If you’re in a rental home with a puppy, you might have encountered the same situations I have. Folks may give advice on how to make a rental home safe for your puppy. You think, That sounds great, but I can’t do anything to change the property.
I’ve learned with a little creativity, you can make a rental feel like home for your puppy.
Carpet Treads
I live upstairs in a rented above-garage apartment. I brought home a Yorkie puppy. He wasn’t my first Yorkie, so I knew I had to keep him off the stairs till he was developed enough. I didn’t want him to hurt his growth plates.
I looked up information and asked for opinions about ages and stages of stair training. All the advice pointed to carpeting the stairs for easier grip. “I’m in a rental, I can’t do that” was my constant response.
Then I discovered carpet treads that could be applied to each step. They’re rental-friendly because they don’t damage the finish on the wooden steps. Yet they’re incredibly secure; they don’t slide around. And they’re affordable.
I was amazed at this option. My landlord approved it, and it has been a huge safety help as my puppy has grown into stair use. They’ve probably made the stairs safer for humans too. I purposely chose a light-colored tread for the dark wooden steps to help my puppy navigate more easily.
Window Film
Next came the excessive barking. That didn’t start till the teen months. My puppy discovered all the action taking place outside the low window. He had to announce every outdoor event, whether it was a squirrel running along a branch, a bug crawling on the screen, or a leaf blowing in the yard.
People suggested I block the window or keep a shade down. Well, that’s my only source of light and the only outdoor view in my living room. I’m not going to close myself off in a cave just because my puppy barks a lot.
The next suggestion was to block the lower pane, at the puppy’s level, with window adhesive. The light would still come through, but it would keep him from seeing out.
Again, my immediate response was, “I’m a renter, I can’t mess up the window glass.” Come to find out water-applied window film doesn’t hurt the glass. There’s no sticky adhesive. You just spray water on clean window glass, and the film adheres.
The window film works perfectly. I still have light, my puppy’s outdoor movie screen has been turned off, and my rental windows are safe. Of course, for the first few hours, my puppy barked at the window film for blocking his view. He’s over it now.
Carpet Stains
The other challenge of a pet-friendly rental is the carpet. Puppies cause stains. Those are easy enough to clean up with a pet-safe enzymatic cleaner. But there’s something nobody told me until I hired a professional carpet cleaner.
It seems my efforts at spot cleaning were making the problem worse. The spot cleaning worked to remove the original stain. What I didn’t know was that after I cleaned the stain, I was supposed to go over the area with plain water to remove the soapy residue.
I ended up having spots of soapy residue that attract dirt. Whenever anyone walked over those spots, dirt clung to the soap in those carpet fibers. Those once clean spots became darker and darker.
Now I’m treating each of those old soapy spots with a vinegar-water solution, rubbing it into the fibers, and pressing down with rags to soak it up. I leave the rags there for 24 hours and place a mesh container over the area, so it can dry and my puppy can’t bother it. The dirt stain comes out, and with it the old soapy residue. My rental carpet is restored.
It’s not always easy raising a puppy in a rental home. But with a little determination and creativity, you can find safe, rental-friendly ways to make your place a comfy puppy home.
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Janet Eriksson 