# Tips to keep Bella off sofa?



## Summergirl73 (Sep 18, 2011)

So, we are getting ready (hopefully!) to move into our new home on 5/23. As many of you know, I have severe allergies - yep even to Bella  . I love my little girl, so I just work around the allergy situation as best I can. This means that Bella gets to sit on our furniture, but I sit on a bench in the room. I really miss laying on our sofa and snuggling with DH, so I'd like to change the rules for the new house - no pups on the furniture. My hope is that I can put our current furniture upstairs in the "man cave" (so Bella can still lay on that) and buy new furniture for our living room. It's an open floor plan, so blocking off the entire room would be a big challenge. Any ideas of how to block off the sofa area (without using throw blankets) so that Lady Belle learns the new furniture is off limits? I'd rather not make the room look ugly either since we'll be getting lots of visitors. Please don't think I'm a mean Mommy. I'm not. I love her - I just missing laying on our furniture too. I'll be getting Bella even more fancy beds for the new house too  .


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## chicklet and simba (Mar 19, 2013)

Hello,

I had a similar situation before when I first got Simba. I didn't want him on any furniture but I wanted him to snuggle with me while watching tv. We had two pieces of furniture and we decided he be allowed on the older sofa and if we wanted to snuggle with him, we'd sit on there too. What we did is we kept the "off limits" couch filled with stuff - pillows, our purses (I live with my sister), my work bag and anything else that would other wise be just lying around somewhere. We just moved the stuff when we needed to sit on the couch. He didn't seem interested after he saw he had no room. We also put a crate mat on the foot of the couch where he can lay on to be around us but not on us and our stuff. Soon he learned his place and only is on the "off limits" couch when invited... He doesn't even jump onto it, we have to pick him up for him to be on it, which works out perfectly.

My parents have min pins and those like to jump onto anything. One day my mom lined the seats with aluminum foil. It only took one to try it out and they all hated the sound it made so no one goes on it anymore. I guess you can try that also, a few people I know swears by it too. I haven't tried it but it seems harmless to me, just freaks them out a little. Simba was visiting once and jumped on the couch lines with foil and he just jumped right off.

Hope this helps.


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## maggieh (Dec 16, 2007)

Sweetness never did try to get on the sofa without my picking her up. When she would be thinking about jumping up, I'd make the "eh" noise from our training classes and that stopped it. I think it's working with Bella so she knows that's off limits now.

Tessa, well, considering Tessa climbed up on the dining room table, I just sort of control what I can with my little special child!


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## Summergirl73 (Sep 18, 2011)

Great suggestions yall. I really appreciate it. I hope these ideas will work. I'd hate to buy a new sofa only to have Bella on it and not me lol!


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