New puppy and Christmas decorations

[billybagpuss]

I know its only August so apologies for that, but Billypup is now 6 months old so we are heading for our first Christmas with her.

Any suggestions, advise etc. for example how to puppy proof the Christmas tree, which is a (probably completely inappropriate) 7ft artificial tree. I don't mind getting a smaller real one.

Any suggestions for easy decorations that will work and be puppy appropriate.

She is a very energetic border/retriever.

Put the tree up and put it in a playpen so the puppy can't get to it.

Mine had his second Christmas last year and I fully expected him to attack the tree as I decided not to cordon it off. He watched me decorate 2 trees and never even sniffed them. I was amazed as he acted like they weren't there.

Battendog was a very nosey, very bouncy 6 month old springer last Xmas and all my decorations are glass.

Here's what we did:

• Put the tree up a few days before decorating it, so he could send a couple days getting used to it without too much risk
• Put the decorations up while he had a nice, tasty kong to distract him and try and make it so something else in the room was more exiting than the tree
• Watch him like a hawk every time he was in the room and use a baby gate to stop him getting in there unsupervised
• Never make a 'fuss' of the tree - essentially try and act like it is the MOST boring thing ever

All went without a hitch!

Less of an issue with a bitch but my old lab cocked his leg on the tree first year we had a real one thankfully the gsd hasn't got the co-ordination to do that
Id stick with fake it already smells a bit of you and if you can stick a baby gate up or play pen even better you never know when a gift might be mistaken for a chew toy

Tree inside playpen!

Thank you all some good suggestions there.

Our dog was about 8 months old at his first Christmas and the tree wasn’t that much of an issue at all . The only thing we can’t do is put any presents under it as he likes to unwrap things ( we can’t leave wrapped birthday gifts around the house either ) . We always have an artificial tree and don’t put any sentimental or very expensive ornaments near the lower branches in case he catches them with his tail .

Neither of our dogs have paid that much attention to the xmas tree. The cat on the other hand 🤦‍♀️

I was worried about Christmas when my dog was a puppy, I had images of her taking every decoration off and the tree falling over etc

I think in the whole time it was up she pulled off two balls? Other then that she left it alone. Obviously she was very intrigued when it first went up but we let her investigate and didn’t make too much of a fuss.

I think you’ll be surprised don’t stop them approaching the tree as to them, it then becomes even more interesting