Pet Proof Your Home!

If you are a pet lover like me, then you will know the struggle of wanting to keep your beloved fur babies inside (especially in this freezing weather), but are stressed over the potential of them damaging your home. There are ways to minimise many of these risk factors although it does come down to training your pet also. Here are some tips and tricks to ‘pet proof your home’…

Pet Hair!

Pet hair is ever so frustrating but there are ways to manage it. Be sure to use rugs on carpets and couches that could collect lots of pet hair, try also to colour coordinate with your pet. If your pet’s fur is black, get a black throw rug to place over your couch in between vacuuming time so it is harder to see the dark fur when they malt.

Rugs

Try and find low pile rugs for your home, so that it isn’t tempting for kitty’s to dig their claws into and ruin. Also try and train your pet into having a particular rug that is ‘theirs’ it will keep the dirt and hair that they may carry through the house at a minimum. There is no need to keep the rug in just one place, move the rug around so your pet is able to sit in the lounge with you, whilst you watch telly or in the kitchen to keep you company while you cook tea! Also, if you are a cat lover you should make velvet your new favourite fabric. Cats tend not to have the urge to scratch at it, this could be due to the fact that it is not a looped thread.

Toys!

Scratching is a very normal cat behaviour and is very hard to try and train them to not do it, because of this you need to prepare! Rope is a great tool to get cats away from clawing at your couches, carpets or furniture. Place rope around a horizontal pole (cat’s prefer to scratch vertically) and watch them go for their lives! If they have a bad habit of using your table and chair legs as scratching posts, place rope around them too. You can make rope look quite appealing in the home, so it looks good as well as serving an important purpose.

Like cat scratching, dogs love to chew, especially when they are young! It’s a no brainer for this one, get some chew toys or bones! Try and use rubber or rope, don’t let your dog fall into the habit of chewing on an old teddy or shoe, as they will think it is perfectly normal to grab your brand new expensive work shoe to chew on and you don’t want that!

Exercise

Dogs in particular are like children, they need to be kept occupied and use up their energy. Try and get a good amount of walking or running into your daily schedule with your dog, so once they are inside, they don’t find the carpet fun to run all over or the chair legs to chew on. They will be exhausted and will just want to rest (hopefully on that special mat you have trained them to stay on when inside)

Deterrent

You can always go that one step further and purchase pet deterrent. Place it on things that are tempting for our kitty cats and doggys in the hope that they will be put off by their favourite household items.

Training

When it comes down to the bottom line, your pets need to be trained if you have the hope of keeping them inside the home. Pets should be a part of the family and if you don’t have the time to train and teach them what they can and can’t do in the home don’t bother bringing them into your family. If you are a renter and your beloved pet does damage to the home, it can make it very difficult for you to find another rental property, so do yourself and your beloved pet a favour and make sure you not only pet proof your home but train them too!