Weimaraner Addict

I dont' have a dog yet, just reading & posting on here to learn as much in advance. My house has hardwood floors on the 1st floor dining/living room area. At the risk of sounding silly, I'm rather particular about the floors being clean & looking nice. Will a full grown Weim destroy the finish of the floor with his nails? Even if I keep the nails short, will the floors be scratched up?

YES, mine have destroyed 2 floors in 2 houses. Either by their nails digging when they zoomied or dropping those huge bleached bones creating divots in the hardwood. I have rugs everywhere now.

Especially if you don't keep their nails short and if the floor wood is soft.

Unless you have some special engineered synthetic wood flooring system that was designed in a secret government lab to be indestructible, yes.

It does depend on the finish. Factory finish is a little harder. But your floors will have character.
I think that it is a good trade off. When I wanted to get Zoie my husband said that he wasn't going to have the hardwood put in the kitchen. I wanted the floor BUT I wanted her more. After a year he went ahead and had the floor installed, it is scratched up some. It really depends on the light, she hasn't put in furrows. When you look down you really don't see them. When you are at floor level and the sunlight is on them, you can see the scratches.
For us it is a good trade off.

Dang. I guess I already knew the answer to the question before I posted, but thanks for the verification. My house is only 2 yrs old and I paid alot of money to upgrade the floors to real oak planks and a gorgeous finish. I guess I could get more rugs to put down, but that really kills the point of having the nice floors...

They will definitely destroy the hardwoods. My sister installed 'hand-scraped' hard wood, you can't see any scratches.

If you keep the nails short with a Dremel, this will prevent a lot of damage to the hardwood floors. I had 4 Weims (with short Dremeled nails) living in a house with honey colored Oak hardwood floors and the only damage that was noticeable were little dents from when my company brought over the large knuckle bones for their dogs and mine. Luckily those floors were over 50 years old and just added more character

I have hardwood floors, was going to have them refinished before Champ came into my life. Havent gotten them done yet, when I do, they will have lots of
character.

We have the original hardwoods in our house-like 1950's original, and she hasn't scratched these yet..but there are plenty of dents and character on them. I think either way dog or human there will end up being dents and scratches on them-luckily for the scratches they make a product that fills them and makes them no visible... so go for the dog !! once you have him you wont care about a scratch or two

JanelleAmberCharlie wrote:We have the original hardwoods in our house-like 1950's original, and she hasn't scratched these yet..but there are plenty of dents and character on them. I think either way dog or human there will end up being dents and scratches on them-luckily for the scratches they make a product that fills them and makes them no visible... so go for the dog !! once you have him you wont care about a scratch or two

we don't wear shoes in the house and my floors still look like brand new. The rest of the house I'm not super concerned about getting damaged by a dog, I don't have real expensive furniture or anything.

My buddy has a Visla and he said he keeps the nails short and rugs down in most areas is a big help. He also has an older home with original hardwood floors. The thing is, we're rarely on the 1st floor, except when we're eating, otherwise we're upstairs. I'm sure the dog would be wherever we are...

hmm since it is only the 1st floor and where you eat, it will be a good way to train the pup that it needs to stay on a rug while you eat. then he will still be able to be with you while you are home

Yes. Our hardwood floors are in bad shape thanks to dogs, kids, winter sand and grit and dropping things. Not necessarily in that order.

We won't be getting them refinished anytime soon either.

I have a 70+ year old home with original hardwoods in most of the rooms, newer hardwood in the kitchen. IMO, the wear and tear on the floors (from a total of 3 weims over the years) has not been all that bad and certainly no worse than the wear and tear from children. Keeping the nails reasonably short helps. The dents from the giant bones and antlers are the worst, but still not that obvious and no worse than dents from other stuff that hits the floor. You do have to refinish occasionally and rugs make a difference in the noise level also. I think the hardwoods hold up better than carpets with dogs and are much easier to clean. The funniest part is the dogs rounding corners at high speeds and sliding across the floor. Jimmy has learned how to kind of tiptoe across the floor after they've been cleaned and are especillay slippery.

atlweim wrote:Keeping the nails reasonably short helps. I think the hardwoods hold up better than carpets with dogs and are much easier to clean. The funniest part is the dogs rounding corners at high speeds and sliding across the floor. Jimmy has learned how to kind of tiptoe across the floor after they've been cleaned and are especillay slippery.

Excellent post, thank you!

Somebody on the board a few months back posted a link to little nail covers that were plastic so you can but them over the nail(like fake fingernails). They had pretty colors to. Maybe somebody has the link or I will try to search and find it to give you another alternative when the time comes and you get a dog.