Just had a light bulb moment "christmas"

[phonodel]

Ok, now that Halloween is over and the holidays are fast approaching it occured to me today my 10 mo old boy will go beserk over a Christmas tree! A big tall shiny blinking thing with nothing but toys abound hanging from every branch???? Any veterans out there who can share some "first" holiday stories? I really don't think I can have a tree this year. It would last about 10 minutes unsupervised. I am so bummed as I just love decorating my tree. The biggest problem I have ever had in the past is the fact that we trained our male Dachshund to "pee pee on the tree" (outside of course.) Well, you can imagine how thrilled he was when we decided to bring the tree in for him so that he did not have to get cold and wet when he had to "go" . The next year we solved the problem by getting a nice artificial tree. Such a smart boy, I guess since there was no natural smell, he left it alone. As far as my Boxer baby, not a chance I'm afraid

 

[lilboxerbaby]

Great question! I haven't even thought of that... this will be Venus' first Christmas... we have a fake tree but still, I'd love to put it up this year since I didn't get the chance last year (BF was in Iraq and it was just me).

I, too, would love some advice on how to deal with the Christmas tree ordeal and puppy!

C

 

[AbbeyRoad]

Haha, I hadn't even thought about that yet! We'll be in the same boat so we'll see how it goes. We put our tree up in our living room though which is where we spend most of our time and is also visible from the majority of the house so hopefully after she watches me put it up and a few good leave its she'll be pretty good. We still crate her when we are not home so that should help too.

Our cats are actually a pain with the tree they seem to think it makes a great toothbrush and cannot be left alone with presents since no ribbon can be left alone in their presence. We have an artificial so at least they haven't tried to climb it & of course no tinsle...

We'll have to swap stories in a month about how it goes...

Good Luck!

 

[HurricaneBox]

Our first Christmas with Hurricane, I was worried about the same thing! We ended up putting the tree on top of the coffee table (we had a cathedral ceiling at the time) and putting it in a corner behind the couch so that it wasn't such of a temptation to a 9 month old! We went easy on the decorations, all plastic no glass, and kept most of them higher on the tree. We kept an eagle eye on him for the first week we had it (we put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving... family tradition) and corrected him whenever he went to even sniff it. We wanted to teach him it was completely off limits.

After a week or so of corrections, and him realizing there wasn't really anything THAT interesting on the tree, he ignored it completely. Until we put presents under it, all wrapped in wonderful, noisy crinkly paper! :( It was harder to get him to ignore the presents than the tree! After 4 weeks of work, though, by the time we took it down, he wasn't paying any attention to it. It just takes perserverance, is all. Of course, we crate when we are gone, so if you don't I would suggest placing the tree somewhere the dog does not have access to it when you are gone. This year, I am confident that with only a few reminders Hurricane will remember his manners and leave the tree alone!

 

[HurricaneBox]

Our cats are actually a pain with the tree they seem to think it makes a great toothbrush and cannot be left alone with presents since no ribbon can be left alone in their presence. We have an artificial so at least they haven't tried to climb it & of course no tinsle...

Good Luck!

Our cats were always AWFUL growing up... we even had one cat knock a huge 8 ft tree down by running and jumping at the top! Ah, the joys of feline antics....

 

[AbbeyRoad]

Our cats were always AWFUL growing up... we even had one cat knock a huge 8 ft tree down by running and jumping at the top! Ah, the joys of feline antics....

We had a smaller tree the first few years and we definitely came home to it on the floor quite a few time. Thankfully we just had cheap ornaments since we were just starting our collection. We now have 100% plastic ornaments so hopefully that will help with the dog too! Knowing our cats they will think the tree is the perfect place to hide from the dog...that might not turn out so good, but I'm sure we'll get some laughs none the less! They'll probably work as a team...cat will bat down the ornament then dog will roll it around the house...I wonder what sort of interesting places I will find them...

 

[baccismom]

Last year was Daisys' first Christmas. She really had a thing for the wooden ornaments. My tree was completley bare (except for the lights) on the bottom (about half way up where she could'nt reach- she was only 6 months old at the time.) It looked funny but at least I could have it up! I am wondering myself how she will be this year. She's a lot bigger and can reach higher - haha! Oh yeah - She only pulled it over once last year! The tree survived and I only lost a few ornaments. I think She ate about 6-7 of my wooden ones though. Gotta love em!

 

[Indy's mom]

Indy has simply never cared about the tree, except as a place to lay under when he was a pup. The next year he tried to crawl under a few times, but was too big to be comfortable.

Now our Rascal, that dog was a riot. When our boys were small they loved to string popcorn and hang it on the tree. Ras loved popcorn. He would try to casually walk by the tree and snag a piece, needless to say it was always part of a string. He would tug and pull until it came with him, then he would munch it down. But holy cats, would he look surprised when ornaments could come off with it. It was hilarious! Fortunately, I had growing boys who simply saw that as another opportunity to re-decorate a portion of the tree.

It was fun, but we've never had a problem teaching any of our boxers to leave the tree, ornaments or presents a lone. Popcorn is another story.

 

[kathysboxer]

I was sitting in my room last night thinking the same thing!! We will definately crate him when we aren't around. Ornaments, probably up high on the tree. Tyson will be 11 months, almost 1year by the time Christmas rolls around. Not sure about presents. I usually put them under pretty early on Christmas Eve. All the kids are older. From ages 17-22, so I'm lucky there. I will just keep an eagle eye on him. Can't wait though. First Christmas, yea!! What will Santa get him and stuff his stocking with? I'd better start now

 

[TwoDogs]

Get yourself an early Christmas present--an x-pen (exercise pen). They come in all different heights and accordian fold up so when company comes over you can just fold it up and whisk it out of sight. We used an x-pen around the tree the first christmas with our pup. It solved the problem perfectly. We had no emergency trip to the vet for intestinal blockage and I didn't have to have a tree that was "naked" on the lower half. The second christmas she didn't have any interest in the tree but my 3 year-old son still did, so we used the x-pen that year too.