Whether it’s teaching your children how to be responsible or because you just like to have a furry friend, pets are great to have. There’s a lot of fulfillment to be had when your dog gets trained or when your cat finally warms up to you and starts snuggling you whenever it gets the chance.
Studies have shown that pets, particularly felines and canines (cats and dogs), can help improve a person’s overall wellness. From a mental and emotional point of view, owning pets covers the reduction of stress, the alleviation of symptoms of anxiety and depression, and solves the problem of loneliness. Physically, you get to improve your cardiovascular health because you’re either chasing it around while in turn, it chases you, or you have to pick up after it whenever the opportunity arises. With these benefits, it’s safe to say that owning a pet is an absolute win in any context.
But as Spiderman’s Uncle Ben would say, “With great fur ball comes great responsibility.” Just like how you care for a child or another human being who’s dependent on you, there’s a lot of work involved in caring for a pet. It’s more than just feeding them certain food at a specific amount of time, there’s also making sure that they’re healthy and are vaccinated regularly. Besides picking up after them, you also have to train them to go to certain specific places.
There’s also the matter of making sure that the home you’ve set up for them is safe and sound for them to live into. Here are a couple of things you need to remember in making sure that your house and lot in Laguna is safe and friendly for your pets.
Orient Your Household
If you have other people who live in your house, you have to talk to them about getting a pet. From making several adjustments to people’s routines and habits regarding the home, to its actual physical appearance and the placement of furniture and appliances, a talk must be had ideally before you purchase or adopt a furry friend.
Once you’ve agreed on the changes and adjustments that need to be made, make sure that your family members follow these agreements. At the end of the day (and with great patience and time), they’ll be grateful they adopted a furbaby.
Keep Breakable And Fragile Items In Secure Locations
If you’re getting pets, you need to have an optimal placement for all your items. For example, cats and dogs are entirely capable of decimating shelves of breakable items if the latter are not placed correctly.
For dogs, placing breakable stuff in high places is enough as, unless they’re as large as you are, they won’t normally be able to reach it. For cats however, given their natural ability to easily leap more than twice their length, you need to have breakables placed somewhere they can’t get into or reach. Storing your glasses in shelves well above your head and putting your plates inside your drawers should keep it safe from the paws of your pets.
Store Cleaning Solutions And Other Hazardous Materials Away
Statistically speaking, the average home houses over 400 chemicals. Some of these are toxic and potentially harmful not only to you, but your pet as well. Given the naughty nature of an otherwise new pet, they might eat some of these chemicals and, worse comes to worst, they bite the dust instantly.
The best way to prevent this from happening is to store these hazardous substances away from your furry friends. Make sure that they’re placed in shelves that are hard to reach or have a locking mechanism that requires the dextrous use of hands to open.
Another potentially safer and more environmentally friendly way to prevent pet poisoning is to use non-toxic or organic cleaning solutions. This way, you’re not only making sure that your surfaces and the like are clean, you’re also sure that your pets are safe and you’re helping the environment.
Conceal Wires And Electrical Cables
Some pets, most of the time when they’re young and haven’t been trained, tend to put things in their mouths and chew. While chewing the carpet or maybe your slippers might prove to be more of a headache than a life threatening situation, wiring that’s plugged in is a completely different matter. At the very least, you lose a cord and you’ll need to find a way to replace it which is mostly frustrating, or you expose your pet to harmful risks, which may be more alarming.
One very good way to prevent your furry friends from chewing or stumbling over wires and cables is to organize them into neat bundles so you can conceal and hide them. You could use your carpet to hide them or just duct tape them and neatly place them along the edges of the lower side of the walls up to the outlet.
Ensure Your Trash Receptacles Have Lids
Another thing you need to concern yourself with regarding your pets is your trash disposal system. Regardless whether it’s biodegradable waste or residuals, you need to make sure that your pet doesn’t reach them. Apart from potentially making a mess, they can get sick from the trash that they assumptively chew or eat.
Indoors, it’s important that your garbage cans have lids so your pets don’t poke their noses where they don’t belong. Even outdoors, you’d like to make sure that your garbage cans are sealed because you don’t want stray cats or dogs to make a mess of your trash. By doing this, you’re not only protecting your pets from eating garbage, you’re also preventing insects like flies from landing on your trash and laying eggs.
Establish Boundaries, Invest In Training
Obviously, arguably the most important and best way to protect your pets from chewing on cables, gnawing on a disposed onion skin, and licking a bottle of bleach is to train them not to. You can do this by establishing boundaries not only in the home but also in terms of behavior.
Praise behaviors like following commands, pooping in the right place and/ or just staying still without having you beckon them. Correct behavior that is undesirable like chewing on things and being too rowdy and/ or loud. There are a lot of resources online that can help you accomplish this kind of training effectively, but if you feel like you might need more help, you can approach a professional.
When it comes to establishing physical boundaries, you can easily install blockages that prevent your pet from reaching a certain part of the home. You can also train them to go number 2 in a certain place inside or even outside your home.
Of course, it would help to have a spacious and pet-friendly house and lot in Laguna. Luckily, Greenfield City offers you three residential developments that not only have the best houses but also the features and amenities that allows you, your family and your pets to live life to the fullest. Pramana Residential Park, Solen Residences and Trava Residences are all located in a sprawling grassland full of walkable parks and greenery – the ideal place to run around in with your pets. If you want to learn more, visit this webpage: https://greenfield.com.ph/project/greenfield-city/.
References:
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/mood-boosting-power-of-dogs.htm
https://www.thisoldhouse.com/pets/21015549/how-to-make-your-home-pet-friendly