Preventing Dog's from Slipping on Floors
Posted by PET FRIENDLY FLOORING
Slippery Floors are RUFF!
Keeping your dog from slipping is important to most pet owners. Anyone who's lived with a dog has probably witnessed them skid on hard flooring. Although their slipping and sliding can appear comical, or even adorable, it can actually be dangerous and can lead to potential injury. That's why it's important for your pet's safety and your peace of mind to attempt to reduce slipping in your home wherever possible.
Textured Flooring
As fellow pet owners, we have made a conscious effort to select flooring that is not only durable, but can also help reduce slipping and sliding for dogs. Many of our pet friendly flooring is slip resistant, due to its textured surface.
While no hard flooring is 100% non-slip, having a textured surface can help reduce slipping and sliding on hard surfaces for large and small dogs alike.
Some of our flooring patterns have more texture than others, ranging from heavily textured to smooth. We include our full selection of patterns in our sample kit, so you can feel them for yourself and choose the surface best suited for your household.
Traction Hacks
Although there is no totally non-slip hard flooring, our textured flooring patterns can be used to help prevent slipping, especially in combination with these five easy pet-proofing hacks:
- Manicure: Believe it or not, long nails can cause skidding and sliding, which is easy to remedy. Dogs rely heavily on their nails to gain traction, but are unable to grip hard surfaces like wood or tile. A simple manicure can help your pets paws grip the floor -- more traction = less slipping.
- Toenail grips: Similarly, these rubber grips easily slide onto your dogs nails, helping them gain traction. Much like the rubber soles used in workplaces and sports matches, these grips naturally adhere to surfaces and greatly decrease the chance of slipping.
- Pad wax: You may have seen pad wax used to protect pup's paws against ice or hot pavement, but it also helps their paws gain traction. The thin layer of wax acts forms a barrier, lightly gripping to surfaces it comes in contact with.
- Foot spray: This adhesive spray is an essential tool of the trade in dog shows, keeping show dogs from skidding away as they show off for judges. It's also effective at home, forming a sticky film on your pup's paws that lasts about a day.
- Mats or rugs with gripper pads: This may not work in your whole home, but consider using a rug or mat with gripper pads for that problem hallway or kitchen floor. This textured, soft surface will give your dog's paws something to grip and will effectively help reduce slipping. You may even find it ties the room together!
Choose your samples here to see the difference in our Pet Friendly Flooring and to see why we are known as "The Best Floor For Dogs".