Why are your pets potentially dangerous to your solid hardwood oak flooring? This is because they bring in two of the worst enemies of your floor: dust and water. As you know, you can never really keep your dogs and cats inside your home no matter if they are from domesticated breeds. Thus, they would always find themselves outside the home and into the dirty yard. The problem is once they step in, they will be leaving all those dust and dirt into your solid hardwood oak flooring, which will then create scratches into the smooth finishes.

On the other hand, animals are meant to be clumsy. If you aren't too careful, they can definitely spill their food and water into your solid hardwood oak flooring. This will leave stains into the flooring, which is definitely hard to remove.

Nevertheless, there's no need for you to favour one over the other. You can still be a caring pet owner and a conscious home owner, if you can just listen to these following tips on how to work with your solid hardwood oak flooring and your cats and dogs:

1. Remove the dust and dirt as often as possible. Just to ensure that the dust and dirt don't linger too long into the solid hardwood oak flooring, you need to remove them as much as possible. That's why you have to keep the broom and the dust pan very close to you. Make it a habit to spend at least 30 minutes to an hour to sweep the floor. If you're in a hurry, you can always make use of a vacuum cleaner.

2. Use a dog or cat bowl when feeding your pet. During mealtime, place a cat and dog bowl into the solid hardwood oak flooring, so your dogs and cats can eat comfortably and minimize the occurrence of spillage. In fact, it's ideal that you let them eat after you're done, so you can watch them over. If it's possible, too, you can feed them just outside your home and bring the empty bowl once your pet is done eating.

3. Clip their nails. Cats, for one, love to scratch on anything, even on your solid hardwood oak flooring. To avoid such accidents, make sure that you can clip their pointed nails. It's the same thing with your dogs. It's also important that their paws and feet are groomed at all times to remove any dust and grit that stuck in these places.

4. Schedule for them a time to go out. You will have better control of their movements on your solid hardwood oak flooring if you can schedule their playtime outside. This way, when you know that they're going to be back, you can already lay down a floor mat where they can clean their paws and feet before stepping on to the floor.

When you know how to train your pet, you will allow your solid hardwood oak flooring to be of great use for a very long time.