Puppy Proofing Your Home
LOGIC BEHIND PUPPY PROOFING YOUR HOME
Just like young parents want to keep their young toddler out of danger, the same logic applies to puppy proofing your home. Puppies are curious, inquisitive little creatures. Children are also but THEY grow up. Dogs basically stay little toddlers throughout their lives and owners just have to do their best to save their pets from themselves. Puppy proofing your home will take care of this problem.
It is much easier to prevent medical emergencies than trying to have them treated. All parts of the house can get a puppy in trouble. Chemicals under the sink, open containers of old anti-freeze lying around out in the garage plus oodles of things left dropped on the floor just for a puppy to swallow!
PROTECTING THE PUPPY
The easiest method of puppy proofing your home is to go room to room and look at what can be done to make the area safe for a puppy. In a kitchen put a childproof latch over the doors beneath the sink to keep the animal from getting into cleaners. Dogs may not be able to open containers but their sharp teeth and jaw strength certainly can!
Go into the garage and keep all paints and other petrochemicals off of the floor and away from the puppy. This means remembering that puppies can jump unbelievable heights for their small body weight. Keep anti-freeze out of reach. One lick of anti-freeze is fatal in all dogs.
Walk around all rooms and keep all potentially dangerous items off of the floor. Dogs live with their noses basically glued to the ground so they can swallow or inhale all sorts of things like: string, coins, needles and other shiny objects. Beware of shiny objects found on Christmas trees. For this reason, I used to tell clients with a toddler AND a puppy that the best way to handle a Christmas tree was to hang it upside down from the ceiling! That’ll do it!
Love to garden? Watch out for potentially poisonous houseplants. They may be innocuous and beautiful but can be deadly. Poinsettias at Christmas Time? Yes, they are poisonous if ingested. Pets love to knock over plant pedestals and the like so change the arrangement to keep plants on supports that can’t be tipped over like mantels. Puppy proofing your home is not just a one time event. It is a constant battle to keep your puppy and adult dog safe.
If your pet swallows a foreign substance, chemical or plants contact your veterinarian or contact the 24 hour poison control center at 1-888-426-4435.
PUPPY PROOFING YOUR HOME OUTDOORS
This section will be general because no two yards or acreage are the same and vary from home to home. Outside it is important to make sure there are no sharp edges anywhere or sharp objects or broken glass in the yard. Dogs do not wear shoes and can easily develop lacerations on their lower extremities. I once treated a dog in Florida after it got impaled on a stretch of chain link fence! The lower cut area of a chain link fence can easily penetrate the webbing of most puppies paws. What do dogs love to dig under? F*E*N*C*I*N*G.
Check your home for any extension cords that are plugged in for whatever reason. Dogs can get electrocuted but most commonly puppies will suffer mouth burns around the lips after chewing through an electrical cord.
Here is a great way of puppy proofing your home! Pretend that you are a dog! Go outside and get down to the level of what the dog’s world is like. Go around your property and check for sharp objects like branches or sharp metallic areas that are exposed and could easily scratch a puppy’s eye causing a corneal ulcer. You may say that this is ridiculous! Murphy’s Law was made for puppies. If there is one small detail overlooked that could harm a puppy, a puppy will find it.
By learning about and implementing your own puppy proofing methods you will be on the way to enjoy a lifetime of entertainment and love!
