Preparing Your Home and Garden

Puppy proofing your home before your new pup arrives will make those early days, and weeks, a whole lot easier and less stressful for everyone. Your new pup will be curious about their new environment and will want to explore everywhere. You need to think of your pup as a baby – because it is one – although they are much more mobile than human babies and they use their mouths more than anything to explore and chew everything in sight!

Your home is a minefield for your puppy, and it's up to you to protect your pup from itself, as well as protecting your stuff from them! So the key is to make sure you move everything that you do not want your pup eating or destroying out of their reach. A few things to keep an eye out for are; coins, plastic, string, clothing, as these are not good for your pup's digestive system and can even be deadly. Chewing through electrical cords, pulling down heavy table lamps, eating plug-in air fresheners, or knocking over plants or standing lamps can be dangerous. So take this as an opportunity to clean up your house. Move all the small things into cupboards, draws and shelving that the pup can’t get to. Stop leaving your undies and socks lying around because the pup will love those and will steal them!!

In addition to the obviously dangerous cleaning stuff, paint and so on, everyday human items such as chocolate, alcohol, certain fruits and nuts, vitamins and more can be dangerous or toxic to dogs - and a small puppy is at an even greater risk – so please make sure to put all of these out of reach too. 

To make our lives a little easier, Jase and I have decided that we are going to restrict our puppy to certain areas of the house. This is a good idea while your pup is still teething and learning to be house-trained and it will help keep him out of trouble. We will only allow our little man to roam around and explore outside of those areas when accompanied by one of us. This is not unkind at all, in fact it will actually make the pup feel happier and more secure in a smaller space to begin with. So this weekend Jase and I spent our Saturday morning out at Bunnings, purchasing baby gates and puppy playpens/fencing (compost fencing – in the garden section) to help restrict and block off specific areas – it’s amazing what you can find at Bunnings!

Puppy proofing your garden is also very important, as this is where your pup will most likely spend a lot of unsupervised time.

Jase and his dad are going to patch up our fence next week to make sure it’s all secure. Strong fencing is a must! Make sure that your fence is solid with no broken areas or openings underneath, or on the corners, where a pup could slip through.

There are also a number of common plants and bushes that are poisonous, toxic or just irritants to dogs. And it's not just the plants themselves that can be a problem, remember the insecticides, pesticides and fertilizers. Jase and I are unsure of what most of the plants are in our garden so I will cut a snippet of each of them and take them to a nursery to be identified and then I will check to make sure none of them are poisonous. And if we do have any dangerous ones – we will remove them before the pup comes home.

Sticks, rocks, gravel, outdoor furniture, kids toys, garden hoses, sprinkler systems and swimming pools are other outdoor things that puppies like to play with, that can potentially cause problems. Please make sure to protect your pup from these things as eating rocks, gravel, dirt or sticks can hurt your pups mouth and could cause damage.

How far you decide to go with puppy proofing is totally up to you. But just remember that puppy proofing your home and garden isn't just important in terms of keeping your belongings safe, it's crucial to your puppy's health too. 

Week 4