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The Christmas tree went up last night. I love the little ornaments that look like little toys. Many of them have little bells. Some of them are stuffed fabric.
Seeker's eyes lit up when he saw them and heard the bells. He was sure those little toys were intended for a dog to play with.
The little toy ornaments have all gone onto the top of the tree, out of reach, and the dogs have been watched closely and corrected if they show too much interest in the tree.
At least this year I don't have to put a fence around the tree (I hope)
What does everyone else do about dogs and cats and Christmas trees and other decorations?
Haven't had trouble between my dogs and Christmas decorations. They were herders. If it MOVED, it probably needed to be told where. If it wasn't moving it was either boring or dead and didn't need to be told anything .
My bigger birds were another matter. I've kept hookbills, a toucan, and motmots. Everything in the house was a potential toy. Christmas was just sensory overload. They couldn't decide where to start. The level of decorating in my house took a serious nosedive during those years. My most recent aviary birds have been tiny and delicate so staying safely inside their aviary 24/7 was safer than offering free flying sessions in the house. Even now, when I start thinking about putting out holiday decorations, I still find myself considering which ornaments/locations will be most vulnerable to being shredded, bashed, knocked over, eaten, or pooped on .
A family friend once complained about their spoiled rotten beagle. If the beagle felt enough attention wasn't being lavished on her during Christmas festivities she'd pluck ornaments off the tree, go stand right in front of a guest, and deliberately crunch them to bits.
Last edited by Parnassia; 12-01-2023 at 02:11 PM..
I have a 70-foot spruce down at the foot of the driveway that we put blue lights on and a dwarf something or other evergreen in a large planter on the front porch that I decorate for the holidays. The dog would be okay with an indoor tree, but I don't trust the cats.
I couldn't imagine the destruction our dogs would inflict upon a decorated Christmas tree if they could easily access it. I'm sure anything that looked like a toy would be plucked off and the tree itself would smell like a urinal.
We have a fake 3' tabletop tree that sits on a cabinet. Even that requires some correction.
When our current dog was a puppy, we had only a small tree up on a buffet, out of her reach. Ever since then, we've had a regular tree on the floor, and neither she nor previous dogs have bothered it at all. (Current dog in particular is really quite sweet about how meticulously respectful she seems to be about our stuff.) We do have some fabric ornaments that I put higher up, in case she decides they are toys. Other than that, the only thing is to keep her well clear of the tree when she starts wagging her very long tail about anything.
I love the image of the large birds being so excited about the tree and all accessories!
We made the mistake of wrapping things up for the dogs... so now we can't put ANYTHING under the tree. Frankly, I'm surprised they leave the tree itself alone. Although we have one that I'm pretty well certain would have to pee on a real tree.
I love the image of the large birds being so excited about the tree and all accessories!
That's the problem with birds...they fly (unless severely wing clipped. Inhumane/cruel to wing clip a toucan or motmots because they can't use beak/claws like parrots). Nothing above floor level is safe.
Last edited by Parnassia; 12-04-2023 at 05:03 PM..
When my husband and I were first married (maybe 2-3 years married) we adopted a big Golden Retriever mix. He was lovely, around 5 years old. Sweet sweet boy, housetrained, well mannered. We named him Zachary because the girl we got him from worked at Zachary’s Pizza, and the dog lived in her car. She never bothered to name him, just called him Puppy.
We’d had him for a few months when his first Christmas rolled around. We went and bought our live Christmas tree, set it up in the living room. Well, Zack thought he’d hit the jackpot! He thought we’d put it there just for him, and he promptly went over and peed on it!
Let me tell you, a 65-70lb dog has quite a good volume of urine.
We made the mistake of wrapping things up for the dogs... so now we can't put ANYTHING under the tree. Frankly, I'm surprised they leave the tree itself alone. Although we have one that I'm pretty well certain would have to pee on a real tree.
I have great memories of the dogs unwrapping their Christmas gifts.
ONLY one dog was so enamored with unwrapping HIS Christmas gifts that he moved on to unwrapping OUR Christmas gifts.
AND he was the best hunting dog I ever had. I cannot believe that he didn't know or smell that the other boxes were not for HIM.
If you don't have a under five kid to unwrap a Christmas gift on Christmas morning wrap a gift for your dog in a manner that they can unwrap on their own.
I remember my first "family" Christmas as head of household. Mid 20's and trying to make a good Christmas for the stepson. Money was tight so I took a seasonal second job to afford Christmas presents. Bought them all and we got them wrapped under the Christmas tree and it was a sight to behold. My dog left everything alone and all was well.
Until we left.
While we were gone the dog tore up and destroyed every Christmas present under that tree. After working so many extra hours to make Christmas happen it was quite the hollow feeling in the gut.
We had to replace all the presents last minute, pretty much with dollar store items because even though I could keep working the extra seasonal job, I wouldn't get paid again before Christmas. Fortunately the kid was young enough he didn't seen to know the difference, or at least was just polite enough to pretend. It's not like there were Xboxs etc in the mid 1990s.
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