Hey :)

I have heard recently that hardwood floors or laminated floors (if they cover the whole house) are bad for puppies as its hard on their joints/bones and you definitly shouldnt let them jump on the hardwood floor to grab toys or say hello as it will do even more damage when they touch down on the floor, is this true?
We have carpeted floors apart from the kitchen) so it doesnt apply to us :) But some of my friends do have all their floors done and I must admit I do cringe when their dogs jump on the hardwood floor or are chasing a ball and skid on it clambering back up only to skid over again and you see them hitting it with their legs and feet and I do wonder ''Is that doing any damage?'' espcially to big dogs which need alot of care to make sure they grow up proper.

Just curious as I know hardwood/laminated floors are brilliant for helping clear up toileting mistakes, but is it at the detriment to our pups bones and ligaments?
Also I have heard loosley and Im not holding anyone to this, that R.Ridgebacks shouldnt walk on hard surfaces or pavement until their mature, is this true too as I imagine it would be pretty tough to manage lol !!

Full of questions tonight lol ;) :)
Look forward to your replies!!

Racheal xxxxx

I suppose it depends on the dog and how your house is set up.  We have laminate lounge, dining and study. Bizarrely and cause of much argument is kitchen carpet which I want rid asap in favour of tiles. As far as dog is concerned I don't think it is as safe as carpet.  When my dog is made to sit before going into the garden fromthe study she does wheel spins which make me cringe so I now let her go nose to the door before opening. 

She is not allowed to play on the laminate, luckily we have a large rug in the living room so we can play with her there. If I get my wish for tiles in the kitchen, the plan is to have a runner rug along the areas she runs, although I don't know how we'd secure it yet.

The stipulation by the breeder when we got our pup was absolutely no stairs or steep banks and we stuck to that to the point that our dog has never been upstairs in our house and she's 4 and a half. :-)

Hi

I have laminate flooring on one of the bedroom floors and oak parquet flooring downstairs.  The oak parquet causes no problems but the laminate is too slippery and causes problems with legs slipping out when they arent meant to and dogs yelping...

we had laminate in the dining room and ripped it up when my older newf went A over T when he ran in from the garden one day and nearly went though the wall.

My Anton has got a just above the breed average hipscore and I'm sure that part of it is due to him doing the wall of death in my living room as a puppy between settee's and chair and sliding on the laminate flooring.  I am definitely restricting Calida being on the flooring at the same age this time round.

i think it is really important not to let young puppies play on slippery flooring, while their joints are under so much stress from growing (obviously large breeds more so). i always ask my puppy buyers about their flooring in their home and tell them if they have laminate to ensure they buy some cheap rugs so the puppy has some grip while it is growing.

I have a ridgeback, and i havent heard of restricting their walks to exclude pavements? I have mainly carpets in my house, so no problems there, but i certainly dont avoid pavements when walking him. I restrict his exercise due to the fact hes a large breed puppy. I have to walk him over pavement to get to his favourite field, and when at work. I am not carrying a 40kg puppy over pavement!!

Laminate flooring is very slipery. I have it in the livingroom and down the (long, narrow) hallway. The best I have found to avoid accidents is to have a large rug in the livingroom and a runner down the hallway so the dogs can get 'traction'. However, the Mastiff has still managed to fall over as he bolted in from the garden like a bat out of hell and skidded on the small space between the dooor mat & the livingroom rug, so the 'zoomies' are banned from the house & if he is going loopy in the garden the door is shut so he can't bolt into the house - it's a scarey sight seeing such a huge dog clattering accross the floor!!

When the Mastiff was younger all active play was banned from inside the house (only allowed quite play ie, chewing toys) partly due to having laminate & partly due to not encouraging him playing inside due to the size he will grow to, jumping was a no-no regardles of flooring but I could never let a dog of any age jump on laminate or encourage a dog to run on laminate. (the cat is great on the laminate floor, she has perfected the equivilent of a 'handbrake turn' and will run & skid on purpose :) )

I have oak flooring down the hall and cushionfloor in the kitchen with tiles in the utility/conservatory and with my large breed, I have runners through the hall, rubber backed mats in kitchen and conservatory so they can get some traction. The oak floor and cushion floor I find not too slippery but the tiles are so they have most covering.  Luckily they are not given to doing wheelies except if the front door bell goes and I try to be on top of them immediatly to curtail the sillyness!! They have never been upstairs and will not, (If you ever spent the night with three BMD's panting heavily through the night and columpsing up and down you would know why!!)
I have had one of my pups ( With another owner!) with leg problems and the vet thinks the cause was laminate flooring, it is by far the worst flooring for a dog and needs some sort of matting down. They now have matting everywhere and the problem is much better. I think real wood is less of a problem.
Aileen.

I have laminate flooring (would love proper wooden flooring but can't afford it), because I don't like carpet.  However, they are covered in non-slip rugs (cheap, hardwearing ones from Ikea ;-)  )and they do the trick.  I certainly wouldn't want my dogs and especially a growing puppy sliding about on the laminate.

We have laminate in our living room, stone tiles in the hall and kitchen, dogs are fine with it, never had one slip over yet!

My friend hasnt brought rugs, but will be making some suggestions to them soon when I see them tho as its a simple and if you shop right cheap idea :)
I suppose its so so handy to have laminated floors when your puppy training lol

My whole house is laminated (x the stairs/landing) We have a rug in the front room but plain floors everywhere else. Never had a problem with them slipping , their nails are kept very short though and I think that helps and as you say certainly helps with the occasional accident and when moulting (all the time it seems with my spitz) dread to think of the hoovering I would be doing if I had carpet!

got part laminate downstairs and have got some cheap 'turtle mat' type rubber back mats and a runner for the hall, got advantage that they dont tend to slip around like ordinary mats and are completely washable - small ones go in machine! - for when you get 'accidents' or in this case very muddy feet for what seems like 3/4 of the year. we have very compacted clay soil and 12 paws churning it into uuuuugh every time it rains. Plus hair sits on the top instead of weaving into carpet fibre.
Chris

> she has perfected the equivilent of a 'handbrake turn' and will run & skid on purpose

lol, what a visual

lol I agree Astarte! Got a wicked mental image from reading that LOL

Interesting idea that young Ridgies shouldn't go on hard surfaces!  I've had them for 20 something years and have never heard that one :)

i have laminate all through the house and have strategic mats dotted all over.
E.G. bottom stairs, runner on passage, middle of living room, dining room etc.
i use paw wax when i can see they are slipping around anywhere else,
bought it years ago and has lasted well, my girls feet are ok, apart from having hard skin
now and again, which we treat with vasoline and walking on sand.
no major problems otherwise                   
Donna

My two grew up in a house with tiled floors throughout.  I put down lots of non slip vetbed to save their joints when they were pups.  I now live in a house with laminate and they have no problems at all (both are experts at maneoeuvering around on slippy surfaces although that may be down to their inherited characteristics).  I always know where they are 'cos of the constant clip-clacking of doggy claws - this can be annoying at times :D

Interesting idea that young Ridgies shouldn't go on hard surfaces!  I've had them for 20 something years and have never heard that one 

Thats what I thought as I have seen plenty of RR litters walking on pavement lol maybe some myth or something about the breed someone picked up, I'll be sure to correct my mate so she doesnt keep sepreadinf wrong info!

I know what you mean Huskypup, Mitz can easily creep upstairs cause we have carpets lol maybe we should get laminated floors so Turbo cant also keep sneaking off and knicking my socks and underware from the wash basket lol

Seems everyone just uses carpets and rugs to make sure their doggys dont come to harm, best of both world really isnt it! ;)

To my mind NO, but then I have big dogs that can do themselves a huge amount of damage if they slip over. I don't believe it can be good for any dog though.

I've heard before that laminate floor isn't great for dogs. We have original restored wooden floorboards in our kitchen which are ok for the dogs because its not slippery, but in our extension (that we don't really use) is a solid wood floor which the dogs do slip on so I try and restrict them from going in there.

Would never have laminate floors again.  One youngster after slipping on it and crashing into a door frame was pts.  The injuries to her front legs and shoulder were horrendous.  Then again same thing could happen on tiles.

I won't have laminate ever again with dogs.   Used to have it downstairs and the dogs slid and I could foresee an accident so we replaced with anti-slip vinyl (looks just like a wooden floor; very thick and cushioned) and dust buster rubber backed mats.  Terrific for hair, don't see it and it doesn't weave into the mat.  Pick them up, put in the washing machine and put fresh ones down.  I have 2 lots of the same size. Easy to keep clean and no slipping.

i dont know about that but something i do know now, is that when you put new laminate or carpet, it can make dogs quite poorly, something to do with chemicals, so anyone planning to put new floor down break the dogs into it gently, as i got a huge bill from one of my litter, vet said not 100% sure but the floor could have caused this problem

sami

where can i get paw wax from, does this stop slipping??????

you can get it from www.shawspet.co.uk
and yes it does stop slipping

going to sound really daft and only try it on laminate not wooden flooring, but i spray the corners where the dogs do the wall of death around with hair spray. it works brilliantly, but be aware that it may stain certain types of wood or varnish, so try it in hidden place first... but it really has worked with my hairy footed leonberger and my crazy wheel spinning borde collie

> i dont know about that but something i do know now, is that when you put new laminate or carpet, it can make dogs quite poorly, something to do with chemicals, so anyone planning to put new floor down break the dogs into it gently, as i got a huge bill from one of my litter, vet said not 100% sure but the floor could have caused this problem

we've never had a problem from fitting new floor covering. We've changed our flooring quite a lot over the years, every time we have put carpets down (only had carpets with our rescue dog) there has been carpet fluff in the dogs poop for a few days!!! Do dogs get pica like cats do?? it seems as if the dog has a hankering for carpet fluff, finding green fuzz in his 'jobs' frightened the hell out of me untill I figured out what it was!!!!!