Balcony safety - little dogs

[Delisay]

I your experience, how smart are puppies and small dogs about heights??

If I go ahead and get a small breed puppy, it will be the first dog that I've kept in an apartment*. I'm four floors up and the balcony railings are 4.5" apart. There are potplants all around, but they may not help because of the gaps, and because they could equally be considered "cool things to climb on".

So how safe is this? Will their intsincts reliably prevent a fall...?

Thanks,
Delisay

(*Previously I had a big garden and a 'giant chicken' disguised as a GSD who would not walk across a 6m wide boadwalk if she could see the itty bitty gaps :yikes: ... )

 

[nancy2394]

I would be very leary of putting the pup on your balcony unsupervised. You'd be amazed at what pups and dogs for that matter, can get into. I'd be afraid of the pup getting it's body caught between the gaps or falling 4 floors down.

Others might be able to tell you something else as far as a dog realizing heights. But I can tell you that my pup didn't have a clue. She has mis judged distances and depths many times.

Even if dogs can perceive depths and distances well.... they still have the curiosity factor in them. And if your pup sees something that it wants on the other side of those gaps... I think she'll try and get it and not think about how safe or unsafe it may be to do so.

So, again... I would not leave your pup unattended on a balcony porch... it would be unsafe in my opinion. And be careful with plants... a lot of them are toxic to animals and pups love to tear into plants and eat them and dig in them.

 

[Ashlea]

I would try and secure the balcony with some plastic chicken wire and NEVER leave the pup unattended.

 

[bubbatd]

Agree !!! When breeding , I used to try to have pups learn about " drops " when on grooming table .....they never seemed to get the perceptive of height .

 

[Whisper]

I would try and secure the balcony with some plastic chicken wire and NEVER leave the pup unattended.

This was my thought, too.