5 Ways to Keep Your Pets Safe When Left Home Alone

August 25, 2016

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The internet has lots of different funny dog shaming videos of our furry loved ones getting into all kinds of mischief when their owners are not home. For us, this is hilarious and cute but for our dogs, this can be stressful.

To help out we asked some our experienced pet sitters for their top suggestions to help keep dogs safe while they are home alone.

Here are the Top 5 Suggestions for Keeping Dogs Safe When Home Alone

1. Dog Proof Trash Can

Dogs are naturally drawn to any scent of food, so they love to get into any type of garbage. As a dog owner, nothing is worse than coming home and having the bathroom or kitchen garbage all over the floor. But more importantly, this is very dangerous for your pet. Closing doors to bathrooms and having dog proof kitchen garbage cans is essential to your dog’s safety.

2. Hire a Pet Sitter

Ok maybe they’re being a little bias with this tip but what better way to protect your dog when they are home alone then by not leaving them home alone in the first place. At the very least having someone check in on your pet once a day can lessen your pet’s energy level in the evening, and separation anxiety during the day.

Pet Sitting is becoming more popular and affordable. The type of pet sitter you choose should depend on the needs of your dog. Clearly, a Miniature Poodle is going to have different pet sitting needs than a Portuguese Water Dog.

An interesting component of pet care is the cost. Do you have a number of house hold chores you’d like taken care of? Rather than hiring a dog walk, housekeeper, and baby sitter - consider just hiring a nanny! Experienced caregivers will have no problem taking care of all these household tasks. One thing to consider with this is that nannies can be somewhat costly. However, if you’re concerned about the price of these child care providers, you could always opt for a nanny share. In this arrangement, you would split the cost of a caregiver with another family - saving you money and time spent meeting with three different care service providers.

There are several good websites for finding great pet sitters but of course, we highly recommend PetSitter.com ;). We would love to be your guide in helping you match up with the perfect pet sitter for your furry family member. It’s free to post a job and view available pet sitters in your area!

3. Play the Radio

Human voices tend to be calming to dogs. Many of our pet sitters have found that playing the radio can help your pet with separation anxiety and will help keep them calm.

4. Leave Some Lights On

We don’t know if its that some dogs are scared of the dark but our experienced pet sitters have noticed that most dogs prefer that some lights be left on when they are home alone. One sitter, likened dogs to young children said you wouldn’t leave your 3-year-old for hours in the dark so why to it to your dog.

If you typically turn off the lights when you leave the house and your dog has been causing trouble, is hiding or very sad when you get home try leaving a light or 2 on and see if it helps.

5. Use a Crate

Overall, our pet sitters feel that dogs that were crated feel less stressed than dogs that were allowed to be free in the home. Obviously, if they are in a crate they can’t get into much trouble.

What Are Your Suggestions??

Did we miss any good tips? Do you have any suggestions on ways to keep your dog safe in the home?

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