Tips For a Safe Pet Holiday Season

I am happy to report that we made it through Thanksgiving unscathed.

I'd better whisper that just in case.

It is very typical in our household to be sitting in the waiting room at the Emergency Vets, because our dogs or cats seem to choose the holiday season to have their meltdowns.

We try very hard to keep the premises clear of all hazards, but once in a while, someone figures out how to infiltrate the boundaries.  Nevertheless, here are some memes I've found which do a good job of giving us all a human safety-net and feeling of security, we can only hope to aspire to achieve.

Keeping Pets Safe - Tips From Others

While Good News for Pets has offered some really good advice in this publication, I know if I gave any one of our dogs a cardboard tube while I was gift wrapping, they would eat it, and we'd probably be sitting in the waiting room at the Emergency Vets. So that's a big NO for us.  

With all tips, you have to ultimately do what will work for your pets, as you know them best.

We do keep our Christmas tree in a separate area of the house from where we live continuously with our dogs (our family room).  Our cats can access it, and I'm not sure why we trust them more, but to date, only a few ornaments have been dragged through the cat door into the basement by our more mischievous kitties (mostly Matty).  We don't use tinsel or tinsel products on our tree, because to me that just screams COSTLY VET BILL.

Here's another tip meme.

Using Henry Schein's guide for pet safety, I am going to have one very bare tree.  Just a green thing with needles standing in my front room void of ornaments and lights.

That's precisely why we keep our tree in a different room from our more liveable family center.

I also never drape pets or children with lights in the studio for photographs.  The entire thing scares the BeJesus out of me.

Henry's plant notes are right on the money, though, and should be adhered to, especially when cats are involved.  We now use very good replicas of poinsettias (YES - FAKE), that can be found at either Home Goods, Michael's, or TJ Maxx stores.

My Tips for Pet Safety
I really only have three and they are easy to remember.

• Nothing beats supervision.  Nothing.  We have six dogs at the moment.  At one point in our life, we had 10.  We always knew where each dog was located throughout the house, and their habits (sleeping, too quiet = trouble, squirrel watching, bird enthusiast, etc.).  The cats are another story, but, generally, we have a good sense of the troublemakers in that group.
• Decorate as if an 8 month old child lived with you.  Fragile things up high or on shelves, Foods, medications, candy and other items of the like kept out of reach or in secure cabinets.
• Train your dog to understand the "leave it" command. This simple two word phrase has taught our dogs what to stay away from year-after-year during the holidays. 

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Yes, pets have no idea how much trouble they can get themselves into, and that's why, as their guardians, we have to be the ones to make sure the trouble is minimal to begin with.

Enjoy your holiday season, whatever you celebrate, with your furry friends! Stay safe!

Click Into the Circle

I am part of a weekly blogging group of professional pet photographers located all over the planet.   To see what others have blogged about in this week's topic, up next is Northern California pet photographer Kylee Doyle, who  shares her top tips for how to enjoy a safe holiday season with your pets.

Then find the link at the end of each blog to click on to the next photographer, until you find yourself back here.  Have a great weekend!