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Our dog keeps attempting to sleep on our downstairs loveseat. This is not permitted, for numerous reasons I won't go into here. Anyway, I want a humane way to keep him off it so that I don't have to punish him every morning before I've even had my coffee. The best way would be to have a slightly electrified live wire there so that he can't be comfortable and will not want to be up there at all anymore.
Now obviously we can't use house current because 110v is way too much juice even for a 90# Labrador retriever. But how would one rig something smaller? Bear in mind the only thing I know about electricity is that it shocks you. I just want something that will give him a good jolt and make the loveseat unattractive to him. I'm presuming one would use a 9V battery or somesuch, but I have no idea how to set things up.
Maybe deter him by having laundry baskets or some hangers (something uncomfortable to lay on up there) for awhile and maybe he just won't keep going back up there?
People are under the understandable but mistaken impression that this is my dog. He's my wife's dog, not mine. To be happy, she has to have dogs, and when she is out of town I am sometimes stuck dogsitting, which I don't enjoy. But I am a humane enough person to want a better way to keep him off the loveseat than being angry at him. I don't want to learn to be a dog trainer or how to make nice with them; I just want to discourage him from being where I don't want him, and do so without causing him anything worse than minor discomfort. So does anyone know how to do this?
I was a dog trainer for 25 years. From the situation you've described, I think the most humane way to resolve the matter is to put a baby-gate or one of those expanding plastic gates in front of the loveseat. It can be folded up and put behind or under the loveseat when you want to sit there yourself.
Other posters have made good suggestions but I dont think you're inclined to take the time to teach the dog not to get up there. Most owners punish the dog when they see him on the sofa, thereby teaching the dog not to be on the sofa when the owner comes into the room. To a dog, getting up on the sofa and being up on the sofa are two very different things. To teach a dog not to get on the sofa you have to interrupt his act of doing so or, even better, his thought about doing so. That involves a lot more time and attention than many owners are willing to put into the project.
Double stick tape should work. At pet stores you can buy it on rolls or strips in the cat supply department. Pets dislike sticky tape.
That's how I learned which dog was the offender. I cut three long strips of duck tape and laid them there sticky side up. Busted. In fact, the dog didn't get up there again while it was present. However, it's too much headache to pick up when I actually want to use the seat.
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