Every dog owner will agree with me on this topic that their pet dogs are nothing less than their family members. So, imagine if you have dogs and you hold a BBQ party, what will happen? Can you ensure the safety of your dogs at BBQ parties? Or, will you arrange something different? Here comes the need for BBQ safety tips for dogs.
We all love a good BBQ party. It brings us joy and happiness by reuniting us with our family and friends. Amidst all this joy, pets too enjoy their time playing around with toys or people. But BBQ is a bit risky, for people as well as pets.
Understanding the concern of people about their dog’s safety, I will try to share some knowledge from my experience as an expert BBQ cook. Below I will share 10 BBQ safety tips for dogs to help you keep your pet dog safe:
10 BBQ Safety Tips For Dogs: Assist You To Protect Your Beloved Pet
If you are wondering how to ensure your dog’s safety during the party, then this article is just for you. I will try to explain everything briefly to you in the simplest manner. So keep on reading:
1. Never Leave The Grill Unattended:
BBQ is indeed a party of joy and refreshment. Everyone gathers up, escaping their monotonous life for a day to enjoy themselves. So who wouldn’t love to join for a bit of chit-chat amidst cooking some luscious BBQ dishes?
But when you leave the grill without any supervision, you create the risk of accidents. The chances of your dogs getting near the grill gets higher. That is why my tip for you is never to leave the grill unattended. For that reason, you may also follow some simple steps:
- Always be around your grill.
- If you need to go to the washroom, then leave someone there to look after.
- Keep your utensils and spices ready before cooking so that you don’t need to fetch them later.
- Even if you want to chit-chat, do that from a bit of distance by staying close to the grill.
2. Do Not Let Your Dog Wander Around The Grill:
A party is all about having fun. No one stays in a mood to even think of any disastrous event to occur during a party. That’s why you always need to keep on your toes and check up on your dogs at BBQ parties. For this reason, I will be giving you this BBQ safety tip for your dogs at BBQ parties.
It is quite possible to lose your focus when you are under pressure. And trust me, a party is itself a pressure cooker when you are hosting it. Forgetting to keep your dog in a safe place can be pretty natural.
If you let your dog wander around the grill, it can jump right into it, smelling all that rich meaty scent. Like, come on! They are dumb animals, after all. But you are smart, right? So keep your dog away from the grill and ensure its proper safety.
3. Prevent Yourself From Feeding Your Dog The Party Food:
This is one of the most essential and critical BBQ safety tips for dogs that many people often ignore. Some people just don’t grasp the risk factor of letting your dog eat all that oily, greasy food from your BBQ dinner table.
I know it’s very hard to disappoint your dog and see his sad face. But you need to understand better and do what’s best for him. You should know:
- If you give your dogs some food containing onions or garlic that might turn out to be poisonous for them, it can make them severely sick.
- If you let him eat leftover bones from your plate, it may damage his organs very severely.
- Too much fat and oil are harmful to your dog’s digestive system. It can make your dog severely sick. It can even upset his stomach.
Knowing all these side effects, being a responsible and sensible pet parent, you should never forget not to give any BBQ food that might prove to be hazardous for your dog.
4. Make A Fence Or Any Sort Of Resistance Around The Grill:
From the previously mentioned BBQ safety tips for dogs, I have been trying to tell you, people, how it is important to keep the dogs away from the BBQ grill. It is a dangerous and, at the same time, scary thing to let your pet come anywhere near the BBQ grill.
So, now you might wonder how you can keep your pet from coming near the BBQ grill? You are the host, which means the responsibility of the guests is also upon you. And there obviously is the trouble of cooking. So how would you get it done?
The answer to this problematic query is to build a fence or boundary around the area. Build the boundary in such a way that your dog cannot get past it. Make sure it is:
- High enough
- Strong enough
- Large enough
After ensuring all the points mentioned above, you will be able to keep your dog at a safe distance from your grill.
5. Cover Up Your Trash Can:
You might get a little confused seeing this tip and think how something hygiene-related can be helpful for my dog? This is quite natural to pop up in your head. Let me make things clear for you by describing them briefly.
Keeping your trash can cover open can cause harm to you and your dog as well. A trash bin is a place where all the waste materials go. From cooking till eating, everything dirty, unnecessary, or leftover goes to that bin of trash. And that is how it becomes a place of attraction for your dogs.
If you keep the trash can uncovered, then the smell will attract your dog. He is likely to get there and try to eat something from there. This is very harmful to your dog. Like:
- He/She may end up eating raw food items that can make his stomach upset.
- He/She can eat any bone that might harm his internal organs very badly.
- They might have rotten things that he might eat.
- Bacterias and germs can harm him severely found in trash cans.
6. Don’t Let The Guests Just Throw In Anything Or To Disturb Your Dog:
You are holding a party, and there won’t be any guests! Is it even possible? After all, BBQ is all about spending a fun time with your family and close companions. But it should also be remembered that not everyone is pet friendly.
In a house full of people partying around, it gets hard to stop your dogs from getting around them. Some voluntarily go to the dogs to play with them. Most people who don’t have a dog of their own, get around your dog the most. What they do is:
- They try to adore them and sometimes even try to feed them.
- Sometimes they don’t know how to play with them and end up irritating them.
That is why it is highly recommended to keep your dogs at a safe distance from the guests. But make sure you are doing it in a subtle way. You don’t want to upset your guests! For that, you can:
- Hand around placards that say ‘’Do Not Feed The Dog Your Food’’.
- Ask your guests politely to treat your dog nicely.
- You can keep your dog with other dogs in a room if you have more than one dog.
7. Keep The Children Under Adult Supervision And At a Safe Distance From Your Dogs:
This one, in particular, is one of the most beneficial BBQ safety tips for dogs at BBQ parties—something that you will find very useful and of great significance. So keep on reading.
Children can be very mischievous sometimes. If they are around your dogs, they can get really naughty. They might:
- Hold the dog too tight.
- The kids might poke into their eyes.
- They might poke into their nose.
- Hurt their tail.
- Feed them contaminated food or harmful food.
All these things can be very irritating for your dog and can also be very harmful.
As annoying as they can be, they don’t really understand the outcome of the things they do. We can’t really blame them, can we? They are children, after all. But being adults, we have our responsibilities. We can supervise them and advise them to restrain from doing certain things to a pet dog.
8. Keep The Firecrackers Away At A Safe Place:
There’s a party at your place, and there won’t be any firecrackers? I think it is impossible to imagine BBQ parties without firecrackers. Now guess what my next tip is going to be? You have guessed it right. This next tip is one of the BBQ safety tips for dogs: keeping your dog safe from the crackers.
Many dogs see fireworks as a threat because of their loud and sudden noise. Their brawl reaction is triggered as a result of this. Your dog may bark, being scared by the noises, or start to panic. He may also exhibit additional anxiety symptoms. This will affect their mind severely.
To help your dog or to prevent such situations from occurring, you can try following the steps as mentioned below:
- You can keep your dog inside your house.
- Make sure the dog is in a safe room.
- Ask the guests not to let the door open, or else they might come out.
- The room you will put your dog in should be soundproof so that the loud noise won’t frighten them.
9. Keep Your Dog Hydrated Enough:
Water is important for the survival of almost every creature on this planet. So keeping your dog hydrated is a must. Now, if you are thinking, why am I talking about this, then let me tell you that my next tip is about keeping your dog hydrated.
If you are genuinely concerned about your dogs’ health and have been reading BBQ safety tips for dogs, I would ask you to give more attention to this part of the article. Many people get so busy with the guests that they forget to look after their own dog.
You should never forget to keep your dog hydrated. This might lead to many complications. Such as:
- Dogs need water to control their body temperature. If they don’t get sufficient water, they can’t cool their body, and their body heat will rise.
- They need water to release toxins. So lack of water will create a hindrance in urination.
- Nutrients from the food they eat move to the body with the help of water. Not drinking enough water will harm the process.
- Water helps dogs to digest food faster. So if your dog is not hydrated enough, then serious digestive issues might arise.
So if you want to prevent all the problems as mentioned earlier, then remind yourself to keep your dog hydrated even amidst your tight party schedule.
10. Let Your Dog Have Fun A Bit:
This is the last tip I am going to share. This might not sound as important as the other BBQ safety tips for dogs, but believe me, this is of great importance if you are a true dog parent and love your dog.
Your dog should be kept safe, not caged into any room or place. They too like to have fun with people once in a while. They have feelings too. So if you keep on having fun outside and keep him away from everything, he will get sad. You don’t want that, do you?
You can always welcome your dogs at BBQ parties if you are careful enough. The things you can do are as below:
- Ask For Your Friends’ Help: You can ask your friends to look after your dog if you are busy cooking your BBQ.
- Let The Kids Come Near Under Supervision: Let them play with kids but always keep an eye on them while they play.
- Let Your Dog Also Get The Taste Of Your Culinary Magic: Don’t deprive the dog of the food. Feed your dog items like hot dog slices, lean chicken, fish, or spiceless steak.
Related Questions:
Now I will try to answer some questions related to this topic and help you clear your confusion of any sort. So stay tuned and keep on reading!
Can BBQ Smoke Harm Your Dog?
The answer to this query is yes. Smoke emerging from a BBQ grill can harm your dog and can damage its organs severely. Though a fire seems just a vast heat ball, it contains a lot of harmful substances. It can harm your dog in many ways. Such as:
- Heat Damage: The heat can damage the internal organs of your dog.
- Carbon Monoxide: The gas contains carbon monoxide. It is a toxic gas.
- Chemical Toxins: Smoke contains some chemical toxins. If it is inhaled by your dog, it can damage their lungs.
Overall, BBQ smokes are harmful to your dogs. That is why earlier in the article, I have included this tip to keep your dogs away from the grill, among the other BBQ safety tips for dogs.
Is BBQ Sauce Harmful To Your Dog?
BBQ sauces are highly prohibited for dogs. So, it’s a big no for your dog to have anything that might have BBQ sauce on it. There are numerous reasons not to let your dog have anything covered in BBQ sauce. Because:
- Onions And Garlic: BBQ sauce includes ingredients like onion or garlic. These are harmful to dogs and their health.
- Sugar: BBQ sauce has sugar. That is a big no for your dog.
- Mustard: Mustards are also on the ingredient list of a BBQ sauce. Mustards can disrupt your dogs’ digestive system. So it’s a no-no.
What Can Dogs Eat At A BBQ Party?
As mentioned earlier in this article, you cannot feed your dogs the food you eat at a BBQ party. It is highly prohibited and is harmful to their health. But there obviously are some exceptions. There are certain food items that you can let your dog eat:
- Hot Dogs: You can cut the hot dogs into tiny pieces and make your dog eat that.
- Chicken: only the lean chicken pieces.
- Fish: this also needs to be a thin piece.
- Grilled Sweet Potato: you can feed your dog some grilled sweet potato or grilled zucchini.
Conclusion:
To put an end to what message I was trying to give throughout the article is to keep your dog safe from all the dangers that might occur during partying. It is okay to party and have fun with kith and kins, but it is also your responsibility to take care of your dog as a dog parent.
So sensibly have fun, and don’t forget to keep loving your dog.
