Ideas to stop dog eating a couch cushion?

June 15, 2022 5:54 PM

Our dog (dog tax) is obsessed with this one couch cushion. Months ago she ruptured the zipper. Now any time she gets a chance she is trying to pull out more of the stuffing. It's going to be an expensive fix to get it restuffed and mended, and I very much don't want to have to fix it again once we've done it. Any ideas?

So far I've tried:
- Keeping an eye on her and scolding her when she's eyeing the cushion - unfortunately I have a busy and active life and can't watch her constantly and it seems the second my back is turned she goes wild on the cushion again
- Crating her when I can't supervise her - yeah sure but I'm probably going back to the office soon and I hate to think of crating her all day
- This absurd item which worked a treat for a while until she figured out she could nudge her nose under it and grab the bottom of the cushion and liberate more stuffing

I've considered:
- "Bitter yuck" spray to keep her from biting it but that had limited deterrent effect on other stuff she was chewing back in the day, and I worry it'd stain the couch
- Sending her to daycare constantly so she's too tired to murder my cushions - more expensive than just replacing the cushions repeatedly, plus getting into dog daycare where I live is about as hard as getting into f*cking Harvard right now
- A cover that goes over the whole couch - seems like she'd just go through it? IDK

I see lots of other "keep dogs off the couch" devices but she doesn't care to be on the couch, she just wants to get that cushion, and as I've observed she seems invested in figuring out ways to get around such devices. So I'm not convinced they will help - but maybe?? But a lot of them seem like scammy low quality items. Recommendations for things you've tried most welcome.

Any other ideas, hivemind?? She is so determined to destroy this cushion and it's making me mental.

posted by potrzebie to Pets & Animals (16 answers total)

If you're going to restuff and mend the cushion, would it be that much more money to get a new one? Give her the old one. Let her go nuts with it. Get a new one. Do SOMETHING (I'll leave this to others) to not make her think of the new cushion as The-Same-Thing as the old one. I'm not sure what exactly...slipcover with different texture? Some sort of scented product?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:41 PM on June 15, 2022

Please don't crate her all day. Especially when you could just put the cushion in another room and close the door. (I don't think you were really considering that, just wanted to respond to it.)

How about just keeping the cushion somewhere else out of reach unless you are actively using it? Maybe over time her focus will shift to something else.
posted by Glinn at 6:46 PM on June 15, 2022 [3 favorites]

Is there a reason you can't just put the cushion somewhere anytime you're not needing to sit on it? In other words, crate the cushion, not the dog.
posted by dobbs at 6:49 PM on June 15, 2022

Response by poster: I'm afraid she will go after another cushion (or, worse, the fold-out mattress) if we take that one. And unfortunately the couch manufacturer no longer carries the (fairly distinctive) fabric our couch is made from, so it's repair or nothing.
posted by potrzebie at 7:09 PM on June 15, 2022

Can you make the cushion itself unpleasant? Packing tape sticky side out wrapped around the cushion? Crumpled up aluminum foil behind the zipper to make it unpleasant to go after the stuffing? Cushion goes inside a large pillowcase or laundry bag to confuse the dog? Spray the cushion with a scent your dog dislikes (orange oil is often good)? I’d probably try all of these at the same time to try to get around the game aspect of solving puzzles to get the cushion. And provide really desirable toys as a distraction. Just stack a bunch of things the dog hates around the cushion, then slowly remove them one by one as they forget how much they want to eat it.
posted by momus_window at 7:11 PM on June 15, 2022 [3 favorites]

My dog will eat pillowcases and sometimes blankets when she is anxious and alone. When we leave the house, we *have* to ensure she is restricted to a pillow-free zone, usually by baby-gating her into the kitchen area. Also consider addressing the root cause, whether anxiety, boredom, etc.
posted by gnutron at 7:21 PM on June 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

Get her a white rawhide chew bone. Check out that pillow completely, and see if there is a critter living in it. White chew bones are the best, the colored ones have some spices on them that used to make my dog's eyes run. Get a couple and hide one so she has to find it.
posted by Oyéah at 7:39 PM on June 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

I would send it out to get repaired. While it is out of the house for a month or however long they take to repair it, see if she finds a substitute or if you can create an alternative. Then, when the cushion comes back, I would cover the couch with a slipcover so she cannot get at it easily. She may have "forgotten" about it when it is gone for a while and comes back differently.

I think it will be hard to teach her to use an alternative while the cushion is still in sight or in the house. Whatever it is about that cushion, it will not be the same when it comes back and while it is out of the house, see what her preferences are.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:22 PM on June 15, 2022

My dog is obsessed with one particular decorative pillow. Like, obsessed. Maybe it has some down or feathers in the filling? I ended up just putting it in a closet. The only suggestion I have for your cushion is that maybe it's something about the stuffing that has the appeal, and you could try to change out the stuffing? Also- how old is your dog? Mine outgrew most chewing habits about age 2. I do give her a dog stuffed animal toy about every month (the really tough style, fluffy cute ones she'll destroy in 5 minutes) that she will eventually rip the guts out of. Also she loves to rip up cardboard so things like pizza boxes and egg cartons I'll let her destroy in the yard. She doesn't pay any interest to couch cushions or other pillows aside from the one. So maybe giving her other things she's allowed to dismember helps.
posted by emd3737 at 8:45 PM on June 15, 2022

My dog had multiple big, cheap soft toys that he would rip open and pull out the stuffing. I got them him specifically for this purpose. He would sit and hold them in his mouth for hours. Perhaps you could get your dog some of those and it would distract them from going for the cushion.
posted by charlen at 10:17 PM on June 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

Goodwill has tons of cheap cushion pillows with zippers that the stuffing can be yanked out of and dogs love to pull the stuffing out of things.

Maybe make the cushion inconvenient to get to unless you're in the room monitoring and make a whole big deal out of presenting the cheap Goodwill cushion with the stuffing very slightly helpfully pulled out. Like you're presenting jewels to the queen.

Between her newfound love and the inconvenience of the old love, maybe she can transition from one to the other.

It passes, if it's any consolation, but wow you should see our furniture. We let things get ruined slightly, then slightly more, and now we have all this furniture that looks like it belongs to pirates.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 3:43 AM on June 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

How much exercise does she get? And by "exercise", I mean vigorous, continuous movement, not a stroll around the neighborhood or just being put out in a yard. Your dog looks to be some kind of poodle/poodle-mix—a very athletic breed that needs a lot of exercise like running, scent work, agility, playing with other dogs, etc.. A lot of these kind of behaviors are the result of boredom and restlessness. Many house dogs need way more mental and physical stimulation than they get.
posted by Mournful Bagel Song at 3:51 AM on June 16, 2022 [6 favorites]

Erm. Take the cushion away?

But seriously, it sounds - as others have mentioned here - that the dog needs something to replace this in their life and keep their brain active. I am really sorry, but there is no quick fix. You NEED to spend some extended time everyday playing with your dog if you want to train them off any behaviour. Negative feedback does not work as well as positive, and it won't work at all if you are not encouraging the behaviour you do want to see.

Get them some toys that they can throw around and destroy (not other cushions as others have suggested, that is the wrong behaviour). Sit with them and a toy or two AND the cushion. If they try and go for the cushion, then you emit the 'no' sound, whatever that is for you. You can also turn your back on them, they hate this. If they go for the toy, then you show praise and play with them. Repeat, repeat, repeat until they don't go for the cushion anymore.

It takes time and effort, but this kind of training stays with them for life if done correctly... THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS.
posted by 0bvious at 4:37 AM on June 16, 2022 [4 favorites]

My puppy goes HAM on one of my couches too. Pillows really set him off. Usually when he attacks the couch it is an indicator that he is either overtired or not stimulated enough. We do work on "leave it" for about ten minutes daily with training and that should eventually click. Playing a scent game during the day seems to help limit his rambunctious energy and desire to murder the couch. Sometimes I use a snuffy mat, other times I just throw kibbles/treats in the yard and he finds them. But sometimes I do put him in the exercise pen if he won't stop attacking the couch, especially if my attempts to redirect to playing with me or a toy don't stick. When the attempts to redirect don't work, that's a good indicator to me that my puppy is just too tired and needs a nap.

When he was a little baby, the bitter yuck spray didn't work at all, but now that he's 6 months old, it deters him. I've used it on the corners of my rugs without it staining. Try a spot test in an unobtrusive location.
posted by twelve cent archie at 6:49 AM on June 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

A lot of the time these kinds of "self-entertainment" behaviours can be resolved by increasing the amount of mental enrichment in the dog's daily life. You might already be doing a lot of these but there's almost always room for a little improvement. It's worth trying to increase those activities and see if that helps. You can check out canine enrichment groups on facebook for endless ideas, but kong-like toys, sniffy walks multiple times a day, trick training, scent training, puzzle toys, snuffle mats, shredding cardboard boxes, and flirt poles are some examples of activities that help provide mental stimulation. Tiring out the brain is usually more effective than trying to physically exhaust the dog, and it also doesn't get harder and harder to do as the dog gets more physically fit.
posted by randomnity at 6:50 AM on June 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

A Kong or other product designed to distract/stimulate the dog with a treat. Some toys such as a Buster Cube are designed to keep the dog engaged with something to distract them from their anxiety.

As for the pillow, unless it has sentimental value, bin it and then see what the dog does before deciding the next steps.
posted by terrapin at 9:17 AM on June 16, 2022