BEHAVIOUR
Six Things to Look out for While Puppy Proofing
Puppy proofing ensures that your puppy does not get into any trouble, even when you are not looking. Read to learn about six key areas to watch out for!
Table of contents
What is Puppy Proofing?
Welcoming home a young puppy can often be an exciting yet exhausting experience. Like young children, puppies spend many of their waking hours exploring their immediate surroundings, making lifelong associations with every new object they encounter. Unfortunately, their preferred mode of exploration is typically by picking up and feeling things in their mouth. This behaviour is augmented even more if the puppy is going through a teething phase and is looking for something to chew on. While we want to encourage good, exploratory behaviour in our puppies, this habit can also often get them into a lot of trouble.
Puppy proofing essentially means taking proactive measures in setting up your pup’s immediate environment so that they do not have access to any harmful objects in the first place. You can start this process even before you get your puppy home by-
Puppy proofing essentially means taking proactive measures in setting up your pup’s immediate environment so that they do not have access to any harmful objects in the first place. You can start this process even before you get your puppy home by-
- Deciding areas in the house your puppy has access to: Remember, it is easier to puppy proof and keep your puppy in a small section of your house at first, and slowly give them access to the rest of the house as they grow up instead of allowing them access to the entire house and then supervising them 24×7.
- Looking at things from your puppy's eye level: Checking out your puppy’s surroundings by getting down on all fours and seeing it from their eye level to beware of any small hidden spaces, nooks or crannies, hanging wires, etc. your puppy may have access to.
Six Key Things to Watch Out For:
Once you have decided on the areas of the house your puppy will have access to, examine the spaces and watch out for the following six kinds of items that could be toxic or severely injure your puppy.
1. Electrical equipment: Ensure that your puppy does not have access to sockets, hanging wires, or electrical equipment in their immediate surrounding. Our puppies quite enjoy chewing on our charging cables, and earphones, or nibbling on the earbuds, which can cause quite some trouble if ingested. So, make sure that none of these are left lying around for your puppy to pick up.
2. Small choking hazards such as pins, hair clips, small toys, rubber bands, etc. can often get swept under our beds and sofas. While we may not notice them ourselves, our puppies can end up chewing and even ingesting them. Make sure you are carefully inspecting your puppy’s toys to ensure that there are no small plastic pieces that could break off from the toy.
3. Hazardous chemicals, be it human medicines, cleaning agents such as Dettol, Phenyl, etc. or even cigarettes, and cannabis, etc. can all be severely toxic to your puppy and should always be kept out of their reach.
4. Household plants such as lilies, sago palms, aloe, money plants, etc. can surprisingly also be poisonous to our dogs, especially if ingested in high quantities. It is also advisable to prevent access to the soil in our potter plants to discourage any ingestion of soil or pebbles.
5. Human food, waste food, and garbage bins should all be kept far out of reach from our puppies. All of these can be of great interest to our puppies due to the array of scents and sniffing opportunities they provide.
6. Windows, balconies, and stairways with wide gaps in between grills should be off-limits to prevent any unfortunate accidents.
1. Electrical equipment: Ensure that your puppy does not have access to sockets, hanging wires, or electrical equipment in their immediate surrounding. Our puppies quite enjoy chewing on our charging cables, and earphones, or nibbling on the earbuds, which can cause quite some trouble if ingested. So, make sure that none of these are left lying around for your puppy to pick up.
2. Small choking hazards such as pins, hair clips, small toys, rubber bands, etc. can often get swept under our beds and sofas. While we may not notice them ourselves, our puppies can end up chewing and even ingesting them. Make sure you are carefully inspecting your puppy’s toys to ensure that there are no small plastic pieces that could break off from the toy.
3. Hazardous chemicals, be it human medicines, cleaning agents such as Dettol, Phenyl, etc. or even cigarettes, and cannabis, etc. can all be severely toxic to your puppy and should always be kept out of their reach.
4. Household plants such as lilies, sago palms, aloe, money plants, etc. can surprisingly also be poisonous to our dogs, especially if ingested in high quantities. It is also advisable to prevent access to the soil in our potter plants to discourage any ingestion of soil or pebbles.
5. Human food, waste food, and garbage bins should all be kept far out of reach from our puppies. All of these can be of great interest to our puppies due to the array of scents and sniffing opportunities they provide.
6. Windows, balconies, and stairways with wide gaps in between grills should be off-limits to prevent any unfortunate accidents.
Quite a list of things to proof, right? But don’t worry, there is a wide variety of products on the market such as crates, playpens, and doggy gates that can help you achieve this easily. Introducing them slowly and correctly can make pet parenting an easier journey for you!
Happy Puppy Parenting! 🐶
Happy Puppy Parenting! 🐶
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