Christmas Tree - How do I make it a 'No Pee Zone'?

[ramanth]

Hey all!!

Long time no see! Been a busy couple of months. Dogs are steadily adjusting to life in the new place.

I've decided to get a real tree for my first Christmas in the new house. My question is for those of you that put up real trees, how do you keep the dogs from peeing on it?

Hope you all have been well!

[Karen]

Never had a problem with peeing, but we used to put the tree inside a playpen to protect it from Gracie's tail! As she was mostly Great Dane, and didn't really seem to know where her tail was, she could clear most of the ornaments from the tree with one happy moment!

[CountryWolf07]

Never had a problem with my dogs. We've always had a real tree until two years ago. Last night, Hank was laying under the tree, staring at the lights & one of the ornaments. Kept sniffing it and he was pretty curious about it. It was cute to watch. He'd look at it then look at me with, "What's that thing?", then he will go back to chewing on his bone.

[Freedom]

I've never had a problem with this, either.

Growing up, we had 3 dogs over time. We had -- and I have now in my home -- hardwood floors. So first mom put down a flat sheet, folded double. On top of that went the tree skirt. Once the tree was in the stand and the stand on th skirt, we put the water in it. Then mom covered the entire stand with tin foil; you want some sort of "lid" to reduce evaporation, so you don't have to add water as often.

If you use a preservative in the water, all the more reason to cover the stand -- you don't want the dogs lapping the water either.

On top of all THAT, Mom put a decorative piece of material.

I "inherited" the sheet, skirt, and decorative top cover, so I just used that when I had a live tree here.

As Karen mentioned, tails are an issue! We put plastic ornaments at the bottom, and the glass ones higher up. This is good for when friends arrive with small kids, too. Oh, remember, tails can catch on a strip of garland at the bottom of the tree and clear a LOT, maybe even pull the whole tree over, lol.

Hope this helps.

[ramanth]

I've had fake trees up in the past, so as far as ornaments went, we'd either put plastic ones on the bottom, or none at all (seeing as the cats liked to knock them off ).

Thanks for the tips on keeping water in the stand.

[k9krazee]

We've always had a real tree and have never had a problem with the dogs. Except for stealing candy canes

[ramanth]

We've always had a real tree and have never had a problem with the dogs. Except for stealing candy canes

LOL!!!

[Craftlady]

No trees with 6 cats and now 2 dogs in a small house.
Tree = disaster

So I put up a wreath on the wall and that's our tree

[Bonny]

I have a small fake mini tree I put up on the kitchen bar & if they can lift thier legs that high they will tip over.

[Taz_Zoee]

When my mom had her min pin she had to close off the front room from him. We put the couch and a chair along one area and a large chalk board from when we were kids across the doorway to the kitchen. He was small enough that he couldn't jump these obstacles.
We've not had a real tree with Taggart around. Although, my brother does. We shall see how that works out.
I'd say the play pen idea or closing off the room, if possible. But try it out first and see if they are even interested in using it as a potty. Of course keeping a close eye on them. LOL

[Twisterdog]

I just gave up. Between Zeke crunching all the glass ornaments he could reach, and he is five feet tall on his back legs, and Rocky and Iggy thinking I installed indoor plumbing for them ... the Christmas tree lasted three days last year before I took it down.

Not putting it up this year, just not worth the hassle. I could build a cage around the poor tree out of wire or baby gates ... but I figured that would effectively negate the beauty of the tree. So I got a 2 foot tall mini tree, and put it on the counter. It works.

[pomtzu]

I've had cats and/or dogs in my household for 40+ years, and never had a problem with them climbing in or peeing on the tree. I stopped using tinsel when one of my RB Meezers used to slurp it up like spaghetti, and still only put non breakable decorations toward the bottom part of the tree. If the kitties just can't resist playing with them and knocking them down, at least there is no harm done - to ornaments or kitties!

[cyber-sibes]

Never had a problem with the dogs peeing on the real tree when we had one, but the cats got into it. We've had an artificial one now for years, wasn't sure how Jack would do with it-- he takes a napkin off the coffee table every night & shreds it to bits, but he left the ornaments alone. Will be interesting to see what Miss Moo does.

[elisabeth]

We've always had a real tree and have never had a problem with the dogs. Except for stealing candy canes

That made me lol....

No peeing here (I have females, though). But Zoe (our 4 month pup) chewed off a couple of the bottom pieces of our fake tree. I didn't let her chew on them and she knows now the big green thing in the corner is not a chew toy. I did catch her giving it the eye this evening and a nice low "no no" did the trick.