03 Puppy-Proofing Your Home
Description
This article is from the Your New Puppy FAQ, by Cindy Tittle Moore with numerous contributions by others.
03 Puppy-Proofing Your Home
You should consider that a puppy has an absolute right to chew
whatever they can get at in your absence. You must put the puppy where
either it cannot do any damage, or you do not care about the possible
damage. Puppies can eat kitchen cabinets, destroy furniture, chew on
carpet, and damage a wide variety of other things. Besides the
destruction, the puppy may well injure itself, even seriously.
A good solution to this is a crate. A crate is any container, made of
wire mesh or plastic, that will hold the puppy comfortably, with
enough room to stand and curl up and sleep, but not too much that it
can eliminate in one corner. See the section on housetraining below.
Other solutions include fencing off part of the house, say the kitchen
or garage or building an outside run. Be sure the area is
puppy-proofed.
Please put your pup in an environment it can't destroy. Puppies are
too immature to handle temptations. Depending on the breed, most dogs
begin to gain the maturity to handle short stints with mild
temptations when they're about 6 months old. Consider the analogy with
a baby, where you keep it in a crib, stroller, or pen if you are not
holding it.
It is essential to puppy-proof your home. You should think of it in
the same way as child-proofing your house but be more thorough about
it. Puppies are smaller and more active than babies and have sharp
teeth and claws. Things of especial concern are electric wires. If you
can get through the puppy stages without having your pup get a shock
from chewing a wire you are doing a great job! When puppy proofing
your home, get down on your hands and knees (or lower if possible) and
consider things from this angle. What looks enticing, what is
breakable, what is sharp, etc. The most important things are watching
the puppy and, of course, crating it or otherwise restraining it when
you can't watch it.
Another step in puppy proofing is house proofing the puppy. Teach it
what is and isn't chewable. The single most effective way to do this
is by having a ready supply of chewable items on hand. When the puppy
starts to chew on an unacceptable item (be it a chair, rug, or human
hand), remove the item from the puppy's mouth with a stern, "NO!" and
replace it with a chew toy and praise the puppy for playing with the
toy. If you are consistent about this, the puppy will get the idea
that only the things you give it are to be chewed on! Don't stint on
the praise, and keep the "No!" to a single calm, sharp noise -- don't
yell or scream the word.
There are some products that can help make items unpalatable and thus
aid in your training. Bitter Apple and Bitter Orange (available at
most pet stores) impart a bitter taste to many things without
staining, etc. You should not depend on these products to keep your
puppy safe, but use them as a training aid.
A short checklist:
* Breakables up out of reach
* All wiring and cords put out of reach behind furniture, or encased
in hard plastic flexible tubing (available at hardware stores, can
be cut to size) to slow puppy down
* Anything small enough to be swallowed (pennies, bounce balls,
shoelaces, bits of paper, socks, nuts, bolts, wire) removed from
the floor
* Block access behind furniture wherever possible
* Put childrens toys and stuffed animals away
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