[NowWhat]

Hello! I have a 2.5 year old American bulldog/ lab mix dog.
We have old furniture now and he has been allowed to be on it. He has a pretty good fear of getting his nails cut - so much so, he needs to be tranquilized to do it. So, his nails are always in need of a trim.

Anyway...

I am getting new leather furniture on Friday and we want to keep the dog off it.

I had an idea of taking one of the old cushions off and keeping it (for a while) for him to use a bed while in that room.

Do you think it would work? Do you have any other suggestions of how to keep this dog off the new furniture?

Thanks A lot!

[jcdill]

The best way to train your dog to stay off the new couch is to reward him. Saving an old cushion will help because it will give you a place to tell him to sit/lay, and then you can reward him when he complies.

However, he has a long ingrained habit of getting up on the couch, and he's likely to try it the minute your back is turned. I would start NOW (don't wait until the new couch arrives) with the retraining. I would also have a plan in place for what you are going to do with the dog when you aren't in the same room as the couch. For the first few weeks you simply can NOT leave him in the room alone. He needs lots of practice staying off the couch (and being rewarded) while you are there to monitor the situation before you can rely on this new behavior sticking even when you aren't in the room.