Many people believe that they can't have a dog in the house if they have hardwood floors. After all, the hair, dust and nail scratches can be damaging. The truth is, you can enjoy your hardwood floors without sacrificing your fluffy friends. Here are a few tips to help you protect your hardwood floors from damage and treat any marks that have already been left behind.

Tips for Protecting Your Floors

• Covering Spaces – Runners, throw rugs and other types of coverings are great for the high-traffic spaces that your dog frequents. Place some mats in front of the doors to catch dirt and other debris from your dog's paws, and consider putting some pads under each rug for added padding and to protect the floor from other scratches.

• Grooming – Since covering the entire hardwood floor in throw rugs will completely defeat the purpose of investing in those wood floors to begin with, you'll want to make sure your dog won't damage the exposed spaces. Consider scheduling a routine appointment with a groomer who can trim your dog's nails to keep them from scratching the floor.
  
  You may even be able to have the tips of the nails covered in nail cushions, which are soft enough to keep them from scratching the floors. You'll also want to trim the fur between the pads of your pup's paws. This keeps your dog from slipping on the floor, which can lead to scratches and scuffs.

Repairing Damage

• Small Scratches – Small surface scratches on your hardwood floor can easily be repaired using a wood stain marker. You can buy them from most home improvement stores and hardwood flooring retailers. If the scratches are too deep, though, you'll need to treat them with a small amount of wood filler. If you have to do this, let the filler dry and then sand the surface to a smooth finish. Once it's been sanded, you can apply fresh stain to match the rest of the floor.

• Large Scratches – If the scratches are covering a lot of the surface area of the floor, it's probably in your best interest to sand the whole floor down. If you're going to do this, invest in a large sander or talk with a hardwood flooring specialist about doing the work professionally. If you do it yourself, be prepared to stain the floors again once you've sanded the whole surface. Then, you can apply a polyurethane coating to seal the wood when the stain is dry.

For more tips, you should talk with a specialist like The Floor Club.