How to Keep the Dang Dogs Off the Couch

It all started one day when Maeby decided to make this couch her favorite place to keep warm.

Obviously we couldn't let her get away with it. We need to protect that couch! So we tried several things...

1) Scolding her only worked when she heard us coming to the room. That little turd knew she wasn't supposed to be on the couch! I guess the comfort just tempted her too much. If you think about it, she was a victim.

2) We tried covering the couch with towels... not so much to keep her off of the couch, but at least to keep her dog-ness funk off of the couch. (Oh, here's something I learned today that I never thought or hoped I would-- Gross alert, skip ahead if you are squeamish: Maeby has anal gland [gross alert on the link, too!!! EWWWW!]... issues. The vet said they were "very full" and then said that she had to poop. How gross is that? She actually SAW that our dog needed to poop. Kind of makes me want to throw up.)

Well, the towels didn't work because Maeby just treated them like blankets and scratched them out of the corners and plopped herself directly on the couch, bathing herself in towely-couchy luxury.

3) You can thank our friend Annie for this. She gave us the ultimate solution. Cheap. Easy. Non-destructive. I don't even have to harm the dogs. It's aluminum foil!

That's it! We just laid foil down over the cushions and the dogs hated it. I don't know if the sound or feeling just bothers them a lot or if they're scared or what, but it worked like a charm.

After a week or so of having foil all across the top of the couch, I was able to move to a more subtle approach-- just have the foil stick out from under the cushions as if it were about to attack them. It's really great. They won't even jump up on you to say hi anymore if you're sitting on the couch.

I'm hoping to scoot the foil under a little bit more every week until it's invisible and see if we can train them to stay off permanently.

Not only are the dog benefits great, but MAN it  is stylish. I'm thinking about entering some local interior design contests. Heck, fashion contests, too! I've already started work on my foil mankini. Pictures to follow.