Though it is unpleasant, it is possible that in the lifetime of your dog they will get hurt. Hopefully it will not be a debilitating injury and will be one they recover from quickly. The best way to insure your dog doesn’t get injured is to train your dog. Obedience is the key here. If your dog goes into the street they could get hit by a car. So to avoid that, you want to train your dog to obey words like “stay”, or “sit”. Other possibilities of injury are dog fights. Training won’t insure that your dog never gets hurt, but should make the chances of it happening far less likely.

So if your dog does get hurt, what do you do? The first thing you need to do is assess the situation. If you are around at the time of incident, then you will immediately know what just happened. If not, then you will get a good indication when you examine your dog. If your dog is unable to walk or won’t come to you then you know there is a very good chance there are broken bones. Make sure to carefully look them over. The worst possibility is that there is a spine injury.

The next step is to get them to a safe place. If they can’t move, then to keep them from greater injury it is good to get a coat or something flat under them. Then you can either drag them away, or if possible, carry them to safety. If they are bleeding a lot, then try to find some cloth to wrap around the wound to stop bleeding. You might have to tear or cut off a piece of your shirt if this is the case, or use your coat if you have one. Another thing you can do is use their collar to help stop bleeding if there is nothing else. Just tighten it up as best you can. Some kinds of collars won’t work though. It will be hard, but one of the best things you can do is to reassure your dog by using a calm voice. Just keep speaking to them. If you and your dog have had time to bond, then your dog should already see you as security and comfort. It won’t help much, but it will help.

Of course the next thing to do is to get them to the vet quickly. Even if the injury isn’t severe, it is good to take them anyways. After your dog checks out, they will need some time to rest and recover. If the injury was pretty bad, you will want to get them a comfortable bed to sleep in. There are plenty of comfortable quality dog beds to choose from that will work. You want something that will take pressure off of joints so make sure it is well padded. You will also want to put their favorite dog chew toys by them for comfort. Also, if you wound up using their collar to stop any bleeding or it got damaged, there are plenty of pet collars out there to replace it with. Just keep up their fluid intake and try to get them to eat. Closely watch the progress and follow up with a visit to the vet as needed.