How to retrain dog?

[Anonymous]

Our one year old has been on the couch since forever, something that I opposed but no one else listened. Now she is full grown, and digs and stuff, I feel I dont want her on the sofa. Seems like an impossible task to me, but would love to hear if you successfully were able to do this.

[Anonymous]

Is it just one sofa, or any piece of available furniture?

If it's just one piece, put something up there. I use laundry baskets. For when you are gone. If she does it while you are home, teach her the "down" command (or "off" command), and reward with treats. So if you catch her up there, you just say "off" and she gets down. She will get it, but you have to be consistent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it just one sofa, or any piece of available furniture?

If it's just one piece, put something up there. I use laundry baskets. For when you are gone. If she does it while you are home, teach her the "down" command (or "off" command), and reward with treats. So if you catch her up there, you just say "off" and she gets down. She will get it, but you have to be consistent.

I want her mainly away from the family room sofa, we do gate it from time to time but she jumps on it when we are there, and when she wants to play. It was cute when kids were home and she was small, but now its just me

[Anonymous]

Haha, this is why our second dog wasn't allowed on furniture from day 1! You will have to block it and constantly teach down.

[Anonymous]

That is actually easy. I trained my golden to stop going on couches after DH allowed it.
So, I was like a hawk, and as soon as I saw that dog was to go on a couch, even if dh was encouraging right in front of me ( yes, I know, that's another thread) I would be, 'No, get down."
Or "no jumping!" Now, dog will not ever jump even if I invite him! Ha, the comedy of our dog being with them all in the living room and me in the kitchen, and they invite him and he looks at me, first at me! I just glare and nope, he will never do it again.

[Anonymous]

Once we got a new sofa, the dogs were not allowed up. It took forever to retrain them! Thought we had it until I started seeing hair. When we left the house, up they went. Sneaky buggers. Finally at a point where they don’t get up, ever, but really took a long time.

Make sure your dog knows “off!” and don’t allow for exceptions, ever. Give treats when he’s off. Snuggle with your pup on the floor. When he comes to say hi and you’re on the sofa, praise the heck out of him if he stays all 4 on the floor, etc; if he pops up onto the cushions, say nothing but “off!” (Not in a mean voice, just your normal tone), and praise when he sits and lays down.

[Anonymous]

Make sure all good things come from the floor so that there is no benefit to the sofas. All pets, treats, belly rubs, etc come when you are on the floor with the dog.

When you cannot watch, the sofa needs to be gated off so they cannot practice the undesired behavior.

—trainer

[Anonymous]

Thank you all! Am glad to hear it’s not a lost case. We are keeping our sofas gated all the time, she is not happy when we are on it but she gets treats on the floor. I see some family members getting weak though!

[Anonymous]

OP here-thanks to all your input, our dog has now almost there! Does not go on the sofa even when not gated, does want to go when we are all sitting but then usually I go sit on the carpet with her. If only she did not dig, we really enjoyed having her there but her digging is not acceptable.