Save my Christmas tree ornaments

We have an almost four month old puppy here, & she loves to snag balls off the tree as well.  Along with teaching her a solid "leave it" she has to stay with me at all times.  It's easier to know where she is than it is to take a chance of her eating something that will hurt her or toppling the tree over & injuring herself. 

For me, it's all about prevention.

Yup if we put up our tree this year we'll either be putting it behind an expen or the puppy will be attached to me when he's in the same room as the tree until he's patently ignoring it with no prompting.

stardog85

Yup if we put up our tree this year we'll either be putting it behind an expen or the puppy will be attached to me when he's in the same room as the tree until he's patently ignoring it with no prompting.

Agreed completly!

Some people have good results with Bitter Apple but it's never worked for any of my dogs.  I agree with Amanda, you have to supervise or put up a barrier around the tree to keep her away from the temptation. 

I'm gonna have to be an old fogey and agree with everyone else.  Prevention is the easiest way to protect the tree.

Maybe.. I am just lucky because Zeke has acted like the tree has always been there. For a Six month old puppy, I thought he would be taking ornaments off of it not to mention eating the wrapping paper of the gifts. To my suprise, he has not touched the tree nor gifts once. That is sorta odd to me. We put it up while he was outside playing and when I let him in I was waiting for him to run to the tree and go to town eating presents and the tree. I am proud he has not. I agree with the majority here and just give a firm "No" and the pooch will soon catch on.

Not to nit pick, but I prefer to tell my dogs what I want them to do.  Saying no doesn't really tell them precisely what it is they are NOT to do.  Leave it, does.

Oh the stories I could tell about kids and dogs and cats and Christmas trees!!!

 My dogs like bitter apple. They think it's candy.

I'm still amazed that  my ADULT dogs haven't somehow destroyed the tree. Puppies are all about containment and management, LOL. 

 Teach your pup the "leave it" skill: http://www.clickerlessons.com/leaveit.htm

glenmar

Oh the stories I could tell about kids and dogs and cats and Christmas trees!!!

The only thing that Bevo every chewed that he wasn't supposed to, other than me, was the Christmas tree.  He was 6 months old, & he had been great about ignoring the tree for about two weeks, so I wasn't watching him as well as I should.  I left him at home, uncrated (he was reliable in the house, so it wasn't outside the norm) while I ran to the store.  I was only gone for 30 minutes, at the most, but I came home to a completely destroyed tree. 

Apparently, he liked the taste of Christmas tree, because he chewed the entire top off!  All of the glass balls were shattered, & the pads of his feet were cut to pieces.  He ended up having to be knocked out to have shards of glass pulled from his feet. 

I understand what your saying. To be honest, I do talk to Zeke and tell him what I expect, etc. I was not really thinking of that when I wrote what I was saying. I was just trying to get across that I believe verbally telling your dog is better to me than other methods. Lol.

Ouch Amanda!  Poor baby!  I've never had anyone injure themselves, thankfully!

Amberld, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be critical.  The word no is just a pet peeve of mine.

I'm kind of surprised that Gibby isn't bothering the tree...and to think of it he didn't last year either, except it was either him or Bubblegum that took a liking to one of the round ball ornaments...but would just go and stare at it....I'm sure thinking " I wonder how I can get that without getting into trouble!"

While I was putting on the ornaments yesterday though..... I unwrapped them ( I make a big deal out of wrapping each one individually when I take them down ) and laid them on couch, chairs, tables...etc etc and he was kind of watching and sniffing a bit.........but he came to a starfish painted like Santa that is a million years old....( someone must have brought it home from vacation ) and he could NOT get his nose off of it...I had to keep moving it.   So now its at the top of the tree where he can't get a sniff of it. I HOPE!

 I have a table tree.  Too hard to keep bending down to pick up the stuff Fergie brushes off the tree because she can't see where she's going;-)