Where do you put the dog beds at Christmas?

In our house we use real candles on the (real) tree and we decorate the tree with old decorations that all mean something because they were either given to us by friends, inherited from our childhood homes or the kids made them back in the old days. When the festive time comes, every dog owner invariably wants to involve the dogs in the festive season and that means partly to move the dog beds in near the area where the rest of the family is gathered. This is always really nice and various statistics will tell you what a large proportion of dog owners that also give their dog a Christmas present. Well, we certainly see it here because we get very busy up to Christmas when dog owners buy dog beds for their pets or maybe for their friends, who own pets.

It is lovely to have the furry family member in near the festivities, but of course they may not see the lovely roasts and goodies on the coffee table as anything other than easy pickings. Depending on how well behaved pooch is, you need to look out for the pitfalls. On our real tree, we fill the little baskets with sweets and we have learned the hard way that those baskets have to be hung fairly high up. This is not for grand children, of which there aren’t any and won’t be any for a LONG time, but for the dogs. I know it’s said that chocolate is dangerous for dogs and I am sure that is true, but the little sweets may not contain that much cocoa. The problem is more that the dogs get up from their dog beds JUST as you slip out of the room and take their chance to indelicately pick off the baskets and, no doubt, eat the whole basket with content, trashing the tree and decorations in the process.

The other thing about old fashioned trees is that the candles might drip. When you put real candles on the tree, you risk fires and obviously one can never leave the tree unattended with live candles on it, but the other thing is that if you have put the dog beds near, or under, the tree, you might like to think about the candle drips. It’s hot and painful to get a candle drip on your head and the dogs might not appreciate it. It might also be difficult to get the wax off your waterproof dog beds or at least it might stain if you have red candles.

Not long to Christmas now….