[Dailydrool] Dogs on Furniture

[Diane Surman]

Several years ago I had a Basset mix that developed back problems. My vet
told me if I didn't want it to be a life time thing, I needed to stop him
from jumping on and off furniture.  He was a dog that spent his days going
from each and every piece of furniture in my home.  To break the habit, I
took stools that you would place under an eating counter and laid them on
the sofa which was his favorite thing to lay on.  The other pieces of
furniture I blocked off using things like pillows or whatever objects I had
laying around.  It took me an entire 4 months to break him of the habit.
That meant for 4 months, I had to look at all this junk on my furniture, but
in the end it was worth it.  After those 4 months, he never went on another
piece of furniture and he lived to be 14 years old without ever having
another back problem.

I now don't allow any of my dogs on any of my furniture or bed.  My house is
much cleaner and my guests don't leave here covered in hair.  One thing that
greatly helped my dog get over his habit was buying him a bed with  3 sides
on it.  At the time the only ones available were called Beasley's couch, but
if you can afford it, I highly recommend the ones that L. L. Bean now sell
(although at the current time, they are sold out of most of them but will
have more stock by the end of the month). Orvis also makes some of the same
type beds, but they are much pricier then Bean and I don't think they are
any better.  You can still by Beasley's couch at some Internet places, but I
don't think their covers are worth a damn and are almost as much as the Bean
beds.

Hope this is helpful.  What I'm trying to tell you is, 2 weeks isn't a long
enough time to undo a bad habit.

Diane