There are many dog lovers in the world who are stuck with a conundrum. When you don’t have an animal like this and have worked extremely hard to build your home into something which reflects your personality, the idea of inviting their chaos can seem like a crazy one. Before you even start to think about the waste they leave behind, creatures like this aren’t exactly careful. Of course, though, this doesn’t have to stop you from having a pet like this; it just means you need to make some changes to your lifestyle to suit one. To help you out with this, this post will be exploring some of the best methods to live with a dog without letting your home fall into ruin.
Clear Pathways
Unlike humans, dogs don’t understand the value or fragility of certain items around the home. Plates, vases, and other brittle objects are found everywhere in your home, and they are very easy to knock from their resting places when a large animal is barreling through the place. This won’t be such a problem if you’re going to have a small dog, as they won’t have the same damage potential as something larger, but it will always be worth considering.
Solving this is a simple matter of clearing the way. Low furniture like coffee tables, sideboards, and drawers should have their surfaces kept free from items which could be broken by your dog. Of course, your dog shouldn’t be running around indoors. If they seem to be very restless when they are indoors, it could be worth giving them a little more exercise, a few things are more destructive than a puppy with too much juice. As they get older, it should get easier to avoid having things break around your dog.
Tidying Up
Going back to their inability to understand the importance of some objects, most dogs will also struggle to know what does and doesn’t belong to them. This means that items which are left around your home could be easy pickings for your pet, and some have the potential to cause a real mess. For example, if your dog gets its teeth around a loo roll, you could come home to a place which is covered in tiny fragments of paper. This will take a long time to clean but is also completely avoidable if you keep your dog under control.
Along with tidying your home, it will also be important to think about tidying your dog. When they’ve had the chance to spend an afternoon outdoors, they will probably come home with a good deal of dirt in their fur. In some cases, if they have access to water, they could even be muddy, and this is very hard to clean from the inside of your home. A hose, towel, and bottle of dog shampoo can be enough to solve this issue, giving you the ability to clean your dog on the doorstep, rather than having to take them inside.
Training Them
Unlike a cat, your dog will be a natural team player. With their early ancestors being pack animals, modern dogs still hold a lot of their social skills, and this is part of what makes them such great companions for humans. Along with this, though, it also provides you with the opportunity to give them some training. For the best results with something like this, it’s always worth starting as early as possible, as time will be a valuable resource when it comes to getting things right. Below, you can find some examples of the areas your dog will need to be trained in.
Toilet Manners: One of the biggest fears which new dog owners have is that their furry friend will leave waste around their home. While this is a risk with any animal, dogs are one of the easiest species to train out of this sort of behaviour. As a puppy, they may need female or male dog wraps to ensure that they don’t make any accidental messes. If they do leave something behind which they shouldn’t have, punishing them is a bad idea, with a stern word or two often being enough to let them know that they can do better.
A lot of people will use their garden for this process, simply moving their furry friend outside when it looks like they need to go to the toilet. You can help this process along by placing some of their waste outside, while also keeping it clean to ensure that they always have somewhere to go. As time goes on, accidents will become rarer and rarer, until it is only you who can cause something like this to happen.
Obedience: There are few things harder to manage than a disobedient dog. Trying to keep them safe, out of fights, and in the good books of those around you will be hard when they are very young, as most puppies will simply act how they please. With stern words and rewards for good behaviour, though, you can often take control of this area. Fear and pain should never be tools in this sort of effort, with most dogs growing to hate their owners when they are subjected to physical punishments for minor transgressions. Remember; they won’t understand why something isn’t allowed.
Emotions: Much like the people who own them, dogs are always very emotional animals. Wagging tails, forward facing ears, and growling are all signs of strong emotions, but some puppies will struggle to control the way they feel. Thankfully, soothing an animal like this is much the same as making a baby feel better, with remaining calm and supportive being the best approach to take. Getting angry with an excited dog isn’t fair, as they will usually only be trying to communicate with you.
Training your pet isn’t always the easiest job, with most people never having gone through this process before. Of course, while it might be hard, it is well worth it to ensure that your home doesn’t get impacted by the animal you’ve decided to look after. If you need extra help with this, there are loads of companies out there which offer specialist dog training. It might cost a little bit of money, but going through a process like this will always result in a more obedient dog, and this can be well worth the money.
Cleaning Things Up
Unfortunately, no matter how hard you try, there will always be a certain amount of mess which comes with your puppy. Like any animal, these creatures aren’t able to control a lot of the things they leave behind, and this means that you have to be active in your approach to cleaning them up. Below, you can find some examples of the common areas in the home which will need the most attention, giving you the chance to start thinking about it before you take the plunge with your puppy.
Furry Furniture: Most dogs will have a summer and a winter coat. When the warmer months roll around, they won’t need their thicker fur anymore and will shed it all off over the course of a few weeks. This often results in furniture being covered with the stuff. To overcome this sort of mess, you will need to do two different jobs; brushing the dog, and rolling the furniture. Both brushes and lint rollers can be found all over the web, and won’t cost much to get your hands on.
Dirty Floors: Whether it’s footprints or food, your dog will leave a lot of waste behind when they move around your home. Vacuuming the areas which they spend the most time in each day can be a great way to keep this under control, though some people prefer to take a more modern approach. Devices like the Roomba are able to clean the floor space on a whole level of a building without the help of a human. They might scare the dog at first, but will be worth it to keep the mess under control.
The Garden: In most cases, dogs will spend most of their toilet time in the garden. This saves you from having to collect waste while out and about, while also making it easier for them to avoid having accidents. Of course, though, you can’t have poo piling up in your garden for months on end and need to work on this part of your home very regularly to keep it clean. There are few things worse than treading something like this into a carpet, making it worth keeping the garden clear.
With all of this in mind, you should be ready to start living a clean life with your puppy. A lot of homeowners fear the idea of an animal like this, worrying that their hard work will be destroyed when they welcome their furry friend. In reality, though, as long as you’re willing to work at it, it’s far from impossible to have a nice place and a puppy at the same time.
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