Pet Safety Tips for the Holidays
- Nov 21, 2014
- 2 min read
By Jamie Damato Migdal, CEO and Pet Industry Entrepreneur
Thanksgiving is coming up next week, with all of the December celebrations hard on its heels. While we may be looking forward to celebrating the end-of-year holidays, our pets may have mixed reactions to the festivities. On the one hand – so much yummy food! On the other hand – why are there so many noisy strangers in my house?!
So before the Party Season starts in earnest, here are my top three tips to make your home more pet-safe and –friendly for the holidays:
Set up a quiet retreat for your pet. This is one of the most important things you can do to make life better for everyone in the household. Even if your pets are people-friendly and sociable, it’s possible to have too much of a good thing, and if you are busy entertaining you won’t necessarily know when they’ve had enough. Make sure you have a crate, bed, or travel cage set up in a quiet space, and give your pet a high-value treat (think stuffed Kong or catnip toy) to keep him happy and distracted during the party. (FetchFind Communications Manager Erin Schneider has an excellent post about the benefits of using a crate over on the AnimalSense blog.)
Eliminate temptation. Tall trees covered in shiny objects and other decorations hanging within reach of your pets are things that can potentially be pulled down, destroyed, or ingested. Make sure that tree is tip-proof and those Christmas stockings aren’t full of foil-wrapped chocolates. Holiday plants can be dangerous, and sometimes even fatal – either keep them well out of reach (a near-impossibility if you have cats or a dedicated counter-surfer) or eliminate them altogether from your holiday décor. Keep your pets on their usual diet, and don’t give in to the temptation to let them eat table scraps. Aside from the choking hazard presented by turkey bones, the high fat content of many holiday foods can cause pancreatitis or a not-so-festive case of vomiting and diarrhea.
Have your emergency plan ready. No matter how much planning and management you do, things can still go wrong. Your dog may bolt out the door when guests are arriving, or your cat may get into the adults-only eggnog. Know what to do if your dog does go missing (Lynda Lobo has a great post about this on the Rover-Time blog), and keep that emergency vet information and poison-control hotline number posted somewhere handy.
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What are your top tips for keeping your pets safe and happy during the holidays? Let us know in the comments!
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