By: Mary Casey
A wriggling bundle of joy explodes into your home. Watch out, it's your new puppy, and she is interested in everything around her. Unfortunately, what she wants to sniff, eat or chew on, may not be the safest things for her, and even cause a serious injury, or death. Before your new puppy arrives at your doorstep, you need to examine your home and take some easy steps to prevent a disaster.
Preparing your house for your new puppy is very similar to baby proofing a house. Look at your home at puppy level. What will your puppy be able to reach? What could she jump up on and injure herself with? What kinds of plants do you have at puppy level? Can she pull anything down onto her head? Go room to room and make a note of any of the following potential hazards:
1) Stairs. Some puppies are not very coordinated, and could fall down the stairs easily. Invest in dog gates, or even child gates, to limit your puppy's access to the stairwells.
2) Electrical Cords. Dogs explore their world with their mouth instead of their hands. Puppies will chew on any interesting thing on the floor, including a live electrical cord, risking an electric shock.
3) Furniture. Your puppy will chew on your furniture, but you may be able to prevent it using Bitter Apple spray, or through behavior training. If your puppy eats enough of the wood from the furniture, she risks getting intestinal injuries from splinters.
4) Household cleaners. Just like you would keep poisonous cleaners out of the reach of a toddler, so you should do the same for a puppy.
5) Try to supervise your puppy when she is outside. Puppies don't know enough to be afraid of biting a snake or eating a toad and being poisoned. Keep an eye on your puppy so she doesn't run away from you and get hit by a car, or even stolen right out of your back yard. Puppies are trusting little creatures and could be killed by a wandering older dog, or a coyote.
6) Don't leave your puppy alone in a car in warm weather. Heat builds up in a car very quickly, even with a window open. In some states it is against the law to leave a dog in a car during the warmer months.
7) Keep your puppy in a crate, or a harness attached to a seat belt in your car when traveling. A small puppy can be a projectile during even a minor accident, leading to severe injury, or death.
8) Automobile liquids are lethal to dogs. Gasoline, motor oil and antifreeze can kill your dog.
9) Puppies like to eat stretchy things that smell like their humans, such as socks, nylons, shoe laces and hair accessories. All these things can injure your puppy's intestinal tract, and may require a trip to the emergency vets.
10) Keep human medicines and vitamins away from your puppy. What is good for you, may not be good for your puppy.
A little prevention will save you and your puppy a lot of grief later on. Using common sense and a sharp eye, you can stop a potential puppy hazard before it happens.
