Dogs and Christmas decorations

CiaranK · 07-12-2011 1:02pm #1

I seen a similar thread about Cats.

It's our Leroys (5 month old Springer) first Christmas. We made the mistake of letting him on the sofas so it is a nightmare trying to keep him away and he just won't. I'm dreading the thoughts of trying to keep him away from the tree when it goes up either tomorrow or Friday. Any little tricks that work?

Thanks a million,
Ciaran.

Whispered · 07-12-2011 1:14pm

Wait until friday to put it up. In the meantime work a bit on a "leave it" command, and make sure you don't leave him unsupervised with it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDMwO6axHag

CiaranK · 07-12-2011 1:20pm

Whispered wrote: »

Wait until friday to put it up. In the meantime work a bit on a "leave it" command, and make sure you don't leave him unsupervised with it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDMwO6axHag

Thanks

Hopefully I won't have an incident like that :P

TooManyDogs · 07-12-2011 1:32pm

Fire guard, I love them! The go around everything I want to keep the dogs away from. The proper extending ones though. I think my house is held together with fire guards and cable ties

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/3769960/c_1/1|category_root|Nursery|14417537/Trail/searchtext%3EGUARD.htm

CiaranK · 07-12-2011 1:44pm

I was thinking of that and then I came up with the idea of maybe a small fence that could be painted to look christmasy. Something like these maybe?

aisher · 07-12-2011 3:10pm

You might be pleasently surprised - my own dog is 7 months old so her first Christmas too - put all the decorations up on Sunday and so far she barely even looks at them - so far so good in this house

carleigh · 07-12-2011 3:19pm

From personal experience, if you dont make a big deal of this big new giant tree in the room, they wont take much interest in it. My dog is like 'yeah, whatever!', but he likes to sit under the tree, which really means I have to go out and buy more presents so that there isnt anywhere for him to sit! (any excuse for shopping!). Happy Christmas Leroy!

Cutie18Ireland · 07-12-2011 10:38pm

We put ours up last week, with 8 dogs currently in the house, one had a small chew of it and none of them have bothered with it since. I did leave it up for one night without decorations to see how they would react but any decorations that fall are fair game to them and have been killed

Waterfordlass · 07-12-2011 10:58pm

Our small man is six months old. So far he has eaten five doggy blankies..and anything he can get his paws on. I was dreading putting the decorations up this year, but he has been so good. He barely gave the tree a second glance, though he did try running off with one of the wise men when the crib went up

Good luck..and stay strong!

magentas · 08-12-2011 1:48am

Whispered wrote: »

Wait until friday to put it up. In the meantime work a bit on a "leave it" command, and make sure you don't leave him unsupervised with it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDMwO6axHag

the big guilty head on him!!

You could have the dog in the room when you're putting up the tree so that way it's not a big scary new object and it won't be such a big deal because they'll already be somewhat adjusted to it. I wouldn't leave them in the room alone though, I'd be afraid they'd chew the wires!

CiaranK · 09-12-2011 5:14pm

So the tree went up last night. Leroy was in the room when we were doing it. After a few sniffs around it he just wandered off. Went over to it later on and tried to get one of the decorations but I jumped up and chased him with an envelope (He's scared of the sound of the little plastic window crinkling) and he hasn't gone near it since, he hardly takes any notice of it now

tk123 · 09-12-2011 9:15pm

I don't like that video tbh - the dog is seriously trying to appease the owner so they must have gone nuts at it?
Back on topic - our tree goes in the other room - the cat climbed up it loads of times one year and everything fell off lol so from then on it went inside and the door closed!

suitcasepink · 11-12-2011 3:49pm

We're putting our tree up later and we're absolute dreading it this year! We rescued a dog about 3 months ago and she never seems to have gotten through the puppy stage of wanting to play and destroy everything.. But there seems to be some kinda Christmas magic with all your pets not minding the trees..
Fingers crossed :pac:

mymo · 11-12-2011 7:49pm

Only problem we ever have with the dogs and the tree is the two fools trying to get under it to drink from the reservoir in the stand:rolleyes:

Cats are another story, Toby gets hypnotized by the twinkly lights and attacks them, we have to watch him. Jake had a couple of years of climbing the tree, but he's 11 and too fat to get up it now:D

Acoshla · 11-12-2011 11:43pm

Our dog has never even looked at the tree, when she was a nightmare chewing puppy she still never cared about it, it's great! She just knows it's where the cat goes when he wants alone time

Our cat just likes to look at the lights from underneath the tree, and our new kitten likes to hit the baubles, I put mini ones on the bottom branches for her to hit, they're about 3 inches off the floor and she's only 8 weeks old so they're the perfect height for her to hit without pulling at the tree.

Graces7 · 12-12-2011 6:42am

I was admiring the trees at market on Saturday; no cash to spare , and the nice man gave me one.. Only just fitted in the car.. Where to put it is interesting. The dogs are downstairs and the cats are upstairs.. There is a wide landing so that may well be the best place..

scarlet_mandy · 12-12-2011 9:54am

mymo wrote: »

Only problem we ever have with the dogs and the tree is the two fools trying to get under it to drink from the reservoir in the stand:rolleyes:

Ditto here, Juno had here first encounter with a Xmas tree yesterday and that was what fascinated her about the whole thing! Never mind the bowl of fresh water we just put out for her

We tried putting the baubles with bells on the bottom so it would deter her, but no joy so far, if anything it's just encouraging her! I think it's just the novelty of it tho, as last night she seemed more interested in the wrapping paper than the tree!

fenris · 12-12-2011 10:03am

Put a dab of Vicks on the low hanging decorations when you pu the tree up first and at the edge of the water resevoir.

The smell fades fairly quicky for human noses but the doggies are not fond of it - better than any anti chew spray!

scarlet_mandy · 12-12-2011 10:14am

Thanks will definitely try that!

Whispered · 12-12-2011 12:38pm

We put ours up last night, Harley has seen it before and has always been ok with it. We were thinking that Phoe with his "all paws in" attitude might be a problem.

We stood it up, in the net and allowed them both have a sniff, making sure there was no leg lifting! Then we decorated it while the dogs got a bone. There was no big deal, no surprise as they saw it come in from the start, and it was a very relaxing evening, so no excitement. We had brought them for a really long walk earlier and also made sure the room was very warm, with a big fire, to encourage sleepy dogs.

Neither has shown any interest yet. Although I haven't risked putting anything under it yet.

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Dogs and Christmas decorations

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