Does anyone here have hard wood floors?
I just bought a house with hard wood flooring (of a very durable exotic wood) and am a bit worried about scratching and noise.

I have a 100lbs Giant Schnauzer and for those of you not familliar with the breed they have cat-feet (not like the german shepherd's 'hare' feet) and like Dobies they walk on their nails. They also tend to 'prance' like a horse and often sound like it too! My friends Alaskan Malamute (120lbs) is almost inaudible on hard ground but you can sure as hell hear my Giant coming in the night. Will this 'stomping' on the wood floors drive me (and the people living downstairs) beserk?

Yes, I KNOW I should have thought about this before buying the house but the previous owners had a GSD with no problems and besides I figured I could always add carpeting. It would be a shame though, with such gorgeous flooring to have to cover it all up.

About the scratching, someone told me to add 5 layers of protective varnish before we move in to sheild the floor from the dogs nails. Is this a good idea?

Cutting the dogs nails shorter is not an option as they are VERY short (they don't touch the floor when he's just standing) and he still walks on them (its in the breed structure).

Borzoi people are lucky... they float around like ballerinas!

Any experiences and advice is warmly welcomed.

I have oak floors. The gold standard for a polyurethane floor finish is a product called Fabulon. It has a very high solids content and is very durable.

I used it and the dogs don't scratch it nor do high heels dent it.

how about those little rubber nail covers-never used them but they might do the trick

I have VERY old hardwood floors with large cracks and such which makes it hard to clean puppy poo. We have had 100 lbs GSDs and 80 lbs. GSD in our home. One had extremely loooong nails. It took me 3 months before she trusted me to cut them. It turned out that she did not scratch the floors at all. Hardwood floors are nice, tough and clean. Yet no matter what, in about 5 to 10 years, you will have to do something to shape up the floor. If there is a deep scratch, you must sand it and reapply the varnish and polyurathane.

Laminate Floors is what I would look into. That goes out to all dog people that like the look of a hard wood floors. It looks just as good, durable, etc and it doesn't scatch. So if you ever are buying a new home or are in for some upgrades, check it out.

I think this type of flooring is ideal for shedding dogs also, because you can sweep the hair rather than always having to vaccum it up. It's cleaner, or easier to keep clean to me.

we have both hardwood floors and a dobie ( plus puppies ) I have to say the prancing sound of the dobie did at first drive us nuts but its not as bad as you might think. we havent had any problems with the floors getting dug up or scratched much more than normal wear and tear. The biggest advantage to hardwood easy cleanup from poop, pee, throw up, food and slobber. i dont think there is too much concern with toxicity from the floor but you might want to keep an eye on any places where the finish may be peeling.

No dog should walk on its nails, regardless of the breed. I had a Golden Retriever with cat-feet on hardwood floors and his nails never touched the ground. Clip those nails shorter!
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Jackie

I didn't mean that ALL "cat-pawed" dogs walk on their nails. It also has to do with the rest of the dogs shape and angulation. Golden's don't walk on their nails (unless they are very long). All proper Dobies and Giants should walk on their nails though, no matter how short they are and believe me my dogs nails are short. When he stands they are WAY off the floor. To tell you the truth, I don't know if its possible to shorten them more, although like I said before, it wouldn't help.

We have hickory hardwood flooring in part of our home and two GSDs. We hear a soft "click-click" when they walk on it, but it is not bothersome. We have had the floor scratched <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> but not by our dogs! It usually takes a rougher pounding than a dog simply walking or trotting across to scratch -- especially if you do have a good finish on the floor.

Be careful of laminate floors if you do eventually decide to go that route. Many laminate wood floors DO scratch -- and much more easily than real hardwood! It is MUCH easier to fix a scratch in real hardwood than in laminate. And real hardwood is much more durable overall and lasts much longer. The price is usually about the same, too.

Best of luck! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />