Leaving your dog at home while you’re working at the office for eight hours, or even just shopping at the grocery store for two hours, can be incredibly stressful as a furparent. Even when a house is pup-proofed, there are infinite ways that your dog can manage to find trouble. Your mind races with “what-ifs” and you find yourself constantly distracted instead of getting work done. 

Younger dogs that are filled with energy are constantly seeking stimulation, and have a tendency to go scavenging for fun things to play with and eat. So how can a parent protect their furbaby while they’re away? One of the first steps is being aware of and preventing common accidents that younger pups experience while home alone. 

We spoke to Dr. Hannah Curtis, who provides at-home general wellness veterinary care in North Orange County, California. 

“I am a mobile, house-call veterinarian, so I get to travel to homes to visit dogs in their own environment. The majority of emergency calls I get about dogs left home alone are calls for dogs eating something they shouldn't have and for dogs that have experienced an injury.”

Here’s Dr. Hannah’s list of the top five items dogs ingest while home alone:

What You Can Do To Protect Your Pup

You may be asking yourself, what can I do to protect my young pup while I’m away? You can start by pup-proofing their living space. If your dog is free-range, rather than in a kennel, then it’s important to remove any potentially dangerous and ingestible objects from their reach. Removing a trash can or laundry hamper from the room can prevent a curious pup from digging in. By using baby gates, you can also section off a safe space for them to live in while you’re away.

Dr. Hannah explained that being able to periodically check in with your dog via a camera at home could help avoid further intoxication, injury and suffering. Dr. Hannah uses her Furbo Dog Camera to help monitor her pups while she’s working:

“Checking in on our 3 dogs at home while we are working long days has been so important to us. When I get to see the dogs sleeping, barking at the garbage truck or watching TV it automatically makes me feel less stressed. It is comforting to know that they are home safe when I'm caring for other family's pets. “ 

How Furbo Can Help

In addition to being able to watch live video, talk to your pup, and toss treats, Furbo provides Barking Alerts which notify you when your furbaby may be getting in trouble. 

These two labs managed to find their dad’s underwear, and proceeded to play tug-of-war with it! Luckily, the Furbo Dog Camera alerted their furparents with a Dog Activity Alert, and they were able to prevent them from ingesting the dirty laundry.

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The Furbo Dog Nanny is a premium dog-monitoring service that helps look after your dog and keep them safe at home. With Smart Alerts and Cloud Recording Videos you can know exactly what’s going on at home and be alerted of emergencies in real time, and play back important moments you may have missed.