By Katherine Salant
You promised your kids you would get a dog after you move into your new house. That was the easy part. Anticipating the needs of this eagerly awaited addition to your household and planning for it is the hard part. For example, if you're in an office all day, and the kids are at school, how and where will the dog pass the time?
This can be a major issue, but not, as owners assume, because your dog will be lonely.
"Dogs are not lonely, people are lonely," explained Matt Margolis, a Los Angeles-based dog trainer and host of PBS's "Woof, It's a Dog's Life." If you are going to be out of the house all day, you should focus on safety, not loneliness, he said. If your dog is under two, or older but new to you, he needs a confined space in the house free of furniture where he can be while you are gone. A dog of any age needs access to the outdoors through a doggy door, and an enclosed outdoor area where it can do its business.
It's natural to assume that these spaces must be large, since the dog will be in them all day, but Margolis says this is still thinking like a person and not like a dog. A dog does not have a sense of time, and he will not feel the weight of those empty hours going by as you would if you were confined to one room and one outdoor area for nine or 10 hours.
The confined space must be furniture-free because this area must be doggy-proofed. Though physically mature by 12 months of age, a dog will still have a puppy's mentality and curiosity until the age of about two, Margolis said. An older, but new to you and as yet untrained dog needs to be kept in the confined area until you have trained him, and you are confident that he can be alone in the rest of the house without chewing anything or hurting himself.
As you look at floor plans, work with an architect or a custom builder or tour model homes. Try to figure out how you would create a secured area with a doggy door for your dog. The laundry might be an obvious place, but many are closet-sized, and they are often on the second floor. The kitchen is a better bet, though in many new houses the plans are very open with few walls or doors, and the kitchen shares a larger space with a breakfast area and family room. Incorporating "puppy gates"-similar to the stair gates used in households with young children-to contain the dog may require some ingenuity. If the kitchen will have doors, shutting them would seem the obvious solution, but Margolis said that if your dog can't see out into the rest of the house, he will bark, scratch and destroy the door.
The finishes in the dog's secured area should be easy to clean. Since dogs occasionally like to rub themselves on walls and they splatter them while shaking themselves out on a rainy day, a semi-gloss paint that is easy to wash is a good choice. Sheet vinyl is the most cost-effective, easily cleanable flooring choice, but a tile floor will be more comfortable for the dog in hot weather, even if your house is air-conditioned.
The doggy door allows your dog to go in and out at will, but you may have security concerns that a burglar could slither through the doggy door and then have full access to your house. In that case, secure the kitchen for your dog to use when you are at home and set up a second confined area in your garage with the doggy door to use while you are gone. If you have cold winters, a large dog will be comfortable in a semi-heated garage that is attached to the house, but a small one under twenty pounds will lose too much body heat, said Ann Arbor, Michigan dog trainer Neva Bus. In that case, she would keep the dog inside in a "big wire crate with plenty of room to stretch out." Once a dog is housebroken, it won't soil its crate. But the number of hours a puppy and a mature dog can hold its urine will vary with size and other factors, so you'll need to consult your vet about your dog if you decide to do this.
You could also keep the dog outside all day and include a doghouse in his enclosed area, but Margolis said that in his experience, "very few dogs like them." And in places with cold weather, they do not provide sufficient shelter for small dogs.
The enclosed outdoor area can be modestly sized. Forty square feet--an area 4 by 10 feet--is sufficient for a dog weighing 60 pounds or less. For a larger dog or two dogs, a 4 by 16 foot area will suffice, though some breeds are high energy and need more room.
These areas may sound small, but most dogs won't use this area for exercise-"they sleep 95 percent of the time when you're away," Margolis explained.
Unless your dog is very small, you'll need a fence that is five or six feet high, and you'll have to roof it so that your dog can't climb out and other animals can't get in. Margolis said that the fence should be a chain link type so that the dog can see out; otherwise it will bark.
You'll also have to check out the Home Owner Association rules for fences in all the subdivisions that you are considering. Some stipulate that a fence must be solid and some expressly forbid fences of any kind.
If you already plan to have an enclosed back yard, why do you need a second enclosed area for your dog? A young dog can raise havoc in your garden, just as it can in your house, and confining him to a smaller area makes it easier for you to clean up after him. To keep the maintenance of the dog run to a minimum, Margolis suggested a finish surface of concrete. It's easy to hose down and your dog won't be tracking dirt into the house.
Choosing Furniture and Finishes with Fido in Mind
Since your dog will be shedding hair with oils that can stain and a certain amount of dirt as well as rubbing on the walls and rolling around on his back, finishes that are easier to clean are an advantage, especially if you have more than one dog, said Julia Szabo, author of "Animal House Style," and owner of five dogs herself.
Szabo would use a semi-gloss paint and hard surface flooring with area rugs in every room. Though wall-to-wall carpeting is the least costly floor option, carpets are harder to keep clean and harbor smells. Hardwood, tile, terrazzo or a Pergo-type laminate flooring are obvious choices. But if these will break your budget, architect Matt Schoenherr of Z: Architects in Westport, Connecticut, suggested covering the floors with vinyl-coated wallpaper plus three coats of polyurethane. He used this in his own house with great success, though he was quick to add that it's not a permanent solution-it only lasts about two years. On the plus side, however, you can install and replace it yourself, it's waterproof, and in his house it withstood the wear and tear of three boys and a dog. (Schoenherr also noted that before you glue down the wallpaper, you need to lay a smooth underlayment at least ¼ inch thick over the subfloor).
The one place that your house should be carpeted is the stairs because dogs, especially "seniors" and puppies, can slip on them.
Another doggy household issue: Will Fido be on your furniture or not? Los Angeles dog trainer Matt Margolis discourages this because it can be confusing for the dog. If you let your dog climb all over the furniture because it is old, and then get new stuff and don't want this, your dog will not understand. To him, "a sofa is a sofa."
But many dog lovers, including Szabo, prefer to share their interiors, including their furniture, with their dogs. If you elect to do this, you need to cover your furniture with things that are easily cleanable; otherwise it will smell and get dirty. Szabo recommends washable slipcovers made of denim or linen, which are readily available in both casual and fitted styles at Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, Ikea and Ethan Allan. With dark patterns and "camo" you won't see the dirt, but then, she pointed out, you may not always realize when cleaning is required. Some households, she said, have two sets of slipcovers, like bed sheets, so that they can use one set while washing the other one.
The ultimate "pet friendly material," in Szabo's estimation, is ultra suede, either as a slipcover or as upholstery. It's very dense so that dog hairs can't poke through it, it resists odors and you can machine wash and dry it. Ultra suede upholstery can be sponge washed. Even better, ultra suede doesn't smell like leather so any pet that might be tempted by the real thing won't chew it.
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