Parmelee Beagles

Puppy Proofing

They look so innocent when you first bring them home, especially beagle puppies!  Puppies can, and will, get in to just about anything.  Before you take your new puppy home, you may want to puppy proof your house and yard.  The best thing you can do for this is crawl around your floors where the puppy will have access and look for things that can easily be grabbed or pushed over and look for better locations for the item or a way to secure something to keep your puppy from destroying it.  Some things to watch for:

          • Shredders - turn them off when not using them, no need to have an expensive vet bill for a tongue or ear that accidentally gets too close.


          • Power cords - try to hide or secure them or bundle them so they aren't as easy to get to and chew.


          • Table cloths or other draping materials - anything lower than 20-30 inches from the ground could be grabbed and considered a toy by a growing puppy.


          • Standing objects that are not sturdy - puppies and young dogs often find a need to push anything they come across, something that is not sturdy could be knocked over.


          • Area rugs - you may want to roll those up and put them away until your puppy gets past the teething thing, or maybe after the terrible twos (roughly 6-10 months).


          • Shoes - they scream "come chew me!!" to a puppy, find a safer place for them if you want to keep them, and for heaven’s sake, don’t give them an old one as a toy!


          • House plants - if possible, get them higher or put obstacles between the puppy and the plant, we've seen digging in them to pulling the plants out of the pots.


          • Kids toys - see Shoes above, they are a magnet for a puppy.


          • Garbage cans - beagle pups love to dig in the trash, especially after paper.  If you don’t have a shredder, your puppy will make a good one.  Used Kleenex and other delectably stinky items are also a draw for a beagle puppy.  We keep all of our trash cans behind cabinet doors, in some cases we’ve had to add a child-proof cabinet lock to keep the trash can safe.


          • As you crawl around, look for anything that can be grabbed or pushed or chewed on, secure them in any way you possibly can.


          • Consider crate training your puppy to help keep it from getting to things you do not want them near.


          • Consider baby gates if you decide not to crate train.



In the backyard -

          • Check along the fence line for any holes that can be climbed through or dug deeper and fill with rocks or some other heave material.


          • Clean up any trash or junk piles.


          • Drippers and sprinklers - bury as much of the system as possible.  I don’t know what to tell you here, all of our kids have loved chewing on the dripper system and for the first few years we replaced dripper ends, lines of drippers and other spots the beagles liked to chew on constantly.  Eventually they grow out of it.  We’ve never found a good deterrent besides burying the lines and the drippers as much as possible.  If you find some system that works, please let us know what you did.


          • Check the plants to make sure there are not any poisonous ones out there.  



Here is one source of poisonous plants to watch out for.


Puppy Mantra:

G-d made them cute so you won’t kill them!