Dogs and Wood Flooring

Many people who are considering adding wood flooring to their home want to know if they can have dogs and wood flooring – or rather, how damaging dogs really are to wood flooring. Well, that depends on you – two key questions are: how perfect do your want your flooring to be, and are you willing to take precautions to protect it from innocent paws?

Typically, the larger the dog is, the more potential it has to cause some serious damage to your flooring. When those big pooches take off across your floor, they can’t help but dig their nails in. Little dogs damage wood flooring, too, though usually not as much.

There are some options for you if you do want your dog inside with your wood flooring, though they can sometimes be difficult to implement. Some people put dog booties on their pets while they are inside, if your dog keeps them on, that’s great, however many people complain that dogs pull them off right away. Many people also put baby socks or baby booties on their dog’s paws, but a lot of dogs will simply pull these off as well.

More effective products to use on your dog’s paws are nail coverings that some pet supply stores offer. Many dogs are not as annoyed by these and it covers up their sharp nails.

Another simple solution, and probably the best one, is keeping your dog’s nails trimmed, it’s the sharp edges of nails scuttling across wood floors that cause the worst scratches. If you can give your dog a good trim and file/buff, this will alleviate the majority of damage that dogs typically inflict on wood floors.

Another thing to consider about having both dogs and wood flooring is that big dogs might slip and fall a lot on wood floors. Placing rugs and runners down can help to solve this dilemma. And, the more wear and tear your floor gets, the less slick it will be, and although it won’t be as shiny as it was on day one, the less of a problem this will be.

You’ll probably be surprised at the number of different ways a floor can get scratched, too. If you have a dog, I’d venture to say that eventually your floor would definitely get scratches, but if you have children, or even visitors with hard shoes, you are likely to get scratches in the wood from them as well. Most people find that a number of surprising things can cause scratches to their flooring.

It’s incredibly hard to keep wood floors perfect, and some even feel that a lot of scratches look better than just a few, and that they give character to the flooring. Whether you are in this camp or not, having a dog is likely to give your floor “character” a lot faster than if you didn’t have one. But the damage can be significantly minimized, and you can have lovely natural wood flooring and your loving dog.

For more information about floors or related products, choose from one of the following:

Wood Flooring | Hardwood Flooring