Doodles and hardwood floors

[Lisa]

Does anyone know how to protect their hardwood floors from getting all scratched up? (And protect their dogs from slipping and sliding?)

[Bernie + Aimee]

we got henry back in july and at this point he has put tons of scratches in our hardwood floors ...we've just come to grips with the fact that eventually we'll just need to get new floors ... whenever he lays down he loves to reach out and i guess they call it "fluff" his bed up.... i dont know how he expects to fluff up a hardwood floor though .... i guess we should have looked into these threads before they already were scratched up beyond repair :)

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I've now decided these little scratches everywhere give my hardwood floors "character", and the Doods love sliding across the kitchen floor....kind of like skateboarding. They've really gotten good at it...never fall, just kind of run and glide.

[Donna K & Quincy]

Quincy has added lots of "character" to our hardwood floors, even the new floors we installed before christmas. The hardwood in the bedrooms is prefinished, the rest of the house we had to finish ourselves. The finish that we did does not scratch as easily as the prefinished stuff so our 10 year old hardwood has a lot less scratches than the new wood. Having said that I will take scratched hardwood over carpet any day.

[Natasha]

Rather than replace your scratched floors, find a quality person to refinish them. They bring in a really fine sander and then reseal them - much less expensive.

Our travertine floors are also getting a workout from Rouser's nails. We're currently looking for a refinisher. The Pergo floors still look fabulous (I almost ripped those out when I moved in!)

Oh, and I highly recommend trimming the fur out of their pads with regularity. It helps.

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

We are in the process of getting estimates to refinish our hardwood floors. Every refinisher I have spoken with recommends that we have a commercial grade finish applied. This will hold up better to dog's claws.