I recently adopted a new dog. She is a hound dog and is about a year and a half. Fortunately she is finished with most of her puppy behaviors but that doesn’t mean they are all gone!
One thing I’ve been trying to teach her is not to get on the furniture. I made several dog beds so she has somewhere comfy to lay but still, she gets on the couch.
Really the only reason I object to her being on the couch is for the comfort of guests in my home. I don’t want the couch to smell like a dog and I don’t want my guests to be covered in dog hair when they sit on my couch.
As you can see from the picture, we are not having much luck! I went online to search for answers to this problems. Most trainers say to train them from the time they are puppies not to get on furniture because it’s easier than retraining. Well, that’s not really an option with a rescue dog.
So instead I am trying to modify her behavior, after all, a wet muddy dog is not what I want on my furniture. I’m using positive reinforcement instead of yelling or punishing. So far, still not a lot of luck.
One thing that was suggested is to keep them from the room until they learn and when you are not home use a plastic carpet runner with the spiky side up so the couch isn’t comfortable for the dog.
I’m not sure if I’m willing to go to those lengths. I will be looking for a good pet vacuum and making sure I brush Dixie regularly. The vet said a pet rake is better than a brush for removing the most hair. The more hair I remove outside the less there will be to get on the furniture.
I’ve also bought several heavy duty pet hair rollers so I can give the furniture a good going over before anyone comes to visit. Hopefully I can train Dixie to stay off the furniture, until then it’s all about damage control.