3 Dangerous Winter Activities for Dogs: Essential Safety Tips from Tier 1 Vet

Three things you do not want to do with your dogs during the winter months.

I’m Dr. Sean McPEck, CEO and owner of Tier 1 Veterinary Medical Center. So as we know, it’s difficult to keep our dogs in shape. Staying active in the winter time can be difficult, but having worked multiple years here in Alaska and working emergency, some of the things that we commonly see where dogs are coming in injured is when owners like to take their dogs: 1.) Out with them while they are using ATV’s. Snow machines. Side-by-sides. The vehicles, as great of an idea as it seems like it may be, having your dog run next to you to get them some exercise, many times what ends up happening is that dog gets distracted. It wants to get over into the compact snow or just veers off in front of you and ends up getting hit and gets run over. Severe injuries ensue.

2.) The big one that we see a lot is lacerations on the Achilles. On the bottom part of the flexor tendons. Even into the side of the dog, is when people want to take their dogs with them, downhill skiing or snowboarding. That momentum, if all of a sudden the dog decides to stop for some reason, is in front of you, it’s very difficult to change direction. And those skis will just go right in and lacerate and cause some pretty severe injuries. Now, there’s a difference with skijoring. You’ve got some control over it and the dogs that are trained to skijor are very motivated to keep that momentum going forward. Very rarely do we see any injuries associated with skijoring.

3.) The big one. Families love to get out on the pond or the lake that’s frozen and they want to take their dog with them. It can look very entertaining, but it is a orthopedic injury waiting to happen. Whether that dog gets a cruciate rupture in the stifle or the knee, they splay-leg out and get hip injuries, muscle pulls, or they end up falling over and jamming the side of their hip, hip dislocations, etc., even head trauma. So avoiding those was my recommendation for having a safe and productive winter.