Hello,

I have a very smart but stubborn bulldog ;o)
She really likes sitting on my leather sofa at the top of the back rest, looking out of the windows. However since she knows that she is not allowed on the sofa at all, she waits for me to leave the room or to go out and as soon as she hears my steps or sees me coming back home from the windows, she calmily climbs back down and pretend to go to her pillow (she has a comfy clean pillow of her own on the sitting room floor) only to wait for me to leave the room again and go back to her business!!

She has never been allowed on the sofa, so how can I teach her that she is not allowed on the sofa at all times, ie even when I am not around?

Thanks

Hello,

I have a very smart but stubborn bulldog ;o)

She really likes sitting on my leather sofa at the top of the back rest, looking out of the windows.

However since she knows that she is not allowed on the sofa at all, she waits for me to leave the room or to go out and then she goes and sit on the sofa. 

Then as soon as she hears my steps or sees me coming back home from the windows, she calmly climbs back down and pretend to go to her pillow (she has a comfy clean pillow of her own on the sitting room floor) only to wait for me to leave the room again and go back to her business!!

She has never been allowed on the sofa, so how can I teach her that she is not allowed on the sofa at all times, ie even when I am not around?

Thanks

Hi,
im sorry but this made me laugh, she sounds so sweet! my staffy used to be exactly the same. i tried everything and in the end i just kept her out of the room when i wasnt there!
she drove me crazy for ages.
they are so crafty!!
i cant really offer any advice apart from that but i expect others will help more! :)

Make sure her bed is as comfortable as the sofa.

Make the sofa uncomfortable for her to get on, ie double sided tape, foil, or put a chair on it so that she cannot get on.............

Hi - if she only goes on the sofa when you are out of the room, then she doesn't actually know she's not allowed on it.  That is not what she has learnt. 

What she has learnt is: I must not go on the sofa WHEN MY OWNER is IN the room.  It is ok to go on it when my owner is out of the room.

She has learnt this because - every time you saw her get on the sofa, you told her to get off or discouraged it in some way.  But when you're not there to do that, and she climbed up - well, nothing bad happened and she was not told to get down!

The solution depends on the layout of your house, whether or not you have a crate and lots of other things......

My Bulldog does exactly the same.. We have just brought a brand new leather ivory sofa.... TBH i would love him up there with me but im scared him keep jumping on and off it will damage his joints or he can hurt himself we have a wooden floor..
He rarely tries to get up there now but we brought him a new bed recently that he loves and that seems to have stopped him... I think the bed is much more comfortable than our settee.. We do still have a crate for him too.

I'm afraid my dogs own the sofa - 2 will move if we go to sit where they are, but the other one would happily be sat on rather than take the trouble to move. Oops!

Well, she has hwe own nice and clean pillow where she goes to sleep or rest, usually. I can't make the sofa uncomfy and unattractive because it would be too much of a nuisance for the family, having to remove foil, tape very 5 minutes you can imagine with the kids getting on and off all the time. I though about the chair, but decided against since they are quite heavy and fear that if she drops it on herself she can get hurt.

I can't close her out of the room because it's all open plan living, ie kitchen sitting room and living room so no doors there for me :(
She has a crate where she retires at night for bed and if I am doing cleaning or if I go out for a short while i put her in there  but I don't understand how this can be used to deter her from going into the sofa.

Please help!

Hello

Well I think the crate can help in so far, that she is rather in it when unattended in the livingroom.  But as you say, you have  open plan and that makes it more difficult.  We haven't got open plan, but tha same problem as you.  I postet recently on here about it.   At that time she normally only went on the sofa when I left the room, but now she will go straight on it even in front of my eyes.  I keep telling her to get off.

Sorry, can't give you advice.

Bagpipe.