How Can I Keep My Dog Off The Couch?
This is a message I received from one of the Dog Training Blog readers.
I have a Golden and a Rottie and lately they figured out how comfortable our couches are. They know that they are not allowed on the furniture. As soon as they hear the door or the garage opening they jump down and pretend nothing happened. Of course I see the hair and paw prints all over the couches. When I start brushing it off both of them go hiding. I know they always say that dogs have a 2 minute memory but I truly believe they know exactly what they did and have a guilty conscience 
So how do I get them to stop getting on the couches when we are not home? I can never catch them in the act so I am not sure how to approach this. Any help you can give would be appreciated.
Thanks
M.
This can be a tough one because your dogs are doing this when you are gone. Of course one easy way to accomplish this task would be to crate your dogs while you are gone. If your dogs are not used to crates it will take some time to acclimate them. I tell my clients that crate training is the greatest gift you can give your dogs, but that is another article for the future.
One thing you can do is place a bunch of plastic coat hangers on the coach or chairs. The hangers make it uncomfortable to lay on the furniture so the dogs go somewhere else. Of course there is the possibility that your dogs might just knock the coat hangers off and then get comfortable.
I actually have clients that will lay a couple of folding chairs on the couch as well, anything to block or make the couch uncomfortable.
A similar idea is to use what we call a scat mat. It is a peice of plastic sheet usually either 12 x 60 inches or 24 x 48 inches that you place on the furniture. The mat is powered by a battery. When the dog touches the mat it gets a static type shock. This is usually a sure fire fix. You can usually find a scat mat at PetSmart or other big box pet stores.
What technique do you use to keep your dog off the furniture? Please share you success stories with us by using the comment box below.
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Until next time…………………………..
