The Christmas season poses many risks to our dogs. Awareness and a bit of preparation can help keep them safe. Common hazards include ingestion of foreign bodies such as tinsel and tree ornaments and toxic ingestions such as inappropriate foods, chocolate, medications, poisonous plants etc. Visitors, especially those that are not dog savvy can inadvertently do things that result in escapes (and what Cairn doesn’t love an unsanctioned dash out the front door?), bites or opportunities for your dog to investigate and help themselves to unsafe items.
Here are some tips to help keep your pups safe and happy over the holidays
- Create an ‘air lock’ system around any door that opens to an unsecured area to prevent your dog from bolting if someone opens the door. This can be an X pen around the door or a tethering post near the door with a leash handy and a reminder note on the door to not open it until the dog(s) are leashed up. Use a dead bolt to help reduce the likelihood of someone opening the door without thinking.
- Create a ‘do not disturb’ zone for your dog so you can give them a safe, quiet space to retreat to if things become overwhelming for them. The busy-ness of holidays with unfamiliar people, sounds, activities and disrupted routines can become overwhelming or overstimulating for some dogs. A cozy nest or crate in an ‘off limits’ room with some white noise or classical music to create a sound buffer and a nice long lasting chew toy can help give your pup a break from too much activity and stimulation. Strive to keep to your pups normal routine in terms of walks, meals and rest times, as much as possible.
- If visitors are bringing dogs, try to arrange for an initial ‘get to know you’ meeting on neutral ground. Parallel walks can help dogs become familiar and comfortable with each other with no pressure to interact directly. Start walking as far apart as needed so that each dog can walk politely and respond to their handler and then gradually work closer to each other until they can walk side by side with no issues, Be sure to create safe spaces for each dog where they can be separate from the other. Supervise play until you are confident they are good together and be especially careful if food is around.
- Advise family and friends not to place gifts containing chocolate or food items under the tree and to keep medications, chewing gum and CBD products secure from pets. Ideally such products should stay out of the house in a vehicle, but if that is not possible, kept in an area that is reliably secure from pets. It is all too easy for a guest to forget to close a room door – and guest rooms and items will have interesting new smells that pets love to explore and, should they find something interesting, perhaps sample.
- Create an exclusion zone around the tree – an Xpen or other physical barrier around the tree is helpful, or you can opt for a smaller tree that can be placed on a table. This will ensure that pups cannot help themselves to tree water (some additives are toxic, water may be contaminated with bacteria or tree oils), ornaments that might be a choking hazard, or break and cause injury, and pine needles that may cause stomach upset. An exclusion zone can also help prevent your dog or cat from pulling a tree over on themselves.
- Dangerous plants should be avoided or placed only in secure areas pets are reliably unable to access. Plants of special concern this time of year include the following (but this is not an exhaustive list so it is always wise to check – here is a good resource: https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/dogs-plant-list )
- Mistletoe
- Poinsettia
- Lilies
- Holly
- Amaryllis, Paperwhites (Snowdrops)
- Yew
- Potpourri and essential oils: many liquid potpourri and essential oils, especially those we value for creating a lovely seasonal ambience are toxic to dogs. Toxicity can occur through ingestion, skin contact or inhalation. Onset of symptoms, especially with inhalation toxicity can be gradual and subtle. Symptoms can be gastrointestinal upset, skin or mouth irritation, or respiratory or neurological symptoms. If you suspect toxicity, contact your vet or the poison control line and take the suspect product with you if you need an emergency vet visit. For more on essential oils see https://www.goodrx.com/pet-health/pets/are-essential-oils-pet-safe .
- People foods: one of the delights of the holiday season is enjoying decadent dinners and desserts. Table scraps at this time are more likely to be rich and heavy on fats with risk of complications such as pancreatitis or intestinal upset. Candy and sweets may include xylitol which is highly dangerous to dogs. There is an increasing list of alternative names for xylitol – many of which sound quite benign. Look for xylite, meso-xylitol, E967, Wood sugar, Birch sugar, Plant based sweetener, Sucre de bouleau, and Bocha sweet. Sometimes xylitol can be hidden in vague terms such as natural or artificial flavour. Xylitol can be used 1:1 as a sugar substitute in baking so guests bearing gifts may be bringing baked goods with xylitol into the house.
As you make your plans for Christmas, make pet safety part of your planning, and have a wonderful Christmas!