Dogs Hit By Cars

By John M Williams

Yours may be the best trained dog in the world, understand your commands perfectly. You may think that your dog understands the roads and can cope with cars well. But there is always a chance your dog could get knocked over by a car and knowing what to do in this situation is vital.

As stated above, you may think your dog is well suited to roads and can avoid cars and know when and where to cross the road. But from their perspective this is all guess work and learnt from previous situations and near misses. Even after many years of crossing roads and viewing cars, dogs can still get caught up in situations that are dangerous and harmful. If your dog does become the target of a road accident there are certain rules that should be adhered to when arriving at the scene and these rules can be the basis of how much pain and how healthy your dog will be afterwards.

The first thing to do is not panic, if your dog is conscious and can sense you panicking then they will panic also which won't help the situation. Common injuries of a dog being run over are cuts and bruises so there is a good chance yours is fine. They should not be moved after a car incident and until you know and are sure of the injuries they have, should remain in the same place or moved using a few people and a sheet or blanket as a stretcher if totally necessary.

Always check their breathing, your dog's breathing may have stopped as a cause of the accident and will need respiration by holding the muzzle closed and breathing air through the nose. If there is any severe bleeding you will need to add pressure to stop the bleeding and then seek urgent medical treatment. If you are not sure of the seriousness of the damages, then contact your vet and explain the conditions to get advice on how to deal with the situation properly.

For more information on Dog Behavior Training take a look at Dog-Behavior-Training.co.uk