Want to keep the dog off of the furniture? The art of getting onto furniture is a game that is old as the earth itself. The scenario goes something like this. The owner will leave the area and instantly pooch settles onto the nice soft leather couch. The owner comes back, finds the dog on the couch, becomes enraged with anger and shouts at the dog. The dog is confused since it was never taught it couldn’t go on the couch, and is now scared, resulting in anxiety and even more problems. Is this a familiar problem in your household?
Commands are one of your best weapons against the dog getting up on your couch. A loud strong “NO” command will do the trick just fine. That is of course, if you have instilled in your dog what “NO” actually means. Now if your dog becomes aggressive when you try to remove it from the couch, chair, or whatever piece of furniture you have, you also have another problem on your hands.
Why do animals like the couch anyways? Dogs and cats will go up on a couch because it pleases them plain and simple. It is normally warm, and easy to lay down in, a heavenly place to take an afternoon nap. If you can somehow designate an area that your pet can lay in, this would be best. However you should strongly discourage the napping on your prize furniture.
The art of taking the dog off the couch is simple. If your pooch is wearing a collar it will make things easier, since you can easily grab the collar and lead the dog to the floor. If your dog is without collar, then you will have to trust a loud strong voice and a firm snap of the fingers. The smaller the dog is, the easier this is as well. I would suggest having the collar on your dog as much as possible. The animal will get used to it in no time and it also helps greatly for training purposes.
I wouldn’t suggest letting the dog getting on the furniture you hold dear, even if you throw an old bed sheet over it. You may still have the dog chewing furniture (if it does chew it). The reason for this is that it will send a bad signal to your pet that it is in charge and is allowed to do what it wants. This will lead to other sorts of bad behavior such as digging, jumping, biting, and the rest. Take care and precaution when training your dog and you will much better off for the rest of your days.
Try to keep in mind that even though the dog is on the couch, it is there because you are allowing it to be. You never want to make your dog think that it is there because it wants to be. This will lead to problems of an alpha dog. An alpha dog is something you don’t want to have to deal with.
