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Your home is a valuable asset for you and your family. It’s important that you stay on top of home maintenance and cleaning in order to hold the property’s value and to ensure you’re living in a space that’s tidy and safe.
However, when it comes to owning a pet, your home can easily be subjected to damage. Whether that’s boredom from the pet when left in the house for too long, to general wear and tear that can happen when owning a rambunctious dog or cat.
With that in mind, if you’re looking to protect your home from pet damage, then here are some helpful steps that you can take to avoid it from happening.
Training is key
Training is an important part of a dog’s development, whether it happens as a puppy or kitten or later on in life to correct naughty or bad behavior in the dog or cat.
It’s important to remember that all pets can learn and undo habits that they’ve had for years. Despite the saying ‘you can’t teach a dog new tricks’ you can with the right amount of training.
There are plenty of excellent trainers out there that specialize in behavioral science, and that’s something that can be useful when tackling naughty behavior.
With training, it’s something that you need to be consistent with and do from the very beginning where possible. If it’s later on in the pet’s life, then there might be more 1-on-1 training needed in order to achieve the best results.
Ensure your pet gets enough exercise
For some pets, exercise might not be needed as much as other pet types. For example, you might not need to walk a cat as often as you would a dog. A dog is likely going to need more stimulation outdoors with exercise, and depending on the breed, this might be twenty minutes of exercise or two hours of exercise.
It’s beneficial that you’re giving your pet as much exercise as it needs in order to wear off all of the energy that it may have in the day.
You may find it beneficial to get a dog walker if you’re struggling to keep up with the demands of the dog, especially when they’re younger. Some dogs will likely mellow out and become much more relaxed just sleeping for most of the day, especially as they get older.
Try to provide plenty of mental stimulation when outdoors too. Let them sniff everything and let them off the leash for a run if their recall is good. By burning that energy, they won’t be tearing up the home out of boredom.
Anti-chew spray and chew toys
When it comes to avoiding any damage within your home, there are anti-chew sprays that you can get. While they are safe to eat for your pet, they often taste very bitter so it deters the dog from going near it.
This is often used on upholstery to stop pets from gnawing at the furniture. You may also find it useful to use on your most valuable or sentimental items so that your pet doesn’t get the urge to tear it up or use it as a chew toy.
Talking of toys, chew toys can actually be a very effective way to keep your home protected, especially when you’re out and about and need to leave the pet alone. Chew toys can be a mental stimulation but can also be used alongside treats.
For example, there are some toys in which you can stuff treats into them and then the pet can both chew the toy and the treat. This can often provide hours of enjoyment over the course of a day or week, which can certainly wear them out and prevent them from causing any carnage in the home.
Protecting kitchen cabinets from pet damage
Kitchen cabinets are particularly vulnerable to pet damage, especially from scratching and chewing. To protect your cabinets, start by applying protective measures like corner guards or clear adhesive films to areas most at risk. These barriers can prevent scratches and bites without altering the look of your cabinets.
Selecting durable materials for your cabinets is another key strategy. Materials like premium grade plywood are more resistant to pet damage compared to traditional wood, offering better protection against scratches and chewing.
Regular maintenance is essential. Wipe down cabinets frequently to remove any residue or oils that might attract pets. If your cabinets have been scratched, touch up the damage with matching paint or wood filler to prevent further deterioration.
Additionally, consider installing hardware like handles and knobs that keep pets from easily accessing cabinet doors. Magnetic or childproof locks can be added to prevent pets from opening cabinets, reducing the risk of interior damage.
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Look for alternatives for scratching pets
Pets that love to scratch – which is anything that has claws – are going to do some damage to your home if not addressed early on. From the corners of your couches to your bedding and other soft fabrics, it’s not something that you want to see get damaged because it will ultimately need to be replaced.
Replacing a couch or bed isn’t cheap, but having alternatives is definitely a cheaper expense and less of a headache. Scratching posts can be great for cats and there are plenty of toys that can keep the pet occupied so that they spend less of their focus on your furniture as an opportunity to scratch away.
Protect upholstery with covers
If you’re someone who wants to maintain the pristine look of their home, then it’s worth looking for options that will help protect those parts of your home that are often left vulnerable to your pets – particularly when you’re away from the home.
For example, the couch or an armchair that has soft fabric can often be an opportunity for a pet to tear it up. Whether they have anxiety about being left alone, or they’re a pet that’s often left for too long and so get bored, protecting your upholstery with covers might be a good idea.
There are plenty of cover options that you can get for your fabric furniture that you can simply cover over in order to prevent damage. This could be over the entirety of furniture or just on the cushions where it’s more likely to become subject to damage.
Use rugs and mats for high-traffic spots
There are parts of the home that are going to experience more traffic and footfall by both humans and pets. That’s where you should be putting in some preventative measures to help keep these areas as damage-free as possible.
One way of keeping on top of pet damage is by laying down rugs and mats in these high-traffic spots. Whether it’s carpet, wooden flooring or vinyl, over time, a pet’s paws/claws can cause damage to the flooring so it’s useful to have mats and rugs that can soften the damage being made to these high-traffic areas in the home.
From hallways to entryways, these are great spots to put down a mat in order to catch any spills and scratches caused by your pets.
Get your pet groomed regularly
Getting your pet groomed regularly will help greatly when it comes to keeping the damage to a minimum around the home. Your dog or cat, as two common examples, will often need a groom in order to keep them looking and feeling clean.
Some dogs will need more grooms than others, but at the very least, clipping their nails should be something that’s done regularly. When it comes to overgrown nails, this is what will often cause the most damage to your home, so keeping them short is beneficial.
Ideally, you want to take your pet to the groomer every six to eight weeks. However, that’s not always possible, especially when a groom can cost quite a significant amount of money.
Therefore, it’s worthwhile just taking your pet to the groomers as often as you can, depending on what type of dog breed you have and how often you can afford to have them groomed.
It’s also worth getting yourself some dog grooming appliances in order to do the job at home when you need to. For example, this dog grooming vacuum can be helpful when you need to do a DIY cut and want to ensure all of the dog hairs are collected when tidying up. There’s nothing worse than having dog hair all over the home and in places where you don’t want it!
Get a litter box for your cat
For cats, one of the big challenges that comes with making sure they’re house-trained is teaching them how to go in the litter box. This is something that should be introduced early on and ideally, should be kept in a spot that’s easy for them to find but is relatively out of the way from little hands.
Not only that but the litter box can start to smell, so it’s good to keep on top of it in order to avoid it from stinking out the home. Poop is not something you want to experience in your home, that isn’t in the litter box and may otherwise be found elsewhere.
If your cat isn’t trained to use a litter box, then it’s worth introducing it sooner rather than later.
Protecting your home from pet damage is important and there are certainly many ways in which you can put in those preventative measures in order to stop the damage from occurring. Whether your home is brand new or you’ve lived in it for years, it’s good to avoid pet damage so that you don’t have to deal with the financial burden of having to repair things.
Look at these tips as a guide for preventing pet damage in your home and be sure to keep on top of it in order to keep your home in good condition.
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