Correction for Older Dog

I have a wonderful chocolate lab that my wife and I got as a wedding present over 10 yrs. ago. The dog has been great, is very smart, great with the kids, typical lab. As she’s gotten older however, she developed some bad habits that, in all honesty, we have contributed to in some ways.

We’ve recently purchase a new couch and she just cannot be on this one. She knows now not to use the couch, but does so during the night while we are sleeping (starts the night in our bedroom on the floor and moves to couch once we fall asleep)and when we are at work. If I get up in the middle of the night, she hops off the couch before I get into the room. As I said, this cannot happen any longer.
I’m looking for options on how to curb this since I can’t be up in the middle of the night or at home during the day. I hesitate to lock her in the garage during the day especially in the heat of summer.
I’m considering a shock collar since she responds very well to “invisible fence” collar. She doesn’t even wear the collar anymore, she knows where the boundaries are. My wife is not sure and I thought I’d throw this out here for opinion. It seems cruel but I know that it will take one, maybe two corrections and we’ll be done. Is that wrong at this age? What other options/ideas are out there?

Thanks,

Eric

We had the same thing happen. My old dog has such bad hips I know she feels better up on the couch too.

My wife solved it. She put up a beautiful blanket on one end of the couch. The old dog can lay there. When company is over off comes the blanket. Anyone who knows us knows how much our dogs mean to us, half of them want to leave her and the blanket right where they are and sit on the other side.

Funny thing is dogs are smart about comfort, you won’t even have to train her to lay on the blanket, she’ll determine in her own mind it’s the best spot!

Good luck

Todd

Couple suggestions,

Can you pull the cushions off the couch? Is there any way you can think of to make the couch uncomfortable for the dog? Is there a way to gate off the room? we use baby gates a lot, especially when the dogs are wet and need to stay in the kitchen.

Do you have dog beds? Have you tried them? Some dogs like them some don’t, my one dog really likes the couchs, and being that she is older and our furniture really is nothing special we let her get away with it.

I’m not sure the shock collar would work unless you did some more cruel tactics, have her hop on the couch and then shock ’em, So they associte the couch as being a place they never want to be. This would be hard and kind of cruel in my world, since the dog knows better than go on the couch when you are around.

Maybe if you already have the electric fence, you could try and set something up inside the house, just run a little behind the couch and leave the collar on the dog, maybe just at night. That way you wouldn’t have to be awake, or purposely inviting the dog to get shocked.
Depending on your house and the layout this may or may not be possible either, like if the couch backed up to a walk way, it would be pretty hard to set up a perimiter for the dog, maybe it would be possible to move the couch for a time being to set of a system like this and establish the couch off limits.

Other than that I’m interested in what other options people have.

I wouldn’t call a Ecollar cruel, it’s just a static shock. Before going that route I’d get the dog a nice soft doggy bed and place it somewhere near where you usually sit, before long the dog should be using it rather than the couch. If that don’t work, Ecollar all the way.

When we had our old couch our dogs were allowed on it, we got new leather, it didn’t take long to train them not to use the couch, NO! They will only come up if invited, that usually only happens on movie nights, the wife takes the female and I get our male.

P.S. Leather is great if you have pets! 3 years now and there isn’t a nick on the leather, dog hair wipes/blows right off and retreating the leather once every 6-8 months makes it look and smell brand new. Can’t say that for any other material. We’ll never have any other material in our living room, we’re amazed at it’s durability and ease of cleaning when it comes to pets.

BIRDDOG

Eric,
Had the same problem with our lab. We put newspapers and magazines all over the couch and chair. She does not like to get on the furnature when there is paper on them. Hope this works.

I had to break an old roomates dog of this habit one time. It was as easy as putting newspaper on the couch. He or she, I don’t remember which would not lie on the newspaper and if the dog started to get on the couch I could hear it and holler. I know it sounds to easy to be true but it actually worked well.

Have you tried mouse traps? My chocolate doesn’t jump up on the kitchen counter anymore after a couple snaps of the trap on her paws! Of course you have to be careful when you sit down too…..
I’d put 4 or 5 of them on the couch when you go to bed and just wait…..you’ll know when the dog snaps one!

Don’t get me wrong I have a shock collar for my one dog too, I was more refering to the method in which cougareye would have to use it, unless he stayed up at night wait for the dog to jump on the couch and shocked him, that method wouldn’t be cruel in my eyes. Because the dog will not jump up when they are around, it would be harder to correct the action, and you would want to shock them right when they jumped on the couch, to better associate the action with the reaction. Like I said you could get the dog to jump up on the couch and then shock them, I’m pretty sure that would work, but it is cruel IMHO.

By all means there is a time and place for shock collar IMHO, some dogs seem to need them, others don’t, I would never have to put one on our other dog.

Sell the couch. Hope this helps

My ten year old short hair does the exact same thing, I have used a combination of allot of the same suggestions posted here. We have a baby gate at the top of the stairs that goes to the basement that is unfinished I send the dogs down there when they are wet from rain or snow, they have there kennels down there that they sleep in. We also have dog beds for them in the living room where they usually sleep but they prefer the couch most of the time. Recently we got a new dog bed for my short hair one with sides and she seems to like that even better than the couch. I think this bed keeps her warmer. It is not a real big deal if the dogs are on the couch in the living room as it is older and I know my daughter also lets them up on the couch when I am not around so I do not get too excited about it. We recently got a new to us used reclining sofa for the basement (my someday sportsmens den) dark blue in color, I absolutely do not want the dogs on this sofa so there are two things I do to ensure the dogs do not use this sofa, one I will lock them up in the portable Kennels in the basement if we are not home. On nice days I will keep them in the outside kennel that has a dog house connected to my heated garage. The second thing I do to keep them off the sofa is to put something on the sofa so they can not get on it, two things I have used is a couple of laundry baskets and I have also laid my bow case on the sofa as it take up most of the room on it. I will try and post some pics of the bed later.

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She knows now not to use the couch, but does so during the night while we are sleeping (starts the night in our bedroom on the floor and moves to couch once we fall asleep) and when we are at work. If I get up in the middle of the night, she hops off the couch before I get into the room

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Nick I was replying to cougars post about the cruel part, I think we can all agree, a ecollar is a great training tool.

BIRDDOG

We found just laying the back cushions down keep our shepherd off the couch. But I guess he isn’t too interested in the couch since he lies on the ottoman all day long.

I 100% agree with this you need to catch the dog in the act for any corrective action to be effective including a shock collar. Here is one other trick I have used in the past. I set up my camcorder in the basement and aimed it at my favorite recliner (it was my dogs favorite recliner as well) I then connected the camcorder to my TV in the upstairs living room so I now have a live video feed to my upstairs TV I have a file cabinet in the basement that sits directly below the TV in the living room where I set the camcorder on and a hole in the corner of the room where the cable comes up from the basement. I also have a shock collar and used correctly they are a great tool, I put the shock collar on the dog and put her in the basement and then went to the living room to watch the show. It did not take long and she headed for my recliner and I was able to correct her right away with the shock collar.

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Because the dog will not jump up when they are around, it would be harder to correct the action, and you would want to shock them right when they jumped on the couch, to better associate the action with the reaction.

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I have to disagree with this not because I think a shock collar is cruel but because you are sending mixed signals to the dog, first you tell the dog to get on the couch then you shock them for being on the couch, all this will do is confuse the dog.

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you could get the dog to jump up on the couch and then shock them, I’m pretty sure that would work, but it is cruel IMHO.

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I spent 20 yrs as a birddog trainer so I’ll jump in here. There are some good ideas here.
I 1st condition a dog to the collar. I.E. Teach it to “kennel” and nboy just to “here” (my command, it carries better than come). Use the least amount of stimulation to get a response (not a yelp, just a physical acknowledgement) that you need. I used a Tri-Tronics 200 due ti the ability to “nick” for bird / pattern issues but have a 10 sec burn for deer and such.
For this specific issue I’d put papers on the couchn hear the dog go up there, issue the correction–push the button. The 1st time is the easiest because the dog will associate the correction with both being on the couch and the noise from the papers. IF it stays a problem IT IS BEST TO correct when the dog is getting up on the couch. This keeps the dog from being confused that the correction is coming from???? Leaving? E-collar 101 is make sur you are not late on the button. It is better to condition to avoid than to evade. Now using one around a dog on point….I’ll never advise ANOTHER to do it. I always had one in my saddlebags at a field trial. All of my dogs had one on at all times, hunting, traning (of course) and some of them when we were roading (conditioning).
Collars are like a hammer; you can use them to build or destroy.

How ture that is a great line, if you do not mind I may quote you from time to time when this subject comes up

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Collars are like a hammer; you can use them to build or destroy.

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Of course. I just kind of wish I had the ambition to start over with another string of dogs. Then again I like fishing an awful lot. Easier on friendships and the marrage than trialing dogs.

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I have to disagree with this not because I think a shock collar is cruel but because you are sending mixed signals to the dog, first you tell the dog to get on the couch then you shock them for being on the couch, all this will do is confuse the dog.

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you could get the dog to jump up on the couch and then shock them, I’m pretty sure that would work, but it is cruel IMHO.

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I’m all mixed up and I got other mixed too.

Gotcha Birddog

What you are saying Steve is my point, I suppose I should’ve/could’ve clarified that better

ZZZZZZZZApp! ok, ok I’ll go stop posting on this now

Oh ok so we agree then, we just said it two different ways
Ok now I will will shut up

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What you are saying Steve is my point, I suppose I should’ve/could’ve clarified that better

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Sounds like my German Shepherd, although I let him have the couch.

I guess I have a soft spot in my heart for old dogs, so I would cover the couch and let him sleep on it.

The other thought is try the newspaper thing some suggested and let us know if it works.

My hunch is your dog will just remove the papers, but who knows until you try.

Thanks guys for the ideas. I’ll go through them with my wife and come up with a plan. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Eric

Here is the new bed we got for my dog, like I said she seems to like this better than the couch.

Here is the dog bed for my Wife’s dog, but as you can see she is not in it so where is she?

Here she is on her throne