How To Safely Puppy Proof Your Home - Checklist - Tips - Checklist

puppy proofing

Much like when you bring a new baby home and baby proof the house, you also need to safely puppy proof your home. Especially, since they can walk as soon as you bring them home! Coming from a clean freak, I never realized how much crap was on my floors until we brought Alburt home! So this part of the series are my top tips to puppy proofing your home so that your curious new pup isn’t ingesting anything its not suppose to….. Obstructions can be life threatening and can result in emergency surgery if left unresolved long enough and causes a blockage in the intestines. Do you know the average cost of an intestinal surgery is? $1-3k! So, clean your house and get it prepped, and be watchful!

If you are new to my puppy series, I recommend reading the other ones as well for the entire new puppy experience! How To Take Care Of A Puppy and What Supplies Do Puppies Need

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hide and contain

Let’s get started! Firstly, you want to hide and contain everything! I mean like everything. Puppies love putting their little sharp shark teeth into anything they can reach. This means mainly everything touching the ground. Cords, shoes, junk, trash, papers, bags, twist ties, boxes, plastic cups, water bottles, kids toys, socks, clothes, remotes, glasses, corners off any wall lol. But in all seriousness these are all the things that I have had to take from Burty’s mouth or redirect him from. So get picking up! View my Lazy Girl Guide To Keeping A Clean House

I never even thought about how much grocery shopping things he would find interesting…hence the twist ties, the boxes that Costco puts our orders in, and the bags! Everything is interesting to a new puppy and they want it all in their mouth. The bags and plastic cups can be especially dangerous if unsupervised. They can get stuck on your dogs face and when they breath it can suction to them and they can suffocate. Please clean up after unloading groceries and using plastic cups!

Fortunately the shoes weren’t really a problem to begin with. Mainly because I didn’t want to create bad habits by leaving them around where Alburt could potentially take off with one. So our everyday shoes are now contained in a basket inside our entryway cabinet. This is perfect because its right by the front door and is super convenient to just through our most used shoes in there when we walk in the door. This is also where Alburts leash and harness live. Picture below of our entryway.

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Okay, let talk about cords. Bryan and I both work from home, so we have cords everywhere! Lighting, mics, chargers, extensions, power cords…..you name it, its plugged in! This was the first thing we started with in puppy proofing our home. What we did was pin longer cords around the base boards and the ground. That way they were seamlessly out of sight and also taught enough to where it wouldn’t be tempting to nibble on. Then for the extension cord, we mounted it up on the backside of Bryans desk leg, and guided all his cords around the edges of his desk. So no cords were touching the ground or in puppies frame of view.

To cover up cords, there are also tons of products on the market like plastic covers, tube covers, and command cord holders to hide cords. Those are all great options too!

I really believe since we did this before we even brought Alburt home, we really don’t have a problem with him chewing on things other than his toys and tags lol.

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small crevices

Alburt is an American Bully, not sure if I’ve mentioned that or not! So full size, he will likely be 50-60lbs. But when we got him at just before 4 weeks old, he was TINY! I mean like beanie baby size tiny! He was so small, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous…..

Our couch at the time had a cover with a skirt-like bottom. At one point I was walking into the kitchen, where I can see directly into the living room, and for a split second I saw Alburt’s booty 100% go under the couch! I was actually thankful I caught him because I probably would have been freaking out not able to find him! Fortunately, there was nothing under there that he could get in to but he definitely pooped under there a couple times! Smh. There really wasn’t much we could do for that situation, so we just became aware that the couch was an area he liked to go under. We knew it wouldn’t last long because he’d get too big lol. Plus we got a new couch anyway!

Small places exist all over your home you probably never even thought about until you got a puppy! They will squeeze and nudge into and between everything their little paws can. Just pay extra attention to floor vents, baseboard vents, doorways, any and every piece of furniture! Like book shelves, beds, under the bed, plant stands, coffee table, tables with chairs….somehow, no matter how clean you are, that puppy will find something from under one of these! So detailed vacuuming every few days will be a good idea!

plants

Lastly, most plants are toxic to dogs and cats. If you are a plant parent like myself, the best tip for safely puppy proofing your home is to get all your plants off the ground! Just using something simple like a plant stand will give your plant’s leaves some height to be out of reach of the pup.

In the photo below, I had to get creative with my Dieffenbachia’s because I found out the sap it leaks from a cutting can cause the throat to close if ingested! So, I DIY’d some plant stands which you can get the digital Ebook here to make your own! Or you can put in a custom order here if you’re not as crafty.

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Thanks for reading! I hope this article gave you some good insight in knowing how to prepare your home for your new lil puppy love! Let me know in the comments below what you think or if you have anything else to add!