Dog hygiene at home
How to keep your dog happy and healthy and your home clean and safe for your children.
As any family with a pet dog knows, owning a pooch is not just about walks and the occasional visit to the vet. For really useful advice about training, exercise, nutrition and general dog care, go to Iams Dog Advice. Also, bear in mind that, much as you love your dog, there are a few key points about home hygiene that you should consider.
Home furnishings and your dog
You might resign yourself to a few ragged carpets and sofas when you have a dog, but you should be able to minimise this damage with plenty of positive exercise time. (Older dogs don’t need as much exercise, but do make sure they still get out regularly, rather than taking out the boredom on your favourite armchair.)
Preferable floorings when you keep a dog will be ones that are hard-wearing and easy to wash. For example, wooden, tiled or vinyl flooring with rubber-backed mats in the kitchen, hallway and other areas that your dog uses most. Then in other rooms that you allow your dog to go into pre-treated carpets for stain resistance (these are more likely to be synthetic varieties than natural wool or deep-shag types).
No-go areas
It’s up to you to set the boundaries for your dog. A bit of gentle but firm rule-making will let him know if it’s not OK to wander upstairs or into bedrooms. If you are happy for your dog to have free-reign then fine, but bear in mind that means there are more places to keep clean on a regular basis.
If you need to housetrain the dog or puppy, use stairgates or other makeshift barriers to mark off no-go areas while he’s getting used to his territory.
Although living in a spotless, germ-free world is not going to do any of us any good, really try to avoid letting your dog sleep on the bed with any of your family – fleas and other nasties are a reality, even with well cared-for dogs.
Clean away fleas
As well as treating your dog for fleas, it’s important to get rid of dog fleas in the home. In your house you can use ‘foggers’ to get in and around the lower parts of your furniture, carpets etc. Make sure you follow the manufacturer’s instructions, as it’s important to keep your family safe from fumes.
Mopping up mess
If your dog has urinated or fouled in the house, make sure you really douse the area with a proper, pet-safe, cleaner designed for the job. Other general household cleaners, especially those containing ammonia, are not really suited to the job.
A swift clean-up will help eliminate mess and odour, and your dog will not associate that area with doing his business again. (You might need to keep an eye on him for a few weeks in case he revisits the spot for the same purpose.)
Make sure that there are easy to clean, removable mats underneath any areas where your dog mostly hangs out – like his basket, and food and drink bowls. That way dog food and other debris will fall off onto something you can clean, rather than getting trodden around the home. All cleaning products used in a house with pets should be animal-safe if there is any danger of contact with chemicals used during the cleaning process.
Garden hygiene
Choose a particular part of your garden to be the designated place where your dog will poo. Even if you take your dog out for walks most of the time, you will need an outside space at home for those days when a long walk is not possible, for whatever reason. Being regular about where you lead your dog for this will make cleaning up much easier in the long run, because you’ll know where to look for any mess. Make sure the poo is well buried afterwards. Official advice (from www.direct.gov.uk) is that it should be buried or flushed down the toilet, not put in garden waste or regular household rubbish bins for collection.
Roundworm eggs can be found in dog mess. When poo is picked up on shoes and brought into the home, or is left on grass where it might no longer be particularly visible by the time children play, it can be a serious danger to health. In fact, the eggs can remain active in the soil for many years after the dog poo has long been washed away by rain, so removing it is extremely important.
Contact with dog mess can cause stomach upset, sore throat or asthma, and in rare cases even blindness. When out on a walk, make sure you either take a ‘pooper-scooper’ or plastic bags, and dispose of the poo properly – preferably in a dedicated dog mess bin.