Puppies are adorable.
They are also a huge handful, constantly getting into trouble, as any puppy parent will tell you.
If you are planning to introduce a pupper into your home, be prepared for the following:
- Fur everywhere,
- Sticky floors,
- Muddy messes,
- Stains on your furniture,
- “Surprise” pee and poo,
- Destroyed household items, and etc.
Oh, well. At least your puppy is cute and provides endless cuddles and love.
That’s enough to forgive it for everything!
However, this doesn’t mean that you have to live with your puppy’s mess.
Here are our top tips on how you can keep your home clean despite your adorably clumsy and clueless (yet still lovable) new furkid:
1. Decide on ‘outdoor’ and ‘indoor’ time
This, of course, depends on where you live and the breed of your dog.
If you can afford to have a lovely kennel set up in your garden or on your large balcony, that will be great for keeping your home clean.
Keeping your puppy out of “interesting” areas with safety gates can help eliminate the chances of overturned food items or destroyed toilet paper.
If you have to leave your puppy alone at home for work, you can consider “confining” it to certain areas so that it cannot get up to mischief.
However, this only works if these areas are large enough for a puppy to frolic around, and if you have enough bones and toys to keep it entertained. Do remember to puppy-proof these areas.
Additionally, make sure your puppy will not get stuck in balcony railings. Shade and heating are important as well depending on the season.
2. Bathe your puppy once a month
A clean puppy leads to a clean home.
It is advisable that you wash it once a week during the first month, then once a month until your puppy is six months old.
Then, you can wash your dog twice a year. Do keep in mind that it’s not great to use pet shampoo on your dog all that often.
However, a quick wash-down and dry-toweling will do wonders for getting rid of muddy paws and stray fur.
3. Brush your puppy often
Regular brushing is important to stop fur from matting or growing tangled, especially if your dog is a long-haired breed.
Try out these awesome brushes from Glendan or Bissell to keep your dog’s fur neat, and your home as fur-free as possible.
4. Give your puppy regular pedicures
Just as how you regularly clip your nails, you also need to clip your puppy’s nails as well. Otherwise, you may just find scratch marks on your furniture and sofa!
To protect your sofa further, here are the best sofa fabrics to have when you have a puppy in the household.
5. Or, take your puppy to a reputable groomer
If you don’t have the time to do step 2-4, make life easier by taking your puppy to a reputable groomer.
Do make sure to read reviews so that you know your puppy is in safe hands with a top-rated groomer – one who actually cares for dogs.
6. Train your puppy
You can puppy-proof your kitchen and your sofa all you like.
However, to really keep your home clean, your puppy needs to be trained to know what it can and cannot do.
Here are a few things you can train your puppy to do for a cleaner house:
- no getting on the bed and sofas,
- only biting chew toys and not furniture,
- potty-training,
- no jumping in the house (and risk things like vases falling over),
- sitting and staying no matter what happens (someone visits, you have food), and so on.
7. Consider investing in a Roomba
Or any automatic vacuum, really. When you introduce a puppy into your home, the amount of cleaning will have to go up.
Make life easier by getting a top-rated, automatic vacuum like the Roomba to help you keep your floors fur-free.
Just make sure that you check that there are no “accidents” around the household before setting your automatic vacuum free.
Otherwise it will be even more work for you, as these people found out.
8. Place lint rollers or stain removers close by
Finally, prevention may better than cure.
However, it’s also prudent to keep cures like lint rollers and stain removers nearby, so that you can immediately tackle the problem when you see it.
Invest in lint rollers to keep your clothes and sofas fur-free.
Also, to keep unsightly stains from becoming permanent, attack newly-formed stains with stain removers as soon as you see them.
Want to protect your sofas and couches from getting destroyed or forever stained by your puppy? The right fabric slipcovers will work like a charm. You can take our slipcover fabrics for a test run here: