Tips for Pet-Proofing your Home
Pet-friendly holidays are one of the fastest-growing sectors of the UK holiday market. With an estimated 12 million dog owners in the UK, there’s huge opportunity for holiday home owners to maximise bookings as more people look to take their beloved pets away with them.
Preparing your home for four-legged guests needn’t be costly. Follow these simple steps and look forward to hosting holidaymakers and their hounds.
Indoors
It’s easy to protect items indoors by considering the following points:
- Invest in protective covers for soft furnishings – this helps protect sofas from jumping pets and pulling. You can easily remove them when guests without pets come to stay
- Move more fragile items out of reach of wagging tails and tidy away cable wires
- Keep harmful items such as cleaning products and chocolate stored away
- Install a stair gate – these can be used to stop animals going upstairs or in certain rooms. It is possible to impose no-go areas for pets, however we recommend keeping the whole area open to pets to make a guests’ stay more relaxed
- Check your insurance – Ensure that pet-related damage is included on your policy to safe-guard against a mishap
Outdoor space
Keeping on top of outdoor maintenance is relatively straight forward, keeping in mind the following:
- Fences should be firmly secured at the sides and base to prevent dogs escaping through any gaps and should be fully enclosed
- Checking that the maintenance products you use are pet friendly is important – many common slug repellents and weed killers are toxic to dogs, so always read the label
- Planting in your garden also requires some consideration – ensure any plants or flowers that are poisonous to dogs (including daffodils, hydrangea, wisteria and hyacinth) are firmly out of reach to them
Remember, dogs love to dig! Protect your lawn by creating a suitable distraction such as providing plenty of toys.
Added extras
Dog owners love their pets, so to make their stay enjoyable, encourage repeat bookings and positive reviews, it is important to make a fuss of them and provide amenities for their use:
- Basics such as; a dog bed, food and water bowls, waste bags and a few toys and trests
- You may also like to consider installing a kennel outside – some pets do sleep outside and if not, it will provide a safe space for a dog to be left when going out
- Consider installing an outdoor water tap – great for washing dogs after long muddy walks and it will help to keep your property nice and clean inside, along with dedicated towels!
This blog was provided by cottages.com