# Keeping the dog off the couch when we're not home



## jonathanw84 (Jul 30, 2009)

Hello,

Our boy Oscar does not know enough to stay off the couch when we are at work. We do not allow him on the couch when we're home, but when we're away it's a different story (and he hears us coming in so he's able to hop off and go back to his crate just in time for us to walk in the door). We have a chocolate brown micro fiber couch and he is a Pomeranian / Chihuahua mix, so he sheds a lot and his hair is extremely apparent. Any suggestions on how to handle this because it's driving me NUTS :frusty:

Thanks!


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## amavanna (Nov 20, 2010)

well its not really fair to say he has free game to the couch while your at home but he can't do it while u are not home, he just won't understand that. If u don't want him up there close his crate or teach him no couch ever


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## jonathanw84 (Jul 30, 2009)

Hi Amavanna,

Thanks for the reply. We don't let him on the couch when we are home (he knows he's not allowed). The problem is that when we leave, that's the first place he goes.


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## amavanna (Nov 20, 2010)

ok gotcha that makes much more sense then. Unfortunately even a really good dog that is really well trained knows the difference between when daddy and mommy can see me and when they cant lol. It is just like kids, tell the child they cant have the cookie on the counter and while you are looking they dont touch it but leave the room and come back and all you got left is crumbs and a convenient story of a body building mouse that ran off with it. I would start by making sure her kennel is exceptionally comfortably so that the couch isn't that much of a temptation. I would also even go so far as to say it smells like you , when your gone it may be the couch is the closest thing to your smell . I would also start a treat/praise system for all the times she "thinks" of going on the couch but dosent. For example if she paws up on the couch but you get "ah ah no" and she gets down, give her big praise and reward. She needs to feel that if she is off the couch good things happen. Otherwise if it is still not panning out you may just need to not allow her the temptation and put her in another room or close her kennel. I have never much cared about my couch and the dog cause my couch is destroyed by my kid anyway lol. But I can understand the frustration if it is nice couch and u want it to stay that way.


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## Mizuno (Jun 9, 2010)

To keep my dogs off of beds/couches while I am away, I went out and bought a rug runner (kind of like what you could put under a desk for a chair that sits on carpet... has pokey things on the bottom.) When I leave, I roll it out on the couch, pokey side up.

While tedious, I can tell that the dogs have tried to get on and then decided to stay off. We've done this long enough with our couch that the dogs no longer try to get on it. However, we also made sure we taught them "off" and worked with them on it for when they ARE with us.


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## amavanna (Nov 20, 2010)

you know that really is an interesting idea, it wouldn't hurt them but would be uncomfortable enough to lose the interest in trying to get up , i think its very creative. Seems like when they are home they don't really have an issue. So best bet is to start getting creative like Mizuno suggested. Out of curiosity, do you just not want to confine the pup to the crate?


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## Yvonne (Aug 6, 2010)

shut the door on the crate? It really is safer for dogs to be confined to a safe place when you are not home such as one room or a crate.


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## Horseshoe (Nov 10, 2010)

We've put foil on my moms couch when we visit and have to go out for a little while, the noise of it works. My mom doesn't like crates (she is super annal about her house) sitting around, she loves the dogs but not the crates. I told my girlfriend about this and it worked for her too. I've never thought about the runner with the prickly things...hmmm.


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## jonathanw84 (Jul 30, 2009)

Thanks for the replies everyone! We're going to try some creative things such as what you all suggested and see if this works.

The obvious choice would be to crate him while we're gone, but my fiance feels bad for doing that so I'm trying other suggestions first. Are there any downsides to crating a dog while at work? He obviously gets crated at night when he sleeps, but we feel that doing it during the day while we're gone is overboard. Any advice?


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## RonE (Feb 3, 2007)

Mizuno said:


> To keep my dogs off of beds/couches while I am away, I went out and bought a rug runner (kind of like what you could put under a desk for a chair that sits on carpet... has pokey things on the bottom.) When I leave, I roll it out on the couch, pokey side up.
> 
> While tedious, I can tell that the dogs have tried to get on and then decided to stay off. We've done this long enough with our couch that the dogs no longer try to get on it. However, we also made sure we taught them "off" and worked with them on it for when they ARE with us.


This is exactly what we do. 

I got a bunch of chair mats from Office Max and cut them into appropriate sizes for any furniture that has been victimized by my uber-shedders. It's a minor pain, but much preferable to spending hours with a lint-roller afterwards.

Half of dog training is learning to pick your battles. Maybe the other half is choosing your weapons.


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## Yvonne (Aug 6, 2010)

I used to feel bad crating till one day I came home to find a dog in trouble in what i thought was a dog proofed home. The dog had gone behind an end table she didnt normally do and got tangle in a cord and panicked... I was lucky she was tangled but blood supply to extremities was almost cut off and she was not strangled. It happens. Now they are crated or they are shut in the kitchen which is one hundred percent dog proof nothing with a cord allowed stay out or anything like that.


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## Elana55 (Jan 7, 2008)

I crate or kennel when I am not home. Safer for dogs. Much safer for cats to have dogs crated. 

You can get a product called a Scat Mat. This is energized by a 9V battery and delivers a shock (various levels) when two feet are placed on the surface thereby completing the circuit. Can be used to keep K9 off couch or cat off counter.


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