New Puppies Will Appear During The Holidays In Elmhurst, La Grange, Wheaton, Naperville and Oak Park. Take Precautions For Their Safety And Puppy Proof!

There are several necessary but easy precautions to take when you’re puppy-proofing your home.

Preparing your home for the addition of a puppy can seem daunting at first—there are so many things to worry about them chewing on or ingesting or getting trapped in—but if you go room by room and think about the process of puppy-proofing as very similar to child-proofing it’ll be much easier. It’s all about taking the necessary precautions to ensure their safety.

Puppies don’t have automatic “no, don’t put in mouth” filters, so they can and will chew and potentially eat anything they can, including:

Pill bottles (and pills)
Indoor and Outdoor plants
Electrical wires
Tasty (or gross) items in the garbage.
Antifreeze
Articles of clothing, such as socks, etc.

In general, it’s best to go around the house, and even crouch down to the dog’s eye-level, and look for things he or she can get into. Electrical cords may need to be hidden or sealed behind plastic like PVC, and anything sharp, like your sewing or knitting stuff, should be put in a closet or cabinet. Electrical sockets should be covered.

Garbage bins especially should be considered—you might want to get the kind with a covered lid and even put the garbage in a closet or pantry-style storage unit. So much of what we eat and discard is toxic to dogs, but so very alluring to them.

Puppies can also get stuck behind and under things, such as furniture, or wrapped in things like the pull-cords for blinds and drapes. These can cause injury or even death, so be sure to take a moment to look for hazards like this. You may also want to close off bathrooms entirely, as puppies can get into toilet bowls and drown, or chew and ingest makeup, cleaning supplies, razors, etc.

It will definitely help you and your family to look for these kinds of potential dangers before you bring your new puppy home. That little baby dog is going to be a handful, so puppy-proof as much as you can before her or she joins your family. Realistically, ou’ll need to make adjustments as you go along, so if you have the bulk of the work done from the outset it will save you time and stress.

Here are some checklists and further information on puppy-proofing. The American Humane Association has a pretty thorough checklist, and the Pet Education website, which is connected to Drs. Foster and Smith, also has useful information on this topic.