How To Prevent Damage to Floors From Pets

If you believe that a house isn’t a home without a pet, you’re not alone. Out of all the households in Canada, 58% have at least one pet. There are 7.7 million dogs living in Canadian homes and 8.1 million cats. Pets provide comfort, joy, companionship, and unconditional love, but there are potential downsides to living with them. For example, dogs and cats can damage floors, either by having accidents on them or by scratching them with their claws. Fortunately, with some creative thinking, patience, and the help of floor tile installation services in Mississauga, you may be able to protect your floors from your pets.

Trim Your Pet’s Nails

When walking across a floor, a dog can accidentally scratch it with his claws. Cats retract their claws when they walk but may scratch on the carpet. Keeping your pet’s nails trimmed can help to protect your possessions from damage from his claws. It is also healthier for your pet. Dogs especially can suffer damage to their feet from the pressure that long claws can put on them when hitting the ground.

Limit Access to Delicate Flooring

Some types of flooring are more susceptible to pet damage than others, such as hardwood floors. If there are only a few areas of your home that have delicate flooring, it is reasonable to limit your pet’s access to these areas. If these rooms have doors, keep them closed at all times. If not, you can use baby gates to keep them out. Bear in mind that cats can jump approximately four feet into the air, so you may need either an extra-tall gate or to stack one gate on top of the other.

Train Your Pet

Housetraining your pet can prevent accidents inside the house that can stain carpets and other kinds of flooring. Cats usually learn to use the litter box as kittens from watching their mothers, and they have an instinctual drive to seek out soft sand in which to do their business, so housetraining them tends to be pretty easy. Housetraining dogs can take longer and be more of a challenge. The key is patience, consistency, and positive reinforcement.

Provide a Pet Bed

If you aren’t able to prevent any pet damage to your floors, you may at least be able to contain it in a particular area. It can help to purchase a pet bed and train your pet to go there on command so you can keep an eye on him or her.

Allow an Acceptable Outlet for Instinctual Behaviours

If you have a pet cat, you can’t train her not to scratch. This is instinctual behaviour cats have developed over the centuries because it gave them an evolutionary advantage. To prevent your cat from scratching up your carpet, provide her with an alternative place where she can scratch. Put an old rug or a scratching mat in the area where she likes to scratch and praise her when she uses it. If your cat reacts to catnip, sprinkle some on the mat to entice her. If the scratch mat is attractive enough to her, eventually she will prefer it to the carpet.

Invest in Pet-Friendly Flooring

If you don’t want to have to restrict where your pet can and can’t go in the house, you may want to replace your current flooring with a material that is more pet-friendly. For example, laminate is a cost-effective material that is resistant to scratches and stains. It can mimic the appearance of other, more expensive flooring materials without the same level of maintenance required so you can spend more quality time with your pet instead of taking care of your floors.

Handyman Connection provides flooring services in Mississauga including installation and repair. Learn more about our flooring specialties.