Making Your Home Dawg Friendly

You may say that the Havanese canines in the Talemaker house rules the roost but really they do not. We just like to make their lives more interesting. By doing so, we get more laughs, more warmth and tales that can be remembered forever.

First of all, our couches are covered by blankets designed for such (bought at Costco) and they only come off when we have non dog people show up that don't quite get it. They have soft blankets on top so they can snuggle right in behind our neck while we watch TV.

Okay, if we were real dawg people - wouldn't we say - this is our life so deal with it? Perhaps but if Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty came to visit (fat chance) well maybe we would want to make it less dawg like but maybe not. He's not really known as a dawg person so maybe he needs some 'slow conditioning'. I doubt we will ever find out if THAT works.

We buy our furniture and set up our rooms to make sure we have secret hiding places - little nooks in which we can place a dog mat, a blanket to give the charm of a hidden place where they can lay and watch the lay of the land.

As you can see in this photo, it is as easy as throwing a cheap pillow, a blanket, or a dog mat under something to give your dawg a den effect.

You can click on any of the photos to give a larger view - always.

Even under my desk - which I work at, I have a couple of beds, a crate all nice and cozy with toys and soft blankies. This works to hide the cords from teething pups and creates a homey place to be near you. They don't call them velcro dawgs for nothing.

Nathan has the same under his desk - minus the crate.

For a dawg that isn't used to a crate, a cozy crate in a special place near you that looks inviting, comfie with a door open is an open invitation to 'slow conditioning' that helps them see it as a positive thing vs. a negative. We do not use crates in our house except to lend them comfort in case they are ever in need of going to the vet (spaying/neutering) and need to be in it. A dog not feeling up to par should not have the extra stress of dealing with uncomfortable surroundings and dealing with the confinement of a crate. You do your dawg no favours not at least getting them familiar with one.

We also bought a cheap leather bench that the little ones can hide under, it can go up flush against the couch so the dawgs can lay on it while we lay on the couch on those days where you need some space and extra room or if you are really crazy and simply have too many to lay all over you, this gives you extra space. If you decide to sit up, then your legs can lay on it - win/win.

Even our tables next to the couch have pillows on the floor under them for comfie spots for the dawgs. We often find our Wasabi under one of these just lovin' the idea that it is open but also lends an air of being hidden. Here she is wetter than a rag from playing it the sopping snow laying in wait until I brush her out and dry her off a bit.

Then we made the really big leap of moving a twin bed into our bedroom next to the king size bed so all the Havanese dawgs could sleep comfie with us. (see the top photo in this article) We need to create a bed that folds so it fits outdoors but is wide enough with spacial sheets - heh - or do we? Maybe just make a headboard that holds it all together but keeps its separate? The verdict is still out on THAT!

I started doing this when our dawg numbers increased and I found how much humans enjoyed our garden as I had a hidden treasure of an elf, or a dragon in a spot not expected. I figured if the humans find this 'fun' then the dawgs also would appreciate this type of arrangement.

If I ever won the lottery, we would have fun designing a true dawg house for us to live in with our four legged friends but till then, we will be satisfied with making it interesting for our crew and therefore for us.

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