Home Improvements to Make Your Home More Safe and Accessible for a Disabled Pet

 

If you are like most people, your pet is a part of your family. As a result, you want your furry loved one to be safe and comfortable in your home. If your companion animal suffers from a disability of some type, there are some home improvement steps you will want to consider taking to make your residence more comfortable for your furry family member.

Non-Slip Flooring

No matter the disability afflicting your pet, you will want to make sure that you have non-slip flooring in your residence. This is a recommended improvement whether your pet has difficulties walking, hearing, or seeing. A non-slip floor ensures that your pet will have greater stability and be safer when making his or her way through your home.

Ramps

On a similar note, consider placing ramps at locations in your home that feature steps. Installing ramps is necessary for pets with walking issues. However, they can also be helpful for pets that have vision problems as well. Vision-impaired companion animals have tough times maneuvering steps in many instances.

Recessed Beds and Litter Boxes

Pets with walking issues, as well as visually impaired furry family members, can also benefit through the installation of recessed beds and litter boxes. Taking these steps may require some type of modification to a residence to make recessing these items possible.

Indoor "Poop" Area

In a bygone era, the typical residence came complete with a mudroom, a space in which messy shoes and the like were removed before entering the main part of a residence. If you have a handicapped pet like a dog, he or she may have problems at times making it outside in time to do his or her business.

A step you can take to make your residence friendlier to a handicapped pat is to establish a small "poop" room in your home. This can be a space that your companion animal knows he or she can retreat to when nature calls and your pet is not able to make it outside fast enough.

Gates

An important design change you will want to make to your home if you have a disabled pet is the installation of safety gates as needed in your residence. For example, if you have a disabled pet, you likely will want to block off access to stairways. There are specially designed gates that can be placed in locations such as to a stairway that is geared for controlling and protecting pets.

Gates are another alteration that benefits pets with an array of different types of disabilities. These disabilities include an inability to walk "normally" as well as those associated with vision or even hearing.

Install Padding

If you have a vision impaired pet, you will want to consider the installation of some type of padding around areas in your home like fireplace hearths of the edges of furniture. There are also pets with difficulty walking that benefit from this level of added protection as well.

Establish a Home Base

Another home improvement project you will want to consider is establishing a home base for your disabled pet. You can create a dedicated space for your furry family member in which you can place his or bed as well as food and water bowls. This can be a space in which your pet feels comfortable, safe and secure.

A pet that knows he or she has a dedicated home base will feel more comfortable and confident in your home. This will represent a space to which your pet can retreat anytime he or she fees even vaguely concerned or threatened by something.

Video Monitoring System

Odds are you will be away from home a good amount of time many days of the week. As a result, you will not be immediately available to monitor your pet. With that said, another home improvement you can pursue is the installation of a video monitoring system.

In this day and age, there are video monitoring systems designed specifically to permit you the ability to monitor your pets via a mobile device like a smartphone or notebook. Not only does this type of setup give you a means of checking in on your pet to make sure all is well when you are away, but it also contributes to your own peace of mind when you're not at home.

As a final note, there are specialists that provide child-proofing services for a home. If you are finding yourself with questions about what you should do to improve your home to provide safety and comfort for a disabled pet, you can contact one of these professionals for assistance.

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Jessica Kane is a writer for Handicapped Pets, your most trusted source for dog wheelchairs and harnesses.