Is Your Home Really Ready For A New Puppy?

 

You might be excited to welcome your brand new puppy home, but before you scoop them up and introduce them to your life, it’s a good idea to take a long, hard look at your home. It might be some time since you have had a puppy, so it’s important to remember that they have their own needs and risks that have to be addressed. As such, here are a few ways to puppy-proof your home.

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Keep dangers out of the way

First of all, you need to scan through the household for any chewable risks that your puppy can get their teeth on. The next tip will look at how to keep them out of areas that they shouldn’t get into, but you should assume that they can get into all rooms at all times. As such, it’s time to clear away all debris, secure electrical cords, put away any candles, and keep foodstuffs off of any reachable tables for now. In the garden, get to know which plants are poisonous to dogs and remove them.

Set some boundaries

Just like babies, puppies don’t yet have a sense of where they are and are not allowed to go. It takes training and maturity to get them to that stage. As such, both inside and outside the home, you need to think about where you should ensure they don’t get any entry. Wood dog gates can make this easy, ensuring that they don’t make it beyond the garden, for instance, or even blocking off the stairs if you’re worried about them falling while they’re still small. Be sure to keep them warded off from any areas where they could potentially get into and chew at harmful household products or possessions.

Ensure you have plenty to keep them busy

Take the time to find age-appropriate toys and chew toys for your puppy. Once they get used to their surroundings, they are going to be bounding bundles of energy and ensuring that they have plenty of play with can help use up a lot of that energy, staying active, happy, and engaged. Furthermore, if you don’t help them work off that energy, they are likely to use it in other ways: namely biting your furniture and just about anything else they can get to shreds.

Keep things calm and take it slow

This is more of a tip for you and your family rather than something you should do with the home itself. However, puppies are going to naturally be hesitant, maybe even a little scared, when you bring them home for the first time. You should try to limit their new greeters to just the immediate family that they will spend time with. Over time, you can socialize them by gradually introducing them to new faces, but let them get used to their new lifestyle, first.

Growing puppies are a lot more demanding than fully grown dogs, in case you have forgotten, so ensure that both you and your home are prepared to handle them. The tips above can help with that.

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