Many owners, for various reasons, do not want their dogs on the furniture…be it the sofa, chairs or the bed. Often, these owners find that Fluffy never gets on the furniture when the humans are around, but come home to evidence that the dog has, in fact, ventured onto these forbidden places once the humans are gone. Dogs will always do what works for them. Not getting on the sofa when the humans around works for them because they get in trouble if they do. However, when the two-legged, furless ones aren’t around, there’s no correction for the behavior so they see no reason why they should continue to comply with the (arbitary-to-them) rules. After all, the sofa and the bed are so comfy!

Owners need to find a way to make the sofa or the bed an UNcomfy place for the dog to lay their head even when the humans aren’t around. There are a variety of products on the market that will help you do this: mats that feel uncomfortable to their paws, that make a sound, or produce a mild electric stimulation/shock. A visit to your local pet store’s training section will let you browse through the choices.

But here at GreyhoundFreaks, we strive to bring you novel(and hopefully inexpensive!) solutions to common behavioral problems. Our dogs are allowed to get on all of our furniture…but that wasn’t always the case. When Ken and I got married, I had two greyhounds and he had four. I also had beautiful, expensive leather furniture* that was not necessarily made to withstand a greyhound’s nails or the nesting that so often precedes a good snooze. My two girls had never been allowed on the living room furniture (though, to be fair, they never tried to get on the furniture)…but dear husband’s were allowed to snooze anywhere they wished. Soon after moving into our first home, we bought a new dog-friendly set of furniture for the den, but I needed to find a quick and easy solution to keeping them off the good sofa in the living room.

While browsing through Lowe’s one day, I walked past a display of plastic carpet runners. I remembered visiting my Grandma as a kid and the plastic capet runner in her hallway. My cousins and I had great fun turning it upside down and running up and down the hallway in our bare feet. And that got me to wondering if the prickly side of the carpet runner would be enough to deter a furniture-loving hound.

So I bought one and tried it out. A few of the dogs jumped up on the sofa and quickly decided that was NOT the place they wanted to rest their bottoms! Because the carpet runner was clear plastic, it wasn’t too visually offensive to leave on all the time…and when company came over it only took seconds to pull off and slide under the sofa. Problem solved!

Hopefully you will find this solution works in your home! I’ve also found it works to keep our cats off the treadmill and other flat surfaces they may try to sharpen their claws.

 *After much consideration, we decided that the beautiful, delicate leather furniture would have a happier life in another home where it wouldn’t have to live in fear of the greyhounds. So, we rehomed the it with my mom where it is lovingly cared for (and there are no dogs!). At least I still get to visit.

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