This comes up regularly in class. Ultimately, many people decide to just let their pets up. If the concern was hair, they get washable covers. If the concern was injury for a small or older dog jumping on and off, they get those little stairs or put a nice box right there.
Some dogs think couches are comfortable, others like the view outside. Many young dogs enjoy jumping up and off and all the attention (“arg! STOP IT”) they get for bouncing around.
And if you travel with pets, it’s polite to always put a sheet over the bed. You can see how well that works…Luna crumpled it up and took it for her own bed.
Management:
- Limit access to the room unless there is supervision and structured activity.
- Provide an alternative, such as a nice big comfortable dog bed.
- Limit access by sticking big cardboard boxes or plastic totes on the furniture during non-training times.
Training:
- Teach on/off cues using something else, a lower sturdy surface. This gets the dog to be a little more aware of the humans and gets the people more aware of reinforcing the dog for staying off. We do not want to ask the dog to get off every time he is up or he will learn to jump up to get attention (“off!”).
- Work on stay-on-the-bed using the comfortable dog bed in that room. Formal training to stay on the bed and informal things like great chew items and stuffed food toys.
- Lots of attention for staying on the floor. Watch for the moments where the dog is considering getting up, but stays on the floor. Reward!
If he does get up…
- Calmly leave the area, call him “let’s go see something in the other room” and the dog will probably follow. Then you can provide appropriate management when you do return to the room. If you are having to call him off more than once a week….management needs to be doubled so he gets less practice.
But it’s also important to let students know there’s nothing inherently wrong with letting a dog on furniture. Some are embarrassed to admit their pets are allowed up or they only keep them off because “you have to.” If the family is okay with it and if the pet is okay with it…. there’s no problem!