Make Your Home Welcoming and Safe for Your Puppy

Unlike bringing home a newborn child where you have some time to
make your home safe, bringing home your new puppy means you need
to puppy proof your home right away. Puppies are just like
toddlers with lots of energy and ready to get into everything.
They have an insatiable curiosity that makes them check out
everything including those things that might not be so safe for
them. As the puppy’s new owner, you must puppy proof your home.

One good step to take towards puppy proofing your home is to
look at it from the dog’s perspective. Get down on your hands
and knees and look around. You might be surprised at what you
see down there that could look so tempting to a puppy in his new
home. Remember your puppy will want to check out all this new
stuff as he has never seen it before and it just might be
dangerous to him.

Be very aware of electrical cords that your puppy can access and
chew on. Just think of what a puppy chewing on an electrical
cord, in use, could lead to. Place the cords where the puppy
can’t access them. Place them behind furniture or up high where
he can’t reach. Try laying them under something like a rubber
mat.

Stairs can provide as much danger to a puppy as to a toddler.
They can have trouble getting up and down them. In their
boisterousness, they can even fall down a flight of stairs. Best
to just block off the stairway until the puppy has grown and is
more capable of navigating them. Stairs might also lead to a
place you do not want your puppy to be such as the basement. If
you have a door, then you must be sure the door is always closed.

Another step in making your home puppy proof is to be sure there
are no hazardous household chemicals where he can get into them.
Such are usually stored under the kitchen sink or even the
bathroom sink. Can your puppy get ready access to these places?
You may even have to go so far as to use those plastic cabinet
locks that are used for toddlers.

These are a few steps to take in making your home puppy proof.
Keep in mind the level of your home your puppy lives at and what
he sees and can get into at that level. Having a puppy proof
home can go a long ways to having a happy and healthy
relationship with you puppy.

copyright 2005. Sandra Dinkins-Wilson