How To Prepare Your Home for a New Puppy

Are you about to adopt a puppy? A new puppy in your home adds that much-needed “aww” factor to your household. You’ll be showering it with the love and attention it deserves — and it’d be a stretch for your family and guests not to do the same.

Yes, there’s nothing like welcoming a new member of the family — one with paws that gets all the “awws.” But have you ever thought of puppy-proofing your home?

By ensuring that you’ve got the right conditions set, you’ll be making your puppy’s transition from a doghouse to a proper house seamless. If you don’t know where to begin, have no fear. It’s easy.

Read on to learn more about creating a home environment that’s welcoming to your new puppy!

Keep Your Puppy Away from the Garage, Basement, or Tool Shed

Puppies get into trouble as soon as they get their bearings in a new environment. They’ll explore, knocking over and tugging at a few things wherever they go. For this reason, you’ll want to keep your new little pal away from the following places:

• The garage
• The basement
• Closets

Why these parts of the house? Because in these parts of the house, you’ll find a lot of tools that, when knocked over, can hurt the puppy, or it’s where we store items that we don’t want our new puppy to chew on. To keep your puppy from getting into these areas, make sure the doors are always closed or consider putting up a baby gate.

Store Bedroom and Bathroom Items Higher

Puppies will explore and inspect whatever they can get their mouth or paws on. It doesn’t matter if it’s a new chew toy or a bottle of shampoo. They’ll even tug around your bathroom towels and make quick work of your slippers and the toilet paper.

This is why you need to store bathroom items at a height your puppy can’t reach. Doing this not only ensures that your bathroom items are in one piece; it also keeps your pup from ingesting chemical agents like shampoo, your fragrances, or rubbing alcohol.

If Possible, De-Carpet Your Living Room and Bedroom

Puppies sleep, eat, play, and — you guessed it — go to the bathroom. They do this wherever they please. It doesn’t matter if there’s a carpet or not.

Cleaning up after your dog when they have an accident on the carpet takes time. You also need to do it right. Get it wrong, and you’re looking at a potential haven for microorganisms and even fleas. Worse yet, when it comes to dog urine, you won’t see it on the carpet until it’s too late.

You can avoid this with regular carpet cleaning. Of course, if you want your life to be easier, it would be better to just do away with carpets until your dog is fully potty-trained.

If something does happen, check out these natural odor removers you can easily use.

Puppy-proof Your House, and Watch Your Puppy be at Home

Creating the right environment for a puppy doesn’t have to be too complicated. All it takes is ensuring that your pup is away from danger — and items you’d rather have without bite marks.

Apply the simple steps just mentioned, and you’ll have a home that’s puppy-friendly!