[Miikkas mom]

I have wood floors and my vet told me it is the worst flooring to have for large breed dogs! I agree with your hubby because….

Our Bella, was born and raised in Minnesota. Our house in MN had wall to wall carpeting in every room, other than the kitchen. When Bella was about 9 yrs old we moved down to New Mexico. For the first year we lived here we rented until we found the “perfect” house. The rental also had wall to wall carpeting (other than the kitchen). Then we bought the house we currently live in. This house has wood floors in all of the main living areas (the bedrooms have carpet). Bella had problems with the floors from the get-go. She had lots of trouble get up because she would slip all over the place. She clearly was not use to this type of floor. I would say that within 6-months in the new house Bella’s hips deteriorated, very quickly. I am 100% positive a lot of her hip issues were because of the floors.

When Bella was no longer able to get into the car we found a vet that made house calls. One of the very first things he said was that our floors were the worst possible thing for her. We have area rugs everywhere but of course she wanted to lie on the spots where there were no rugs (probably because it was a little cooler). Bella has since passed away. But for Miikka’s sake, if I could, I would install wall to wall carpeting throughout my house. The only positive is that Miikka started out with the wood flooring and does not really know any thing else (other than the carpet in the bedroom) so she didn’t have to adjust to the floors, as she’s grown up with them. Maybe that will make a difference, in the long run.

One other little thing about wood floors; If you decide on wood, you'll want to make sure your dogs nails are properly trimmed, all the time, as long nails could scratch the wood. If you go with Pergo or something like that, it would not be an issue. Having said that - I'd stick with the carpet.