Dogs are very curious. They love to sniff, explore, chew, and eat or lick things that seem tasty or smell good — including items that might be dangerous for them to be around. That’s why it’s best to keep all products with potentially toxic ingredients (or components that could harm your dog) away from your pet. Below are some common household hazards and suggestions on how to keep your pet from getting too close to them.
Cleaning Products
Many household cleaning products, such as floor and countertop spays and toilet bowl cleaners, contain toxic ingredients. If your dog is exposed to these ingredients, like chlorine bleach or formaldehyde, they may become sick. Even just ingesting the fumes can pose a danger.
When using cleaning products, be aware of proper ventilation and keep your dog out of the area until everything is dry. Flush the toilet bowl cleaner down the toilet and put the lid down. Make sure all caps and lids are on tight and store cleaning products, including the buckets you use and rags or sponges soaked with cleaning fluids.
Put any liquid and tablet detergents, as well as polishes, out of your dog’s reach in places such as a dog-proof cabinet or closet. You might also try making your own dog-safe cleaning products or try pet-safe household stain removers or cleaners.
Chlorine Bleach
Bleach is an ingredient in cleaning products for your house and in swimming pools. Ingesting undiluted chlorine bleach can cause stomach upset, vomiting, diarrhea, eye irritation, ulcers, and severe burns to your dog. Since the toxicity for your dog depends on the concentration, diluting any product that includes bleach with water can reduce the product’s danger, but it won’t eliminate the danger. So it’s best to keep your dog away from any bleach-based product or liquid.
Keep any products containing bleach out of reach of your dog. Wash out and remove buckets or other containers that held bleach. Don’t allow your dog to swim in a pool that was recently treated with chlorine.
Food and Garbage
It’s always a good idea to keep your dog away from foods that are toxic to them. But access to an indoor or outdoor garbage can, recycling, or compost bin can be hazardous to dogs, especially when the container contains moldy or rotten food or animal bones. You’ll especially want to keep your dog away from alcohol, broken glass, raw meat, eggshells, straws, plastic cutlery, peels and rinds, coffee filters and grinds, and any products containing the artificial sweetener xylitol.
Get a garbage bin your dog can’t get into, or use child safety locks. You can also block garbage bins with a gate or put them behind a closed door. If your dog is a particularly curious explorer, you may need to keep them safe in a crate or puppy pen when you can’t supervise them closely.
Medications
Prescription and nonprescription canine and human medications can be harmful to dogs if ingested. Keep all medicine bottles — including pain relievers, cough, flu, and cold medicines, sleeping and diet pills, liquid medicines, and vitamins and supplements — closed tightly and in a place your dog cannot access. Make sure all pill boxes are out of reach, too, and don’t leave loose pills on your nightstand or kitchen table.
Tools
If your dog steps on household tools or chews them, they could experience choking, broken teeth, injury, or lacerations. Tools, especially small ones, are best left in a secure toolbox in the garage or shed. Items to keep out of your dog’s reach include hammers, nails, staples, screws, bolts, wires and cords, tacks, paint, poisons and pesticides, batteries, razors, scissors, and scrapers.
Electric Cords
Hanging electric cords are an attraction to dogs who like to chew (in other words, almost all dogs, especially puppies). When an electric cord is plugged into a live outlet and those sharp teeth chew through the outer covering, the live cord can severely burn your dog’s mouth. It can also deliver a shock strong enough to cause heart and lung damage. Dangling cords also wrap around dogs’ necks and can choke them.
Protect young dogs by crating them when you can’t keep an eye on them. Unplug cords and move them out of your dog’s reach when they’re not in use. Regularly inspect electric cords and replace any that are damaged. And give your dog safe treats and chew toys that satisfy their chewing urge.
Batteries
Alkaline batteries contain dangerous ingredients like sodium or potassium hydroxide. When a dog punctures or swallows a battery, acidic material can severely scald the dog’s mouth and cause other tissue damage. Dogs are most likely to chew or swallow alkaline dry cell batteries or small batteries like those in watches, toys, or small electronic devices. Both types can cause obstruction to the esophagus or trachea.
Symptoms of alkaline toxicity include difficulty swallowing, abnormal salivation, noisy breathing if there’s an obstruction, pain in the mouth, throat, or abdomen, vomiting, and lethargy. Immediately call your veterinarian or the Pet Poison Helpline for advice. Keep all batteries, as well as battery-operated appliances and toys, out of your dog’s reach.
Laundry
Yes, even laundry can be hazardous to your dog. Chewing or ingesting items such as socks, underwear, shoelaces, and hosiery can cause choking and/or internal blockages. Put any dirty laundry in hampers that your dog can’t access, and put away clean laundry once you have finished folding it.
Curious dogs might also try to consume dryer sheets, detergents in liquid, tablet, or powder form, laundry bleach, or small accessories like scarves and buttons. So, keep these items out of reach, throw away used dryer sheets in dog-proof trash cans, and make sure to close the doors to your washer and dryer.
Mothballs
Mothballs are very harmful to dogs. According to the American College of Veterinary Pharmacists, mothballs contain paradichlorobenzene or naphthalene. Naphthalene is the more toxic of the two chemicals. Consumed in low doses, it can cause an upset stomach. In high doses, it can cause liver or kidney failure, anemia, and seizures, and it may cause your dog to lose their balance. Both chemicals may cause diarrhea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and anemia.
If you have a dog, the safest choice is to use other methods to repel moths. It’s a good idea to regularly clean the area where you store your clothes. Put away your clothes in garment bags, cedar chests, or closets. Some herbs may help repel moths, but make sure any herbs you use are dog-safe (and that your dog can’t reach them, just in case).
Insecticides
Insecticides, also known as pesticides, are used in the house to kill insects, in the garage to kill mice, and in the yard to kill weeds. Dogs can suffer from tremors, seizures, convulsions, or difficulty breathing if they chew or ingest insecticides, breathe in the toxins, or get the chemicals on their coats or skin. To complicate the issue, many of these insecticide baits contain ingredients that attract dogs.
The National Pesticide Information Center recommends using insecticides that are less toxic around pets and protecting your dogs from exposure. If your home is being treated, keep your dog (and any items they use regularly) out of the house for either as long as the pesticide label recommends or for as long as it takes for the chemical to dry (whichever period is longest). Make sure to maintain good ventilation, as well. In the yard, use insecticides only in areas inaccessible to your dog.
Rat Poison
Poisons used to kill rats are also toxic to dogs. Dogs may gain access by eating the bait or biting a poisoned rodent. Some poisons contain anticoagulants that will interfere with blood clotting, and other types contain cholecalciferol, which produces excessive amounts of calcium in the blood. Ingestion, depending on the type and amount of poison and the number of exposures, can cause hyperactivity, muscle tremors, depression, loss of appetite, increased urination and thirst, seizures, and sometimes even death.
Always keep rat baits and poisons out of your dog’s reach, even when you are just storing these items. When you walk by a place that might be using rat poison, keep your dog on a leash and be aware of anything on the ground that your dog stops to examine.
Fertilizer
Dogs are attracted to fertilizers because many of them have ingredients such as corn and bone or fish meal. Your dog might ingest fertilizer by ripping open the bag or by eating grass from a recently fertilized lawn. Most fertilizer ingestions cause mild GI upset and are not a huge concern, but some fertilizers contain herbicides that have been linked with canine lymphoma.
Keep bags of fertilizer locked up in the garage, and never leave them out in the yard. If you do fertilize your lawn or garden, keep your pet away for the time recommended on the bag. And beware of those little caution signs in your neighbors’ yards that say their lawns have been treated. Don’t let your dog stop to smell the roses or taste their grass.
Slug Pellets
Sprinkled in gardens, slug pellets contain poisons (like iron phosphate) that kill slugs. Some pellets incorporate human foods like peanut butter or molasses to make them attractive. When dogs gobble up what they think might be little treats, they can suffer from muscle tremors, hyperthermia, seizures, and possibly death. Keep slug bait out of reach of dogs. Explore other options, such as copper barriers and strips, to get rid of slugs.
Antifreeze
Most types of antifreeze include ethylene glycol, which has a sweet taste. The same ingredient is found in smaller amounts in motor oils, windshield deicers, brake fluid, paints, wood stains, and some printer cartridges, but it’s very dangerous. Your dog would only have to eat a very small amount of antifreeze for the amount ingested to prove fatal. Symptoms of antifreeze poisoning include drinking lots of water, urinating large amounts, vomiting, seizures, and eventually kidney failure.
Keep antifreeze in a sealed container, take used antifreeze to a service station, and consider using nontoxic products instead. Check for antifreeze puddles in your driveway and keep your dog away from any drips. If you think your dog has lapped up any amount of antifreeze, call your veterinarian or the Pet Poison Helpline immediately.
Nicotine Cigarettes
Cigarettes have multiple chemicals that are dangerous to dogs. Nicotine is fast-acting. Whether your dog scarfs up a single cigarette butt on a walk or a pack on someone’s coffee table, the impact can be serious. E-cigarettes, nicotine gum, and nicotine patches are dangerous for your dog. Marijuana is also poisonous for dogs.
In dogs, nicotine poisoning can cause rapid heartrate, seizures, low blood pressure, severe vomiting, and in extreme cases, respiratory failure and death. Never leave nicotine products where your dog can reach them.
Tobacco Smoke
Secondhand and thirdhand smoke can also affect dogs, whether they inhale it, smoke gets on their skin, or they lick the residue off a surface. Dog noses serve as air filters, so dogs with long noses who are exposed to tobacco smoke may have a higher risk of developing nose cancer, and dogs with short or medium noses that don’t filter out smoke’s fine particles are more at risk for lung cancer. If you smoke and you have a dog, it’s a good idea to only do so outside of your house.
Miscellaneous
There are many other household items that can be hazardous to dogs. I once watched my puppy snapping at a fly on the window, and the next thing I knew, the cord to the blinds was wrapped around his neck. They include children’s toys (such as doll shoes or beads), scented candles, lighters or matches, cosmetics, hair dyes, jewelry, and certain types of plants. It’s a good idea keep any potentially dangerous items out of your dog’s reach.
Additional Safety Tips
Preventing your dogs from getting into any of these household hazards could save their life. If you haven’t already, teach them the “leave it!” command, which can keep them safe if you notice them going off to investigate something dangerous. Be sure all dangerous items are securely out of reach before you leave the house. Crate your dog if necessary, especially if they tend to countersurf or open doors.
If your dog has consumed one of these products or becomes injured by any of them, seek veterinary attention right away.