At our old apartment, Watson was locked in a room all day while we weren't home. Granted he wasn't in a crate, but he didn't get to play with the cats. (And for those who don't know our dog... he has a cross-species homosexual love with one of our cats and they hate to be separated!) When we moved to the new house, we decided that Watson should have more freedom during the day. My only stipulation... he is NOT allowed on couches or beds.
The beds were an easy fix - just shut the doors. The couch has proven more difficult...
Some ingenious methods that we have tried:
- Laying objects on the cushions (he just throws them to the floor)
- Pushing the coffee table against the couches (he climbed around them)
- Putting a stand-alone gate in the living room doorway (he pushed it through the door - despite the promise of NO SKID rubber feet...)
- Putting a stand-alone gate on the outside of the doorway (he pushed it sideways - again, rubber feet do skid)
- Surrounding the aforementioned skid-proof gate with chairs (he pushed the gate and climbed through the chairs)
- Reinforcing the gate and chairs with a 40 pound box of litter and 50 pound tub of dog food (and of course... he broke out his dog-hulk muscles, and pushed everything out of the way)
Originally, we bought a stand-alone (very pretty, brown-black wood) because I didn't want things screwed into our walls. Well, I abandoned my cares about defacing our walls after rolling and vaccuming the couch, and cleaning all of the dog slobber off of it.
Yesterday, Casey installed large, sturdy eye-hooks into the walls. This morning, I left for work after setting up the gate with bungee cords attaching it to the wall. I tested it by pushing on it and chuckled to myself with confidence - finally blocking Watson from the living room! I spent all day at work, flying high, knowing that my couches were safe from doggie drool!
Oh, but I underestimated the siren call of the couch to our dog... He pushed and pushed on the gate until he snapped the bungee cords, and took a victory nap on the couch, as well as on my brand new blanket to rub it in even further.
What next in this puzzle... Any ideas!?!
1) you can flip the couch cushions up each day before you leave
ReplyDelete2) give in and cover the couch with a flat sheet so the dog hair ends up on the blanket and not the couch, shake it out when you get home and fold it up for the next day :)
put him out on the corner and see who takes pitty on him and adopts him into their family...I kid, I kid;)
ReplyDeleteJust suck it up and get a screw-in gate that latches to the other side. Patching up the holes is a piece of cake. Use the old college trick if you like and just fill the holes with toothpaste :)
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you have ever seen this pet catalog. But they have some stuff for training pets to keep them off of furniture or out of areas. Hope this helps!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jbpet.com/training-devices.html