Keep your dog happy and your home clean

We all love our pets. They keep us company, protect us, and are family members. But, we can all relate to common puppy problems that prevent you from keeping your home clean.

These problems are less about ruined furniture and more about boredom, stress, and excessive energy. Chewing, shedding, and anxiety problems can cause damage to our homes.

Even though you love your dog, you will not appreciate the destroyed furniture and always present a hair layer on every surface. But, there are small steps you can take to keep your dogs happy and your home clean.

Chewing problems

Some dogs have separation anxiety, leading to chewing on furniture, tearing through the house, peeing inside, and other destructive behaviors. Puppies usually have chewing problems because they are learning about the environment around them, and the easiest way to do that is through their mouths. Usually, puppies grow out of it as they grow up, but you can take steps to help curb this problem.

Tire out your dog. A tired dog will not have the energy to chew on the corners of your couch or lounge chair. Go for walks, run around the yard, or play tug of war. This is also an excellent tool for dogs with separation anxiety. If you get some of your dog’s energy out before you leave, your pup will be less anxious once you are gone.

Give your dog toys. Puppies are always looking for new things to explore. If you provide your dog with appropriate chew toys, they will learn what is and is not okay to chew. Giving your dogs ropes, rawhides, or kong toys will help them release excess energy and develop preferences for what they like to chew on.

Shedding problems

Brush and bathe your dog. Taking a few minutes daily or a few times a week can make a huge difference in the amount of hair around your home. Brushing helps keep your dog’s coat healthy and removes dead hair. Plus, your dog will enjoy being pampered. Bathing your dog will keep their coats clean, which leads to less shedding.

Can’t keep up with all the hair? Hire a domestic cleaning service to help ease that chore. 

Protect your home

Aside from brushing, washing, and providing your dog with energy outlets, there are other ways you can control your home and take care of your furniture. Nobody likes to come home to a chewed-up couch leg. You can buy products, some you may already have to help protect furniture, carpeting, flooring, and window treatments.

• Use bitter spray on furniture your dog likes to chew on. It only takes a small amount of this nasty-tasting stuff to stop your dog from chewing up your couch legs. It is non-toxic and won’t harm your furniture. This is a great method to send a message to your dog that your furniture tastes bad, so they won’t want to chew it anymore.
• Hot sauce is also a great deterrent that you might already have at home. Dab a tiny bit on the spot your dog loves to chew and wait for results. Your dog won’t like the spicy taste and will learn to associate your furniture with an unpleasant reaction.
• You can use washable slipcovers on couches and chairs to keep your furniture clean. This makes removing and washing them easy when Fido gets them too hairy.
• Putting down throw rugs can help keep your carpets and floors clean. Placing rugs at exterior doors will help keep your pup’s paws clean and confine the dirt they track into one place. Purchase rugs that you can easily wash or vacuum.
• If drapery is a problem, you can easily tie them up. This can be done in a beautiful way that doesn’t sacrifice the room’s interior design. Cords are a great option for pulling drapes away from the floor. You also can buy holdbacks in various designs to keep your drapes in good form.
• If your drapery is too long, you can hem them without a sewing machine. Once you measure the drapes and find the desired length, fold over the curtains’ ends to the new length and iron at the fold. Then, unfold at the crease, place your hemming tape and fold the material back over, sealing the line.

We all want to love our dogs and our homes. You can help protect your home and its furniture with a few simple steps.