DOG ON COUCH

Rawhead

Hello folks,
We have a 2yr old German Shepherd. He is outside during the day and we bring him in at night. Lately we have noticed that he is going up on the couch after we go to bed. He is never allowed on the furniture while we are present and the smart bugger gets off the couch in the morning before I can get down the stairs.

My problem is that I cannot catch him on the couch in order to correct him. It's not a huge problem as the couch is leather and we can just wipe off the hairs, but it's more the principle as I don't want him on the furniture. Any suggestions or ideas?

I don't understand why you don't want the dog on the furniture if you don't mind cleaning it? If it's such an issue, perhaps get the dog an armchair for him to sit in so you don't won't have to share the couch :pac:

In my experience, animals will always do things when you're not looking/around to discipline them!

johndoe99

have you thought about buying a comfy dog basket, and train him to use that

Rawhead

I said its not that big an issue compared to crapping all over the place, eating the furniture, trying to hump the cats all the time the odd time. He is a great dog and I was only asking does anyone have any ideas. I just don't want him on the couch, my house my rules. I have a nice dog basket that he uses while we are present, as I said the bugger is smart.

CrowdedHouse

That's why it's called furniture

sligopark

what about using a crate for him to sleep in at night?

ppink

we had a dog when i was a kid that used to get up on the couch like that. we put chairs up on the couch to stop him.......but he still squuezed himself in behind the chairs!:)
it is hard to think of anything you can do when he does it when you are not there to correct him. can you leave him in another room? or the hall? ours are in the hall now for that reason, I dont want them on the couches either.

ocallagh

webcam and a baby monitor to shout "Down"

Rawhead

ppink wrote: »

we had a dog when i was a kid that used to get up on the couch like that. we put chairs up on the couch to stop him.......but he still squuezed himself in behind the chairs!:)
it is hard to think of anything you can do when he does it when you are not there to correct him. can you leave him in another room? or the hall? ours are in the hall now for that reason, I dont want them on the couches either.

I was thinking of that, but I like the idea of him being able to roam the house. It's a thought provoking moment when you are looking a big GS in the eye as your peeking in the window thinking "will I rob this house"

Might just keep on wiping the big lugs hairs off the couch and pretend its not happening.

carraghsgem

whoopee cushion under the seat pads? or i read of a couple few years back used to have this problem and they bought 2 doormats which you could record a audio message for visitors etc when they were stepped on, the message they recorded was [dog name] get off the couch. they placed the doormats in front of the sofa where the dogs stood to climb onto sofa
the dog/s soon learnt.

Rawhead

carraghsgem wrote: »

i read of a couple few years back used to have this problem and they bought 2 doormats which you could record a audio message for visitors etc when they were stepped on, the message they recorded was [dog name] get off the couch. they placed the doormats in front of the sofa where the dogs stood to climb onto sofa
the dog/s soon learnt.

Very good. I could set up a "Ferris Bullers day off" system and have great fun with him.

gregers85

crate training is a great idea! can lock crate at night to stop unwanted unattended behaviour!

joyce2009

the same was happening here with our dog ,,she had a lovely comfy bed in the corner of the kitchen but when we went to bed at night she would sneek up on the futon,,,,:rolleyes: we tried putting things on it but she still managed to wriggle inbetween them,,, in the end we just through a blanket on it and left her to it,, dog 1 humans 0:D

LucyBliss

Lord, this takes me back! GSD's are crafty like that, we had the same issue with ours. My father didn't have a problem with dogs on the couch but he felt that with a GSD, proper boundaries were needed as she was quite a wilful dog - at about a year old, she bared her teeth at him when he told her to go outside in the garden, as he always did, and he had to move her out there with a chair. He said he was pretty natural for her breed, he'd been expecting her to take him on in some aspect and there was never any trouble with her after that. She was a great family dog.

My point is that we didn't know she was sleeping on the couch until one morning my father came down earlier than usual and he caught her jumping off the couch. So he put piled chairs on it every night and she soon copped on that it wasn't happening. This was back before crate training was as popular as it is today, which is also another good option.

Whispered

I understand you wanting to leave him to roam the house but short of keeping him out of the room, I'm not sure what you can do.

I think he may have the upperhand this time op :pac:

Discodog

Now here's the problem. You can easily get simple battery powered alarms that will tell you when he gets on the sofa. The downside is that he may wait till 3 am !

The best alarm to use is a beam breaker & it is going to be more reliable that a pressure pad or PIR. This one is cheap & works well - I have one. Just set it up so that he will break the beam if he gets on the sofa. It's pretty loud so may give him quite a surprise. You can also set it to give a quieter chime.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/security-beam-barrier-alarm-31800

TonyFella

Simple put a chair on the couch or a basket;)

gobo99

we had the same problem with a couple of dogs. Try putting newspapers across the couch. They dont like the sound/feeling of it under them. One sheet on each cushion for maximum annoyance.

Rawhead

Some great ideas folks, thanks very much. I will try the paper tonight. In one way I enjoy this battle of wits with him because I respect his cunning and you should hear the scramble to get off the couch if I happen to come down stairs early . I have not had any dominance issues with him and he really is a brilliant dog. I have 3 young kids and he is bombproof around them, my wife never had a dog before this lad and she is stone mad about him.

xoxyx

We had the same problem with our dog when I was a kid. Eventually we gave up and just started putting a sheet on the couch for her. Reckon it took half the fun out of it for her when she was allowed and there was no challenge!

tk123

TonyFella wrote: »

Simple put a chair on the couch or a basket;)

+1 put something ON the couch to put him off! Thats what I did with our guy when he was still sore/weak on his leg and I didn't want him using the couch as a trampoline lol :pac: cushions, my backpack, laptop holder etc etc Our guy is allowed on the couch (he's asleep beside me now!) but usually sits on a blanket - he's even taken a blanket out of his bed and jumped up onto the couch and gone asleep with it lol.

seamus

We had to stop letting Darcey on the couch after she was starting to challenge us for dominance.

She actually took to it quite quickly and now she'll sleep in the sitting room in her bed beside the couch. We simply made her bed an appealing place to be by using lots of cushions.

It probably helps that getting up on the couch from a wooden floor is a bit of an effort for a 3-legged staffie.
The JRt we had growing up always preferred "her" beanbag to sitting on the couch. I really think the key is giving the dog a comfortable place to sleep rather than the floor or a thin cushion.

If you have him sit in his bed in the evenings while you're on the couch watching TV or whatever, he should figure it out quick enough.

Though if he's just stubborn, you might just have to lock him out of that room at night.

boomerang

He sounds like a great dog, OP!

I second using chairs piled on top of the couch. This is what I do if my dog is wet and I don't want her going up there. I just put a few of the dining chairs on it and she hops into bed instead. She has no objection to lying down on top of newspaper on the couch - ideally today's, unread newspaper

Rawhead

Well folks,
I tried the papers and objects on the couch and it worked a treat. We win this round but I know the crafty bugger will have something new for me shortly. Thanks for all the help.