How
to Anticipate and Avoid Dangers while Hiking with Your Dog
Undertaking
hiking to explore the beauty of nature’s mountain ranges
can really be a wonderful experience to you, and if you could
take your dog along, then the thrill of mountain hiking will
get further enhanced.However, hiking with your dog has got
its own disadvantages in the form of lurking dangers to your
dog, but you need not allow this thought to bother you if
you can take few precautionary measures as enumerated below.
Identify
Unsafe Spots and Cliffs
No
doubt mountains can give wonderful scenery and it will really
be a scintillating experience to take a panoramic view of
your living place from a mountain. However, the pleasures
that a mountain can give to you has also got hidden dangers
in the form of deep cliffs, unsafe spots, etc., and you must
doubly careful if you happen to take your dog along with you
in your hiking trip.
Dogs
normally do not see the height as a threat or in other words
they do not have any fear for heights. Dogs, due to their
ability to ignore heights, tend to walk along deep cliffs
or other unsafe spots without any fear and in the event even
one wrong step your dog may fall into the deep gorge and get
injured or even die. Further if the place happens to be wet
due to snow or rain then the risk of your dog meeting with
a slip is really high and eventually you will lose your wonderful
pet forever.
Breathing
Difficulty at High Altitudes
Over
and above what has been mentioned with regard to dangerous
spots in any mountain hiking, your trip in a mountain with
your dog has got an another danger and it comes in the form
of reduced atmospheric pressure that makes your and your dog’s
breathing difficult. Dogs, especially if they are old, will
experience difficulty in their breathing at high altitudes
and this may even prove fatal sometimes. If your dog has had
any lung problems or problems related to its heart or if your
dog is short nosed (brachycephalic breed), then the risk will
get doubled at high altitudes.
Availability
of oxygen at high altitudes will be less and when this is
coupled with low pressure, your dog may experience shortness
of breath and suffer altitude sickness. Further, the temperature
at high altitudes will normally be lower than the plains,
and hence as you ascend with your dog you and your dog will
tend to get affected by chilliness of the weather for which
you need to take adequate protection.
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