10 Ways to Dog Proof Your Home

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Prevent your dog from getting into potentially dangerous trouble. Check out Petside's ten easy tips to dog proof your home!

Even after he has grown out of his mischievous puppy ways, your dog is still a curious animal by nature—wanting to stick his nose in unexplored territory, even if that territory poses a potential danger. Adult dogs need protection in the home just as much as puppies. To ensure your precious pooch is protected from harm, check out these 10 easy ways to dog proof your home.

Dog Proof Your Home: Inside

1. Keep all medications, vitamins, toiletries, cleaning supplies, and other chemicals out of your dog’s reach. Ingestion of these substances may cause serious illness and may even be fatal.

2. Use childproof latches on cabinets that contain potentially harmful substances, so that your dog is unable to get a hold of any of the substances. It is also a good idea to secure your toilet bowl with childproof latches to prevent—especially if you use sanitizing flush products that are dangerous to animals—as well as garbage cans.

3. Ensure that poisonous foods such as chocolate or avocados are out of range of your dog.

4. Move all common household plants such as lilies, poinsettias, or chrysanthemums—to name a few—as they are poisonous to dogs if ingested. For a comprehensive list of common poisonous plants, read Petside’s article here.

5. Keep all sharp objects and small objects or children’s toys off of the floor or within your dog’s reach. Your dog’s paws and mouth can be cut if she gets a hold of a sharp object and small objects or toys can be easily ingested,

6. Make sure your dog has a few good chew toys to keep him occupied, so that he doesn’t resort to chewing electric wire, your brand new shoes, or other dangerous objects.

Dog Proof Your Home: Outside

7. Make sure your yard is gated either with a physical fence or a wireless fence to prevent your dog from running outside the yard into potential danger.

8. Keep your dog cool on those stifling summer days by placing a doghouse in a shady part of the yard. Make sure the doghouse is cleaned regularly.

9. Provide your dog with fresh water to keep her hydrated while she is playing in the backyard. You may want to consider installing a circulating water feature to best ensure your dog is hydrated and refueling with plenty of water.

10. Place a barrier in front of your garden or flower bed to protect your dog from getting into the garden and possibly ingesting poisonous plants. This barrier could be a small gate or even thorny or textured flowers like roses or lavender as dogs do not like such plants and will thus stay away from them and, consequentially, your garden.

Amanda Kelly

Amanda Kelly is an Editorial Intern for Digital Works @ NBCU.

She currently attends Iona…

Filed Under: Health & Home, Safety
Tags: Dogs, animals in your home, dog proof, Dog Safety, Havahart, Havahart Wireless

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Comments (16)

Tricolor (Unverified)

Added 02-18-2013 01:55pm

To coin a phraseWe\'ve all heard this one ulslauy in the of how it\'s difficult for a person to change their habits or learn something new once they are set in their ways.Of course, many of these phrases are based in truths. Is this one of them?Canine continuing edBack in the 16th century, a man by the name of John Fitzherbert wrote in his tome the following statement: The dogge must lerne when he is a whelpe, or els it wyl not be; for it is harde to make an old dogge to stoupe. In modern English, this essentially renders as, You can\'t teach an old dog new tricks. The enterprising folks of the Discovery Channel show decided to tackle this old adage in their season 5, episode 5: Dog Myths. Jamie and Adam took two 7-year-old Alaskan malamutes who hadn\'t had a lick of training in their entire lives. they shattered this age old myth, as both dogs were trained to heel, sit, lie down, stay, and shake upon command. (It\'s worth noting that the malamute is regarded as a bit of a stubborn breed, too.)Tips for your old dogSo is there anything special you should do to try to educate your aging canine companion? I\'m glad you asked.America\'s Pet Registry recommends a couple of to keep in mind when training your old dog new tricks. First of all, recognize if the dog has had any previous incorrect or unhelpful training. Secondly, reinforce the good parts of the dog\'s behavior with positive rewards, while restricting or otherwise redirecting the undesirable behaviors. Finally, it\'s also a good idea to make these changes in small steps, rather then in one fell swoop don\'t confuse the dog completely.By being patient and thorough, you can rather easily teach that old buddy of yours some new behaviors. Come to think of it, these ideas might help you learn how to use that new smartphone you just can\'t figure out though you might want to skip the Beggin\' Strips as a reward. They . Top photo: Jim the dog in 1938, from our own family\'s collectionGD Star Ratingloading...