Outdoor Dogs Still Deserve Flea Protection like Frontline Plus

Some people were raised to think of dogs as being outdoor animals. Dogs, they argue, did not evolve to be confined to a small space indoors. They were meant to roam fields and forests with their human companions, helping with the hunt during the day and guarding the village at night.

Besides, proponents of outdoor dogs say, dogs are by their very nature hairy and a little smelly. An indoor dog means a dirtier house. While these are all valid points, there are also good reasons to keep dogs inside. Here are five points about outside dogs made by the Humane Society of Silicon Valley.

1. Dogs need human companionship.

Dogs are incredibly social creatures - studies have shown that they need companionship to stay psychologically healthy even more than humans do. Although people who keep their dogs indoors may walk the dog and feed the dog, they are still unlikely to spend more than an hour or two each day around their animal. For an average dog, this small amount of contact with their "pack" is psychologically painful.

2. Outdoor dogs have more behavior problems.

Probably as a result of the lack of adequate companionship mentioned above, outdoor dogs are far more likely to suffer from behavior problems, including hyperactivity, barking, digging, and antisocial behavior such as aggression.

3. Outdoor dogs only guard the yard.

Some people keep their dogs outside for the sake of protection, thinking that an outdoor dog is the perfect guard dog. However, a dog who lives outdoors feels that the territory it is bound to protect is also outdoors. If it has no connection with the home, it will have little interest in guarding that home.

4. Outdoor dogs face more risks than indoor dogs.

Outdoor dogs have to endure a wide variety of health and psychological risks that indoor dogs do not have to face. These include:

. Being hit by a car
. Accidental or intentional poisoning
. Taunting or abuse from neighbors
. Theft
. Neighbor complaints
. Chronic health problems from enduring extreme weather
. Obsessive behaviors resulting from boredom and frustration

Fleas and Outdoor Dogs

Another sad part of the outdoor dog's life is that owners often do not bother to protect the dog against fleas and other biting critters. Although a product like Frontline Plus for dogs is affordable and only requires monthly application, outdoor dog owners often neglect to protect their dogs with an anti-pest medication because, they reason, since they won't be bringing fleas into the house they don't need the medication.

Frontline Plus for dogs and other spot-on anti-flea and tick treatments only require once per month application. They protect the dog all month long from critters who would both irritate and transmit disease to the outdoor pooch. If anything, dogs who live outdoors are in even more need of a product like Frontline Plus for dogs than dogs who live indoors.

Bringing Outdoor Dogs Inside

Another irony of owners who keep their dogs outside is that they claim they have to stay outside because otherwise they would bring pests inside. A monthly application of Frontline Plus for dogs, however, would solve that problem.

If you have an outdoor dog, consider all the dangers listed above that an outdoor dog faces and consider training your dog to live indoors. After all, how would you feel if you spent all your time in absolute isolation, with no one to talk to and no one to have fun with? At the very least, train your dog to how to behave indoors so that at least the dog can come inside when the weather is too severe or so that they have a comfortable place to sleep at night.