Safety for Your Dog in Your Home
By Ben Kersen
Training gear (whether it’s a “choke”/check chain, harness or head harness) should only be used for training. It is also important that the equipment is fitted properly so there is less chance of it snagging on something when you turn your back. Dogs can get a training collar that is too long caught on a shrub in the yard or on furniture in the house. If the dog is unsupervised, it may panic, and this can be fatal.
At Ben Kersen and the Wonderdogs we tell all our clients to be careful with feeding and exercising their dogs. Ensure you feed your dog 20 minutes or more after exercising, and NEVER right before. When a dog has a full stomach then starts to exercise, the stomach can ‘flip’ or bloat (also called a stomach torsion) and this can often be a fatal condition.
Chocolate, though yummy for people, is poisonous for dogs. Semi-sweet chocolate in very small quantities can be fatal; milk chocolate isn’t quite as toxic but can still kill a dog if eaten in large quantities.
Ben Kersen and the Wonderdogs Poison Proofing
Dogs are natural-born scavengers, and they will head for the worst things: a spot of antifreeze in a driveway (which is HIGHLY toxic and often fatal), a discarded chicken bone, chocolate, etc. Because scavenging is such a natural instinct, poison proofing is a vital part of your dog’s training.
We offer Poison Proofing at Ben Kersen and the Wonderdogs. There are two different concepts when teaching this:
| 1. teach your dog to take food from your hand only and never to scavenge for food on the ground; or2. if you have to be away or kennel your dog at times, you can teach your dog never to scavenge for food on the ground, but allow it to take food from other people. |
Poison proofing is a service that Ben Kersen and the Wonderdogs provide with consistent results. This consultation can be done in our office or by telephone. Visit our website for more information: www.wonderdogs.ca.
There are also many houseplants and some outdoor plants that are poisonous. Most nurseries have lists of these. Before you bring a puppy home, you will want to make an inventory of plants around the house.
The following is a list of plants that can be toxic or fatal to dogs:
| Aloe Vera Amaryllis Apple (seeds) Apple Leaf Croton Apricot (pit) Asparagus Fern Autumn Crocus Avocado (fruit and pit) Azalea Baby’s Breath Bittersweet Bird of Paradise Branching Ivy Buckey Buddhist Pine Caladium Calla Lily Castor Bean Ceriman Charming Dieffenbachia Cherry (seeds and wilting leaves) Chinese Evergreen Christmas Rose Cineraria Clematis Cordatum Corn Plant Cornstalk Plant Croton Cuban Laurel Cutleaf Philodendron Cycad Cyclamen Daffodil Devil’s Ivy Dieffenbachia Dracaena Palm Dragon Tree |
Dumb Cane Easter Lily (especially in cats!!!!) Elaine Elephant Ears Emerald Feather English Ivy Fiddle-leaf fig Florida Beauty Foxglove Fruit Salad Plant Geranium German Ivy Giant Dumb Cane Glacier Ivy Gold Dieffenbachia Gold Dust Dracaena Golden Pothos Hahn’s Self-Branching Ivy Heartland Philodendron Hurricane Plant Indian Rubber Plant Janet Craig Dracaena Japanese Show Lily (especially cats !!!) Jerusalem Cherry Kalanchoe Lacy Tree Philodendron Lily of the Valley Madagascar Dragon Tree Marble Queen Marijuana Mexican Breadfruit Miniature Croton Mistletoe Morning Glory Mother-in Law’s Tongue Narcissus Needlepoint Ivy Nephytis |
Nightshade Oleander Onion Oriental Lily (especially in cats!!!) Peace Lily Peach (wilting leaves and pits) Pencil Cactus Plumosa Fern Poinsettia (low toxicity) Poison Ivy Poison Oak Pothos Precatory Bean Primrose Red Emerald Red Princess Red-Margined Dracaena Rhododendron Ribbon Plant Saddle Leaf Philodendron Sago Palm Satin Pothos Schefflera Silver Pothos Spotted Dumb Cane String of Pearls Striped Dracaena Sweetheart Ivy Swiss Cheese Plant Taro Vine Tiger Lily (especially cats!!!) Tomato Plant (green fruit, stem and leaves) Tree Philodendron Tropic Snow Dieffenbachia Weeping Fig Yew |
Until Next Time,
Ben Kersen
Ben Kersen and the Wonderdogs
Victoria, BC
http://www.wonderdogs.ca
Ben Kersen 
That is a big list, thanks for it
Anyone have anything else to add to my list of potential hazards? Was reading the other day that corn husks, while not poisonous, can be deadly to a dog’s stomach. Scary stuff!