Photo: FrontPet
If you love your dog as much as you love your car, consider this: the higher the trunk of your car, the more at risk your pet’s health is.
This is the finding of a small study published in Vet Record and cited by British publication Express. Apparently, with the rise in popularity of SUVs, the number of injuries to dogs’ front legs could also be on the rise. At least in theory. That’s because SUVs have higher trunks from which the pooches jump and doing so repeatedly could have dire consequences.
This adds additional stress to their front legs and could translate into health issues in the long run. “Allowing dogs to jump from bigger cars with a higher boot sill may result in augmented levels of loading on anatomical structures,” the study warns.
So either you prevent your dog from jumping from the trunk of your car (you could always carry it in your arms, one assumes), or you start thinking about switching to a car with a smaller platform.
All jokes aside, the study was small, including only a sample of 15 healthy dogs: 14 pedigree and 1 mixed-breed. All were made to jump from platforms of different heights (0.55, 0.65 and 0.75 meters), with the amount of stress on their front legs increasing as the same time as the platform height.
The difference between the lowest and the highest platform was of 25 percent in peak ground force pressure. Still, even researchers admit that more information should be collected before making a proper ruling on the exact impact jumping from an SUV’s trunk has on your dog’s legs and whether it’s connected to specific leg injuries.
“This study provides the first objective evidence to support the commonplace belief that allowing dogs to repeatedly jump clear from vehicles with high [trunk] compartments may be inadvisable,” researchers say.
This adds additional stress to their front legs and could translate into health issues in the long run. “Allowing dogs to jump from bigger cars with a higher boot sill may result in augmented levels of loading on anatomical structures,” the study warns.
So either you prevent your dog from jumping from the trunk of your car (you could always carry it in your arms, one assumes), or you start thinking about switching to a car with a smaller platform.
All jokes aside, the study was small, including only a sample of 15 healthy dogs: 14 pedigree and 1 mixed-breed. All were made to jump from platforms of different heights (0.55, 0.65 and 0.75 meters), with the amount of stress on their front legs increasing as the same time as the platform height.
The difference between the lowest and the highest platform was of 25 percent in peak ground force pressure. Still, even researchers admit that more information should be collected before making a proper ruling on the exact impact jumping from an SUV’s trunk has on your dog’s legs and whether it’s connected to specific leg injuries.
“This study provides the first objective evidence to support the commonplace belief that allowing dogs to repeatedly jump clear from vehicles with high [trunk] compartments may be inadvisable,” researchers say.
Google News