If you're anything like me you probably can't even imagine life without dogs. I grew up with a minimum of two dogs at all times in my home and got my own furry children the second I moved out of my parents house; to me a house just isn't a home without them. I know not everyone is as dog obsessed as I am, but if you are and you're interested in ideas on making your home more dog friendly, than this is a good post for you to read.
There are a ton of ways you can make your home more dog friendly that will help simplify your day to day dog tasks, as well as help you keep that 'brand new home' feel in your house for many years to come. These are some of the things we plan to incorporate as we care for our sweet furry babes in our new home:
1. A Doggy Door! I could go on for hours with ideas on how to incorporate a doggy door into your home, and so in the interest of saving everyone uninterested in this idea some time- here is a link to my separate blog post on doggy door ideas!
2. Separate 'Potty' area. If you live in an area where space is limited and you have to pick up your dogs poop, it's not a bad idea to have a separate dog run that is fenced off where your dogs know to go to the bathroom. Having young kids and dogs is so much fun, but also a lot of work, and why not make it easier on yourself so that you don't have to stress about whether you picked up your dogs poop recently or not when your children are outside playing.
3. Designated Area for When you're not Home. My dogs are very rambunctious and like to have parties when we're not home. And I feel like it's always something like a chewed on baby toy, or one of them was on the couch, or they pulled something off the counter, etc. In our new house we are going to be building a substantial mudroom (10' x 11'), which will include a doggy door to the backyard as well as an area for beds and food, so that every time we leave the house we don't have to worry about taking 20 mins to doggy proof everything.
4. Dog Bath . I don't know about the rest of you but my dogs HATE getting baths, and will take every opportunity to run away. One of the best design ideas I've seen that I want to incorporate into our new house is a built in dog shower/bath. Making it impossible for them to run away, while also incorporating a hand held shower head, will 100% make my life easier. Now if only I can find a place to put it so that when the dogs are done and wet they don't ransack the house!
5. Dog Friendly Floors. I could probably do another whole post on the best type of wood floors for dogs because we have done so much research on the subject. At the end of the day though the best type of wood floors for dogs is NOT wood floors. However, if you are set on wood than your best best is to go with an exotic wood that is high on the janka scale. We have Brazilian Cherry in our current house, and although pricey, it holds up quite well against the pups claws. If any of the exotic woods don't fit into your budget, I would suggest Bamboo floors. I suggested them for my mom and she LOVES them. They look great, they're inexpensive, and their strength and scratch resistance is similar to Brazilian Cherry. But for anyone who is seriously concerned about their pups leaving permanent marks on the hardwood I would say just save yourself the headache and get Tile flooring that looks like real wood. We have this in our den now and it's very pretty.
Happy Dog Proofing!
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