Can Playing Fetch Kill Your Dog?

Not to freak you out or anything, but if you love to play "fetch" with your dog using a stick, you should stop right away. There's a report out that claims it could kill your dog!

According to a number of veterinarians, splinters in your dog's mouth from fetching sticks can cause them to choke, bleed to death and even develop a lethal infection.

What's really scary, you probably wouldn't notice your dog has an infection until your dog started to seem depressed. By that time the infection would have become really serious and it might be too late to do anything about it.

Let's just say nothing horrible like that ever happens, if you continue to play fetch using a stick there's always a chance your dog will require surgery to remove numerous nasty splinters from its mouth and that procedure could end up running you thousands of dollars.

And what's even more serious, deadly injuries can happen if your dog starts running full speed with their mouth open toward a stick you threw that got jammed in the ground.

The president of the British Veterinary Association, Robin Hargreaves says, "Never throw sticks for dogs. Even if you do it now, never do it again. It is a violent incident that causes real damage."

So next time you plan an afternoon in the yard or one of the Sioux Falls parks with your pooch playing a little fetch, it's probably best to chuck that rubber ball or Frisbee instead.

Speaking of taking your dog to the park, don’t forget Sioux Falls has three great off leash dog parks perfect for this type of activity. Get more info on the dog parks here.