Dog proof Christmas tree?!

[feesh]

Is there such a thing?

Our pup is 9-10 months old, so this is our first Christmas with her, and I'm worrying about how she is going to cope with the Christmas tree!

We have already had to move two houseplants upstairs, as she was always attacking them.

Our tree is artificial, and I'm worried about her pulling bits off of it, or taking the decorations off to chew.

Has anyone got any tips for helping to prevent any disasters? Our house is quite open plan, and she isn't a velcro-dog, so it's going to be hard to watch her all the time around it.

[tooearlytobeup]

I've been worrying about this too. Ours is 5 months old now and into everything. I think we may have to put the tree upstairs unless anyone has a better idea

[notjustme]

Well, after our dogs ate all the new decorations I'd bought one year (lots of money down the drain!) ours now goes at the foot of the stairs, by the front door, on the other side of the dog gate! We don't put presents under ours so it's not a security risk :)

[notjustme]

If I had some tips, it would be don't have edible decorations, don't have furry 'teddy' type decorations, and don't have any glass decorations in case some do get chewed, at least there is less danger of injury. Don't get too tall a tree, as it'll be easier to pull down, and don't have anything electrical on there unsupervised, so turn off and unplug any lights before you leave.

[feesh]

Thanks. It's a tricky one, eh? I was thinking of soaking a few of the wooden decs in some sort of clear solution containing Tabasco/chilli/bitter apple or something and putting them on the lower branches so that she quickly develops an aversion to them - what do you think?

She's not really the sort to chew electrical cables, but I think the tree itself will be quite irresistible, especially once she learns that she will get attention from a frantic me if she starts pulling at it!

We don't leave her with any access to the area when we go out, it's more when she has her evening mad hour and goes looking for mischief that I am most concerned about.

[notjustme]

It's definately the bottom third of the tree in my experience, you could buy some bitter spray (see through and pretty much non staining as opposed to tabasco etc) and spray it on the bottom third of the tree - that might curb her? Though if she's anything like mine, she'll put up with the vile taste for the fun of the chew!

[MrsZoidberg]

We had this the second christmas we had our Husky - so I hung the Christmas tree upside down from the ceiling ! I should add, that we live in a barn conversion and it has a peaked roof so even though the Christmas tree was a 5 footer, it was still above anyone's head height.

How about a dog / baby pen such as the lindam one around the tree, or even a fire guard if the tree is in a corner?

Also, nothing fluffy or edible on the tree. We have some velvet covered baubles that the dogs love so these have to go very high up.

[Catsmamma]

My dogs never worry the tree, not even the pups. We usually have two indoors and one outside, they just seem not to notice them! Apart from tails wagging in amongst the branches we never have any incidents

The cats on the other hand, nightmare! Every year I think they have got over the fascination and then after about four days all I do is untangle Reuben from the thing and I have to watch the other two like hawks as they like to try and pee on it

..that's partly why the tree goes up at the last minute and is usually down by the day after boxing day.