Keep your dog safe in your home

Dogs, especially puppies are innately curious animals. They are quite likely to keep  wandering off and getting into trouble! Dog proofing your home is an absolute must if you don’t want your pet to be accidentally harmed at home. There are several precautions that you could take to ensure that your home is a safe place for your pooch.

• Some dogs are voracious chewers so you would need to keep everything that you don’t want to be chewed up in an inaccessible place! Often chew toys, such as the Hartz dog toys chew-n-clean bone, may help to satiate your pet’s desire to chew.
• Ensure that all electrical cords are contained in conduits or are well hidden so that your dog can’t chew on them. Place childproof electrical covers on electrical outlets.
• Tall pet gates are ideal to block off a certain part of your house that you don’t want your pet to access unsupervised, for instance your home office.
• Remove sharp, pointy objects like needles, scissors, or nails from the floor as they can be fatal if ingested by your pet.
• Keep all bleaches, anti-freeze, medicines, pesticides and any other toxic chemicals locked up in cabinets. Foods such as chocolates or onions are dangerous for dogs, so ensure that you do not feed these to your pet.
• Remember to place plants that are poisonous to your pet, for example the hyacinth, narcissus and poinsettia, amongst others, in places that are not within your pet’s reach.
• If you need to go out of your home for a short while and are not planning to take your pet along, crate it so that it will be safe and not cause any harm. Crates that blend into the décor of the home such as a dog crate table are less likely to create a feeling in your pet that it is being caged up.
• Puppies have huge reserves of energy and if they are unable to expend it they may become destructive. So ensure that your puppy gets lots of exercise. You could opt for a puppy playpen where your pet can play even if you are not around to supervise.

Dogs need to be trained to avoid getting into trouble. However, irrespective of how well trained your pet is, they are like small children and quite likely to get into trouble when you least expect it. So the onus is on you to be alert and avoid situations wherein your dog may be exposed to any danger.