sit, wait, heel.
• Use two hands on the leash when walking your dog. This increases your stability by placing one hand on the handle or leash loop and the other hand lower down on the leash.
• Walk your pet in familiar, well-lit areas with level ground. Depending on your dog’s behavior, it may be best to walk in areas away from other dogs.
• Know your pet’s behavior. Some dogs can knock you over if they get excited or pull you down if they run toward other dogs.
• Keep control of your dog to protect those around you. If your dog barks or startles a person with balance problems, he or she may be at risk of falling.

Fall injuries can happen anywhere, often in your own home. You might be in the kitchen cooking, for example, and your pet may be right behind you, waiting for food to drop. Sometimes they stay so close that when you turn around, you might trip. Or, you may arrive home to an excited dog who has been left alone all day. If your dog jumps up excitedly and runs around your legs, you can easily trip or fall.

Dog-related fall injuries can happen to anyone. However, they are more common among older adults. This is because of balance issues that can start when people hit their fifties. Strength, balance, and coordination deteriorate if you are not being challenged and practicing each day. Loss of these abilities can make it difficult or painful to perform your everyday activities. Balance-related exercises like yoga can help to increase balance strength to help avoid slips and falls.

Flexpet Joint Supplements for Dogs

At Flexpet, we care about you and your pets. We want to help you keep them as healthy as possible. We have a fantastic and knowledgeable customer care team available to answer your questions about our joint supplement products and how they may help your dog or cat. If your dog has joint pain issues, we invite you to try Flexpet today and start your dog on the journey to playing like a pup again. Flexpet is so confident it is the best joint supplement for dogs and cats it comes with a 90-day satisfaction guarantee. Our Flexpet joint care supplements have excellent reviews on social media. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, email, or by phone at 1-800-505-0575.

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