Your dogs are your faithful friends and you wouldn’t want to do anything to hurt these lovely animals. There are several things that as a dog owner, you do that hurts your dog either emotionally or physically. Since they can’t talk for you to know and understand the unpleasant treatment or their pain, they keep being abused unintentionally. Here are a couple of things that you do which hurt your dog or is harmful to your dog's overall health.
1. Not Exercising Your Dog
You must know your dog breed whether it’s an active dog that needs enough exercise or part of those breeds who are fine with just walking and strolling around the house. According to iheartdogs, dog breeds like the Australian shepherd, Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever, Siberian Husky, German Shepherd, Dalmatian, Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Rusell Terrier, Border Collie, and English Springer Spaniel need a lot of exercise. Not giving such dog breeds enough exercise could negatively affect their health. And since you care so much about your lovely pooch, if you have any of these active dog breeds, you should give it regular walks, set it free to run in the park.
2. Leaving Your Dog Alone For Extended Periods Of Time
Dogs are emotional animals that miss you even when you take a walk to the supermarket down your street to buy something. So when you leave them alone for a long time they tend to grow weary. And when this happens it affects them emotionally. They tend to be moody and sometimes unresponsive when you come back and try to get them in a playful mood.
3. Putting Your Dog In A Crate For Punishment
Just like it isn’t good to lock your kid in the room for doing something wrong, it’s also a bad practice to lock your pooch in a dog crate just because it was being stubborn or did something that you expected it not to do. This practice can either make your dog more unresponsive to you or even make your once-lovely furry friend react violently as soon as you bring it out of the cage. Locking your dog in a cage as a form of punishment affects and brings down its self-esteem which is not good for both you and your lovely pooch. Do not separate your dog from its human family as it is one of the worst things you can do as a dog owner to hurt the feelings of your furry friend.
4. Taking Your Dog’s Food and Toys Away
Most dog owners tend to take away the toys of their dogs when these adorable furry animals start putting up undesired behavior. Some even take away their dog's bowl of food while their pooch is still eating when they realize their dog has messed up their favorite stuffed pillow or accidentally broken that unique flower vase they got from a local artisan when they went on vacation in an exotic island. Instead of taking away what belongs to your dog because it is behaving badly, seek help from an animal behaviorist for the best option to help bring your dog to order.
5. Frequently Scolding Your Dog
It’s a bad thing for dog owners to scold their dogs when they are being stubborn. The scolding doesn’t just make them stop, it negatively impacts them in a way that you wouldn’t otherwise wish for them. As a dog owner, it’s out of place to shout and yell at your dog when it does something you don’t want. Or when it keeps pulling and chewing the blanket on your bed. This isn’t good and for some dog breeds, this practice would make them either more rebellious or hostile towards you. If your dog perhaps belongs to the hunting group, then it is highly possible that it will keep sniffing around and pulling on stuff that it’s not supposed to just to get the source of some scent that got its interest.