We are almost finished installing our new wood floors. We will be putting down a few area rugs and runners but a lot of the floor will still be exposed. Atlas is already scratching up the floor by running or getting up too quickly. My DP is not happy with him about this and I would like to see our floors looking nice, so how do we stop him from running/scrambling?
In the living room we have a bed for him and that is where he lays most of the time. If he hears the neighbors dog barking, he gets up and scrambles quickly from the bed and is used to having the carpet for traction. We command 'on your bed' when we are filling his bowl and he eats after the release command. Same problem - he is too excited to eat so he scrambles off his bed (think scramble as in a cartoon) For a temporary measure on feeding, I've been making feeding him outside.
This also happens when he sees something to investigate, primarily the cat darting around the house so the problem does not only happen when he is on his bed.
So far I've tried to teach 'slow' by taking him by the collar and walking with him but it doesn't seem to be working. I've kept his nails clipped and filed smooth as short as they can go but it doesn't help when he digs his feet in.
Jean i was just going to suggest nail covers! I have them for my dogs when we go to my moms house. They just had brand new hardwood floors put in, and she told me "no more dogs in the house" so i got the nail covers and she thinks its hysterical that i went *out of my way* to ensure my dogs could be in the house when we're there!!
They work great and the dogs dont seem to be bothered by them at all! I got black for all the boys, and pink for Mya, just to be silly!
There is industrial strength urethane you can use on the floor that is much harder than the normal house version. I would also suggest keeping the nails as short as possible. This is what I've done and with four dogs in the house my floors are still fine.
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