Dogs and Hardwood Floors: A Bad Combination?

If you’re a dog owner, there’s a good chance that you have heard that dogs and hardwood floors don’t mix very well. Your canine pals have sharp claws, and these will heavily scratch and gouge the wood over time. Their tendency to drag mud and run around all over the place certainly doesn’t help, either.

You can choose other flooring options, and this might save you plenty of headaches in the long run. Laminate flooring, for example, is much better at resisting scratches and other dog related damage. It’s probably a good idea if you have multiple pets, or if your dogs are especially large.

But if you have your heart set on hardwood, then it’s time to take some precautions. While keeping your floor in good condition when you have a pup running around is difficult, it’s certainly not impossible either. Here are several tips to prevent significant damage to your flooring.

1. Get the hardest wood you can – Style is important, but when you have an overly energetic puppy at home, you also need to take durability into account. When choosing your hardwood, ask for the Janka Rating and get something harder than average, as it will stand a much better chance of lasting against your pet.

2. Clip their nails – Keeping your dog’s nails short is a good practice, and it will help prevent any serious damage to your floors. You might even want to look into getting nail caps for them; these are harmless caps that you glue onto their nails, and they last for several months. Ask your veterinarian for advice on local brands.

3. Train them – The damage to your floor gets much worse if your dogs run at high speeds, so it’s best to train them to walk while indoors. You might want to take it a step further and put down some rugs for them to walk on instead of your hardwood, and teach them to stick to those. If you only have hardwood floors in some rooms, consider making those “dog free” areas as well.

Need help with choosing your flooring materials, or have a hardwood floor that is in dire need of repairs? FloorVenue would be glad to help, we have an entire article on the best floors for pets here. Alternatively, just give us a call and let our team know about your requirements.