Timber Frame safety and protection question

[wkheathjr]

This came to mind and I was just wondering what do you guys who are already living in timber frame house do about the safety of babies and the protection of posts from young kids and puppies??  I mean how do you keep a kid from possible tripping and hit the corner of post?  And what of keeping puppies from getting bored with their toys (or ate them up and no toy to play with) and they decide to chew the post??  Do you use some kind of plastic protection or what??

Just curious what you guys have come up with!

[Raphael]

I'd suppose the same way you keep them from tripping into any other exposed corner.
My mother's solution was to make us go play outside.

I find that dogs don't like to chew sideways so much and would rather go for shoes.
Cats haven't paid attention to the posts yet either.

[beenthere]

I think babies move slow so when they hit something that doesn't move, they just get an education.
Put padding on everything, and then they get don't that education until when they can move fast (but this time the edumacation draws blood).

Don't have puppies, but I believe they can be taught to not do things. 

[bigshow]

I have a 7 mo old, and two sweet, sweet dogs.  I am not concerned in the least.  I am looking forward to all three of them running amok in the house. 

[witterbound]

Our puppy chews up everything in the house, but he hasn't yet started chewing on the house itself, unless you count carpet as part of the house.  Now I did catch a different pup raising his leg to pee on a post one day . . ..

[GaryinMississippi]

It's cheaper than Land's End

[wkheathjr]

Of course, it takes some good common sense to do a prevention, but sometime some things are beyond your control.  I don't suppose anyone in here had a Jack Russell Terrier?  They can chew just about anything fast and they will even chew woods..  they enjoy the challenge and you would be surprised what they are capable of.  I have had to buy some so-called indestructible toys for the JRT but they still get destroyed  :-\

[Piston]

I'm convinced that the so-called "indestructable toys" are nothing more than a gimick, but for pups one of the most important things to do is have twice as many toys around as they can possibly play with, and anytime you see them playing with something other than a toy, correct them (and I don't mean mean booting them across the head) and trade them for one of they're toys and praise them for chewing they're own toy.

As far as the sharp corners, It could help to router off the post corners and give them some profile, although that may or may not be an option for you since your house is already built, but it would 'soften' up the edges. 

But then again.....I don't live in a timberframe house yet so take this with a grain of salt.  ;D

[Thomas-in-Kentucky]

We also thought we'd want all of our posts chamfered, but we went ahead and moved in with square posts.  Turns out the final sanding puts about a 1/16th broken edge on all the posts and they're not so sharp that hitting the corners with your head :-\  hurts much more than hitting the flats with your head.   :D