If you own a dog, you know one of the biggest concerns you have is making sure your dog gets enough exercise. Not only do they need to be walked for the sake of exercise, they also need to be walked in order to use the ‘restroom’.

Because many of us are so busy, we often don’t have the time to get them all the exercise they need during the day, especially after the recent time change. This means they have to be walked after the sun sets. Even in the safest areas accidents can happen. This is why you should get your pet a reflective dog collar for your nighttime walks.

Reflective dog collars are a great way to give drivers a heads up when they are driving at night. It seems the moment we step out of our cars we forget how hard it is to see at night. Even the best and most alert drivers can miss things, and shadows seem to blend into shadows, especially at twilight.

You may think a driver can see you, but you can never count on that. If you have reflective dog collars on your pets, you are giving the driver of any vehicle a better chance of seeing you if you dart out from between cars, or even if you are using the crosswalk like you should.

You can find reflective dog collars anywhere you find regular collars, though they may cost you a little more. It’s always worth the price, however, because they can help keep your dogs and you safe after dark.

Reflective dog collars often contain the same material that you might see on other reflective items like emergency uniforms, or safety markings on roadways. They should be able to reflect light from a high distance, and alert any driver that a living creature is moving about ahead of them.

You can also find these reflective dog collars online, and you may find a better price by shopping this way.

If you have already spent a lot of money on quality collars, you can make your own reflective dog collars out of what you already have. You can buy the reflective material in craft or fabric stores, and then securely glue them with powerful glue to the existing collars you own. Make sure you use enough reflective material, and you may even want to attach some to your leashes and your own jacket or shoes as well.

Did you know there are differences between Frontline, Advantage, and K9 Advantix? I didn't. At least not until recently.

K9 Advantix is the newest of the three. It is only for dogs and puppies seven weeks and older, and kills fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes. In fact, it kills fleas in 12 hours. That's fast! And it's even cheaper than Frontline. It not only kills fleas, ticks and mosquitoes, but repels them as well, which Frontline does not.

If you go to 1-800-PetMeds they have K9 Advantix on sale at this time.

We have not used K9 Advantix, but the customer reviews at 1-800-PetMeds rate it very highly. The vet review at the site recommends using a variety of products to keep the fleas from becoming immune or resistant. They recommend using Frontline Plus for a few months because it prevents flea eggs from developing into fleas, and then switching to K9 Advantix or Advantage for a few months.

Frontline Plus kills fleas and ticks and flea larvae. Nowhere did I see that K9 Advantix or Advantage killed flea larvae. For that reason, Frontline Plus seems like a better product, unless you have a problem with mosquitoes. I like the idea that fleas are not allowed to mature.

Using Frontline last Spring we found that one or two applications was enough to prevent any flea infestation for the entire summer. We have not had a problem with fleas since we moved here 6 years ago, but we have a dog that itches like crazy if he gets one flea, so we have used Frontline Plus or Advantage every Spring on each dog and that seems to be enough.

If you live in a place that has a lot of fleas or ticks, Frontline Plus or K9 Advantix kill ticks. Also, if your home and backyard are infested with fleas you might need to use these products every month instead of just every Spring. When we lived near the Southern California coastline, the fleas were terrible. Now that we are out in the desert, we don't notice so many.

Remember, K9 Advantix kills and repells fleas, ticks and mosquitoes. Frontline Plus kills fleas, ticks and flea larvae, and Advantage kills fleas. With these three great products there is really no reason to suffer through another flea season. I wish these had been around years ago when our poor dogs scratched all summer.

A dog identification tag is absolutely necessary to care for the safety and protection of your dog. Dogs love to run and play in the outdoors, and sometimes they play dangerous, or forget to come home.

Even if you keep your dog supervised at all time and don't let him go out alone, nonetheless you should still get him a dog identification tag since the chances are, sooner or later he will run out unsupervised.

All of our dogs have tags. Even the Newfoundland had a tag, even though she was so old she bare made it from the family room to the backyard to do her business and then back to her spot indoors.

Dogs are always waiting for the chance to sneak out by themselves so that they can explore and meet other dogs. Sometimes the moment I open the door, my sister's Cocker Spaniel, Danny, runs out yipping and yapping down the street. It can take hours to get him to come home again, and sometimes she just has to give up and trust that he will come home by himself. He always does.

So what would happen if he were to be hit by a car and injured, or perhaps be picked up by animal control, or get into a fight with another dog. If he didn't have on a dog identification tag, both my sister and Danny would be completely out of luck. He might be put to sleep with no dog identification tag to tell the humane society that there was someone who loved him just waiting to pick him up.

Dog identification tags come in all sorts of stylish options. There are plain metal ones which look just like dog tags in the army for a sort of stylish plastic look. On the other hand, there are bright pink plastic ones which can be seen for blocks and blocks around for the way that they reflect light and their garish color. Danny has a large one, a deep metallic green, which is an attractive color, yet reflects enough light that people can see it hanging from his neck.

Danny doesn't just wear it when he is going out, but all of the time. In addition to showing people where he belongs in case he is lost or hurt, it has the added advantage of showing them that he is a domestic dog and not dangerous. Although few dog maulings do occur, when they do they are so likely to be sensationalized, that it pays to let people know ahead of time that a strange dog is safe.