Keeping Your Dog Warm and Safe in Your Garage
 
I am not a fan of leaving dogs in the garage in the cold of winter while we are away from home but many of us don't have a choice. We have dogs with destructive behavior or mild separation anxiety and fear we will come home to a house that looks like a war zone. Keep in mind dogs can be destructive anywhere, including a garage so you must keep all valuables and items that can be dangerous to your dog out of their reach.
 
Below are some ideas on making sure your dog stays warm, safe and happy in your garage:
 
1.  Make sure their dog bed is well insulated. Buy a quality insulated bed and place an insulated quilt underneath. Another option is to buy a raised bed and place their regular bed on top of it. You can buy dog houses or use a crate and either leave the door open or take it off and put insulated bedding inside. You can place a space blanket over the top for extra insulation. Place a brick or something heavy on top of the space blanket to keep the blanket in place. Dogs who are bored or anxious may chew up loose bedding so a well insulated bed with a tight fitting cover placed inside a crate may be the best option. Keep in mind that you may have to crate train your dog as part of this -- refer to my crate training video and article for advice on that. If at all possible, have a heated bed or heating pads specially designed for dogs for your dogs to use. Be especially attentive to your senior dogs and dogs with a short single coat. They have wonderful options at Bend Pet Express.
 
2.  If you don't have a heated bed, you can use a space heater near the bed. Make sure it has an automatic shut off or isolate the heater inside an exercise pen. Bored and anxious dogs may chew the cords. Put bitter apple spray or something else that dog doesn't like on the cords. Another taste that most dogs don't like is a menthol flavor like Bengay or Vicks Vapor Rub. You can experiment. These products do need to be reapplied every couple of days. And of course, don't use something that will cause an electrical hazard or stain anything that the cord comes in contact with.
 
3.  Give your dog things to do in the garage. Several stuffed Kongs with a little peanut butter and kibble is the best option. This is how they will get breakfast. If you google Kong toy recipes you can get other ideas for stuffing. Dog chews like rawhides and bully sticks dogs can choke on them and should only be used when supervised. Most other toys just aren't interesting enough for your dog to want to play with on their own.
 
4.  If at all possible, have a well insulated dog door leading out to an enclosed area for them to relieve themselves. If this is not possible, paper train them to go on papers while you are away.
 
5.  Secure all chemicals so your dog cannot access them. Particular dangers of particular classes of chemicals like anti freeze, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and paints and will be addressed in detail in an upcoming segment.
 
6.  Have a thermometer so you can monitor how could it gets in your garage in the winter months. Make sure it does not get down below 40 degrees without some an additional heat source like a heated bed or space heater.
 
Winter can be hard on all of us, including our dogs. But with the proper setup, you can make your garage a suitable year round space for your pet.
 
 
Meredith Gage
Pawsitive Experience
1289 NW Promontory Dr.
Bend, OR 97701
541-318-8459
trainingdogs123@bendbroadband.com