Dog advice?

[agentotter]

Dear friends of the Internet,

My new home is adorable. ADORABLE. And affordable. And extremely close to my new job. (I can commute on foot! Woohoo!) And it has gorgeous hardwood floors... which both the owner of said home and I are a bit worried that Trudeau The Giant Dog-Thing will destroy. I've looked into various solutions, including a) area rugs galore, b) Soft Claws, and c) little doggie booties. (Or, more accurately, huge doggie booties.) I thought I'd check with you to see if any of you genius people had any input on this subject. I know that keeping the nails trimmed short helps, but does not eliminate the problem. The area rugs don't seem like a good idea because then I'd still get scratches where there are no rugs. The soft claws look cool but I imagine the frequent runs we'll be taking on trails and roads will considerably shorten their lifespan. (It was suggested that I use the soft claws indoors and protect them with booties when we're out on the road, but that just seems a bit excessive.) Booties are the most doable because he'd only have to wear them when he's indoors, but I don't know if I'd be able to keep them on him.

I expect that some of you are experienced with this. Any words of wisdom?

In other news, today's trailer repairs are going to cost me a good $400, but at least I didn't end up having to do anything with the truck beyond an oil change. Also, my trailer is going to have a new plug that apparently looks space-aged, and the brakes and lights are actually going to both work! At the same time! It's like a miracle, only it costs money! On Friday Juno and I will be visiting the vet to get her health certificate, and in the meantime I have begun whittling away at my belongings again. Does anyone need a unicycle?

Comments

[cofax7]

Gorgeous hardwood floors and a bigass dog?

Suck it up. Set up a savings account and drop $50 into it whenever you can, because you're going to have to pay to get the floors redone when you move out. There is no way to protect the floors completely.

That said: keep them short, as short as you can. (My sister's StB has stubs that scare the vet!) Clip them every two weeks. For one thing, if Trudeau is a pacer, it'll help you sleep. (Click click clickety click click click all night long is no fun at all.)

Also, identify where he is most likely to damage the floor -- for instance, if he turns a corner sharply or something. Put an area rug down there, with a rug pad underneath to keep it from moving.

What does your lease say about animal damage?

And yay for new job! Does it pay better? Where did you move to?

[thefourthvine]

We had two large dogs with long nails (including one rescued Greyhound - they don't trim their nails properly in puppy farms, and his quick had grown to the point where he just had insanely long nails for his entire life) and red oak floors. It was a little different, because we owned the floors and so didn't have to worry too much about it, but we lived there for ten years, and when we moved out, the floors were still in good shape. No refinishing necessary.

We also tried dog booties, not for floor protection but to deal with the chronic paw-licking labs with allergies are prone to do, and while they did help with the paw licking, she HATED THEM OMG. She wouldn't walk anywhere in them at all. She would just lie on the floor, looking utterly pathetic, refusing to move. Now, she was a queen of passive resistance and a known hater of any and all dog attire, and Trudeau may not be, so you may not have the same trouble, but - my advice is, give them a try (they will protect the floors), using the usual dog training tricks, but don't buy multiple sets until you know for sure that he's going to tolerate them.

Area rugs, by the way, do not work so well with large dogs prone to running. They get up to Mach 2 and hit them and WHEEEEEEEE and then WHAM into, if you're lucky, something not breakable.

[multimediafunhouse.blogspot.com]

Dang, that is tough. I think I might use the time to become bff's with a hardwood floor finisher. Booties aren't hard to keep on a dog. We use them on our border collie to keep her dry when she goes potty in the rain. She loves putting them on. We make a HUGE deal out of how pretty she is in them (girls love shoes) and she practically prances in them. I don't think it would be tough to keep them on an inside dog- a PITA maybe but not too hard.