You’ve just brought home your new pup, you’re naturally excited out of your mind, and rightly so. If this is your first pet, your life is going to change forever, for the better. So, now that you have welcomed the newest entry to your family, here are some of the things you can do to make sure your pup remains safe indoors.
- Keep Your (People Food) Away
While you might be tempted to give your pooch a snack as you sit there munching on one yourself, it would not be a good idea for quite obvious reasons, (or maybe not so obvious!). Point is, it’s a bad idea to encourage your dog to eat the same foods or snacks you do, because it can prove to be deadly for your dog. When it comes to snacks, most people usually go for fruits. So, if you are thinking of giving your dog some of that leftover apple or throwing your pooch a grape your munching on, don’t. Grapes and apples can be poison for your pet dog. For instance, apples contain small seeds that contain a kind of cyanide that can be seriously damaging for your dog. Chocolates and candy bars are also a big no-no when it comes to pet treats and should be locked away or kept well out of reach. As a rule of thumb, what you will want to do is keep all the goodies you like away from your furry friend.
- Hide Medication
When it comes to medications, we tend to keep them lying around and don’t think of them much. Besides, keeping our medication where it is easily reachable helps us absent minded people to remember if we have missed taking our medication or not. That’s a bad idea if you have an inquisitive pooch roaming around. Whether it’s the bathroom counter or kitchen shelf, or the coffee table, make sure all medications, and especially pills are kept locked up. For instance, some common medications such as Advil can be deadly for your pet if swallowed. This is why it is important that you keep all medication locked up in the medicine cabinet, even the ones belonging to your pet.
- Lock those cabinets
Dogs love to eat too. So be careful to lock the cabinet where you keep your pet’s food because it won’t take him very long to figure out a way to open that cabinet up. If you store your dog’s food in the kitchen, it will probably be in one of the cabinets, and your dog may have already memorized which one he saw you taking those delicious doggy treats out of. If you don’t want your pooch to raid that cabinet while you’re not looking, make sure it is locked up. That goes for your own food, the refrigerator, where you keep cleaning products and other chemicals. All of these things should be kept locked up so that your dog doesn’t try to nibble on them, and since dogs are curious creatures you can bet that they will find their way in the places they aren’t supposed to be if you leave those places unlocked.
- Keep your Purse in a safe place
No, there may be no cyanide in your purse, but chances are there are other things that could be dangerous if your pet decided to snoop around in your purse. A few key items that come to mind are, medication, coins, your makeup, and of course the car keys. You wouldn’t want your pooch eating any of these things since it can easily choke them or obstruct their digestive system which will lead to other problems as well. Even your sugarless gum can prove to be deadly for your pet if it contains xylitol, and it probably does. Since a purse is always within reach and easily accessible, having a dog in the house means that you need to pay extra attention to where you keep your purse. And lastly, keeping your pooch in a purse if a bad idea as well!
- Keep the lid on the toilet
I think we both agree that this sight is something you would never want to see. There is research that suggests that the water in a toilet can have less bacteria as compared to the other areas of the bathroom, which is a good think. But that doesn’t mean you should let snoopy have a drink from it. You would not want to see your pooch with their head down in the toilet because they can be exposed to harmful chemicals that were used to keep the toilet so clean in the first place. That being said, even after you have scrubbed the paint off your toilet, there still has got to be some amount of bacteria present in the water and on the surface, so there’s no need to take a chance. A much better option would be to simply keep a bowl of clean water around at all times so that your pooch can have a drink rather than having to look for alternate sources to quench its thirst.
- Keep the garage off limits
Your garage may be one of your favorite places in your house, but it would probably be a good idea to keep your dog away from it. That’s because the garage is usually where people store cleaning products and other harmful chemicals such as pesticides and rodenticides, so that the kids will be safe from them. But, what about your new furry friend? To make sure your pooch doesn’t go snooping around in the garage and sips that sweet anti-freeze (its sweet to dogs!) or has a drink of some motor oil, drain cleaner or bleach, make sure the garage door remains closed, and that your dog is never allowed there.
