We moved into a new home two months ago. We have about 2,000 sq. ft. of Bruce Flooring 5" Liberty Plank. It is white oak and the finish is honey. We have a 70 pound dog and the finish on our floors already has thousands of scratches. We know dogs scratch wood floors. We've always had dogs and wood floors but this is way beyond what we've ever seen. I'm looking for advice beyond keeping our dogs nails trimmed. Is there a any type of sealer we could apply now before things get worse? The floor is supposed to have a 25 year surface and I can't stomach the thought of having it refinished already. Please help.

The Bruce Floor Care & Product Warranty Guide says to keep animal nails trimmed to minimize finish scratches. And under "Quick Fix Tips For Deep Scratches/Gouges" is says that individual planks,strips or parquets that are heavily gouged or damaged can be replaced or if needed, the entire floor can be refurbished by applying one or more coats of Bruce Fresh Finish or Fresh Finish Low Gloss.
I am looking into this now for a customer that would like to try the Bruce Fresh Finish for the dog scratches instead of refinishing.
She is going to ask a Bruce rep if this will void the warranty.

Buddy

Thanks Buddy. I would be interested to know what you find out. I wouldn't think Fresh Finish would void the warranty since it is a Bruce product.

Any thoughts on other things we could do to cover finish scratches we have and minimize future scratches?

At issue is the warranty. You can do a recoat but it would probably void your finish warranty from Bruce. Keep the dog's nails trimmed and smooth with an emory board OR walk him a lot on concrete sidewalks.

Trimming nails alone doesn't do it unfortunately. I did a search for a product called softpaws. They are vinyl caps that go over your dogs nails. They work really good. Also if your dog likes to scratch the door they will help there too. Or you can try duck tape around the nails. That kind of works but it is not as good as the softpaws. I originally tried it with green duck tape and the green skid marks came up with a cloth.

More outside time for the dogs. Keep them mellow when indoors. Throw rugs for them to walk. A lower sheen level finish hepls hide them.
I have two 90 pound dogs, one is a puppy and have very little problem.

I have a similar question. My new floor is Lauzon. Its birch and very pretty but the dog is scratching the floor despite trimming and filing the nails. What about Trex that I read about somewhere else on this site? is that something that I could put down on this floor to give a harder coat? Would the floor have to be screened to do this? If so, should I just wait until the first time that I am ready for a recoat?