Trinkett is a 7-year-old ex-racing greyhound. Has spent most of her life on the track and breeding farm, but has settled into house-pet life reasonably well. There is one thing that I am pondering with her... she won't get on the furniture. In fact, she doesn't even seem to realize that furniture is something that she could get on if she wanted to. I can see many of you saying "And the problem with that is?" She wants to be near me, which means that she wants to lay down by the sofa in the living room. And greyhounds are not small dogs! So in order to be near me when I am on the sofa, I can't have a coffee table in the living room. And that is being somewhat problematic for me, because a coffe table is handy for holding things. If I could get her to come up on the sofa, then I would be able to have the coffee table again. Plus, I miss having a dog snuggled up by me. And I am not concerned about her getting dominance issues... she doesn't seem to have an ounce of dominance in her. And it would be strictly the sofa that she got to go on, since the bed is way too high for her to get into.
So... good idea or not? And if it is a good idea, how do I get her to understand that it's OK to come up on the sofa? She will occasionally sniff the sofa cushion (especially if I have just gotten through eating something), but has never so much as touched a paw to one. She will get on the back seat of the car with no problems, if that helps. Or do I say that she's happy being on the floor, and just figure out some way of getting a smaller table into the room to put things on?