10 Ways to Protect Your Pets From Holiday Hazards

Happy holidays, everyone. Times like this can be fun and exciting for everyone. But I'm joined by a few friends right now to keep all your family members safe this holiday season. Here are top 10 tips and tricks to keep your pets out of the yard this holiday season. No. 1, fake it till you make it. Having a fake tree has so many advantages. No. 1, the smell sometimes can irritate dog's lungs and particularly cats may eat these pine needles. And sometimes, these pine needles can actually get stuck in their nose or their trachea or can actually cause a lot of irritation to their stomach.

No. 2, you want to prevent pouncing. Right around the tree is no time to play. This is not a play station. So secure your tree. Make sure that it doesn't rock too much. And make sure your pets don't play around the tree. No. 3 is take cover. That's right. You want to use a Velcro skirt like this or a skirt at the bottom of a tree to protect that water. Because the water can contain fertilizers, harmful bacteria. And if your pets drink that tree water, it can cause diarrhea and vomiting. So always protect the water at the bottom of the Christmas tree.

No. 4 tinsel toes. As you can tell, there's no tinsel here. Cats and particularly birds love tinsel. And it can actually cause what's called a string foreign body or a linear foreign body, which could land your pet in the ER. So No. 4, avoid the tinsel. And if you have to, keep any of the sparkly things really far away from the inquiring eyes.

No. 5, active duty. You want to keep your pets active during this holiday season. That means providing toys or rawhide chews or anything that's going to help them stay busy because the busier they are, the less they'll get into trouble. No. 6 walking on, walking on broken glass. Take all glass and keep it at least 3 feet above the floor to avoid those prying and inquiring eyes. Shards of glass can be particularly dangerous to the paws. It can be dangerous to the oral cavity because once this glass breaks, it can cause a visit to the emergency room.

No. 7, home alone. You never want to leave your pet home alone near the Christmas tree. I mean, they're like basically little toddlers. And they're going to want to find out what this Christmas tree is about. And all these things are incredibly interesting. So No. 7, never leave your pet home alone near the Christmas tree.

No. 8, sitting on the fence. You want to create a fence or barrier to prevent even the small dogs and even some of the large athletic breeds from actually getting to your Christmas tree. And they come in all shapes and sizes, Plexiglas or even metal ones like these, because you want to create a barrier so that you can prevent these dogs from coming in so they look and don't touch.

No. 9, be a maverick and go treeless. Consider going treeless. Look at this beautiful decorative display here. You've got everything here. You've got festive plants, festive decorations. You can even create your own tradition with decorative cards or plants or even a tree, like a tiny fern tree. But the rules are up to you because you can make it your own. So No. 9 is consider going treeless. No. 10, watch out for the toxic plants. Poinsettias, lilies, even mistletoe can all be very toxic. We've got my friend Tortuga here to remind us that we want to keep all our species different family members safe this holiday season from toxic plants.