With us coming up to November shortly, has anyone given advanced thought to how your bundles of dynamite will cope with Christmas, with its increased stimulation, noise levels and all the tempting stuff for pup to get into mischief with. My husband laughed when I started sorting it a few weeks ago, but it's our turn in the family round this year so it has become a bit of a pseudo- military operation which has become entertaining in itself. We don't want to exclude Hero and we can't keep leaving him alone for long periods while we go to other people's houses. 1st thought was 'the Tree'. It used to be funny when the cats would climb in it and go to sleep but nightmare visions of a 25 kilo puppy doing this...no tree left. We're lucky in that we have a conservatory off the sitting room where it can go. It's floor to ceiling. Hero isn't allowed in conservatory so we're going to turn it into a full on grotto for the grandchildren and OH is making fencing to go across opening so everyone except the dog can still access. Then comes the present opening, dinner and the playing with toys. Can't keep Hero shut in his quiet area all day so we're working on ways still for him to get involved and do his usual daily stuff without it all becoming too much. Think the Kong and Lickimat system will be in full swing as well as plenty of outdoor time weather permitting. And finally - Christmas food and drink. Hero's nose goes into overdrive when human food is about so having to think carefully where stuff will go. We always have loads of human goodies about usually so that could prove bit difficult. We're lucky we can gate our kitchen, not everyone can, but got to be fair to the humans in the open plan areas too
I’ve got as far as thinking NO tree for us this year or garden decorations! My Gwenni gets very excited about new things so a tree would just be the most exciting thing ever!! When I had my beautiful border collie on Christmas Day he would go and find all the dog presents and take them from under the tree to his bed, I think Gwenni would have the whole tree in her bed !
Sounds like you are well in advance of most people! My only input would be present opening. We let Toby in the lounge with us last year and by the time he was worn out ripping up all the wrapping paper thrown into the middle of the room he opened a chew toy and spent the rest of the time in the room with that. More relaxing than I thought.
Oh wow,really well thought out,good planning. I love the sound of full on grotto,what a great idea. I may pinch it myself! Isla was frightened of our tree last year and barked at it for the first few days,then just eyed it suspiciously! We put her on her lead whilst present opening or she would have jumped over everyone and pinched pressies and run of with them. We also gave her a kong to chew and a few gifts of her own in between people to keep her busy. We also went for a nice walk in the woods to try and wear her out before guests arrived. Mind you,we've got to get through awful noisy firework night first!
I envy your organizational skills This will be 11 mo Maggie's first Christmas. Since her arrival in January, she's destroyed 2 sofas (as in out the door for trash), chewed wooden furniture and baseboard trim, and made a start on the walls. I don't know what she'll make of the tree but better safe than sorry. My tentative plans are to use nylon fishing line attached to the walls to steady the tree, a tree skirt to prevent her drinking the water (with corn syrup and borax) in which the tree stands, and I won't use breakable family heirloom ornaments this year. As for dinner, my cunning plan is to stupify both dogs with large amounts of beef brisket and hope that any gastric distress happens after guests leave.
True. This will be hero's 1st bonfire night. He's heard several at a distance from the speedway arena on a weekly basis but nothing up close to the house yet and there are a few people near us who set of the really noisy multishots which used to scare the heck out the cats we previously had. He's now found his full voice and barks at all sorts of noises so hoping he doesn't get too stressed out
Never really had problems with my dogs and Christmas trees apart from one time with my old chocolate Lab when someone accidentally kicked his ball under the tree and he nearly knocked the tree over trying to fetch it. Other than that they just had a sniff and ignored it or ripped up the wrapping paper. I have only had one dog who was nervous on bonfire night but we just stayed indoors with him. I've always taken my pups around noisy places or asked lorry drivers to let the air out of their breaks so pups hear sudden noises, and there are shoots and a shooting club nearby so they get to hear all sorts of noises. My current pup although a handful, has been around guns and no problems yet with noise, but it is his first bonfire night so time will tell.
