Woke up yesterday morning to find a whole forming in one of my vinyl couch cushions. I put a blanket over it, and grumbled to myself but that was about all I could do. Then last night DH caught Potato snacking on the same cushion after pulling it off the couch, scolded him, locked him in the spare bedroom (not for punishment so much as to keep him from going back and eating more couch), and went to bed.

Since we can't really afford a new couch.. anyone know how to stop my dog from eating the one we have? Currently our plan is just to lock him up at night or when we're gone, since we have that nice spare room and since he doesn't eat it when we're home. He's done this before.. this is couch number three he's working on. This one just happens to be nicer than the other two.

Oh, he does have some bones and chew toys laying around. He just prefers the couch it would seem. He also ate his dog bed, and he chews on blankets if we leave them in the floor (i.e. the blanket we made a dog bed out of when he ate the actual bed).

He does not seem to eat mattresses, as our bed has never been in danger.

[Jarheadwed]

Have you tried using Bitter Apple spray? My dogs hate that so much they cower when I pull out the bottle.

[SpazTaz]

Forgetting about the couch for a second, for HIS safety you need to either do what you did and put him in another room, or preferably crate him. Here is my story about my dog that liked to eat bedding and blankets (this is copied and pasted from another board I'm on):

"I will NEVER EVER put blankets, bedding, or anything like that in a dog's crate EVER again. My dog now gets the crate pan (which is metal) a Kong, a Nylabone and THAT'S IT. He has learned to survive. He was an unhappy camper for a week or so until he adjusted, but honestly it isn't worth their life and we were VERY close to him dying. He had a chunk of blanket in his stomach, strips up his intestines and a strip wrapped AROUND his intestines that was cinching it off (think strings on a purse) plus he had eaten something that ordinarily would have passed through, but because of all the blanket in there it got stuck and was very close to ripping a hole in his intestines.

He was in surgery a smidge over 3 hours, my vet had to open his stomach, cut open a portion of his intestines suture everything back up, reinforce the thinned area from where that thing had almost poked through, he had internal stitches, external stitches, AND external staples. It was 2 weeks of ZERO and I mean ZERO activity, going out to potty on leash, and a chicken and rice diet that he had to eat SMALL meals so we were feeding him like 5-8 times a day, plus 10 days of antibiotics 2-3 times a day, plus 10 days of a gut medication 3 times a day, plus 2-3 weeks of around the clock pain medication, plus 2 weeks of an e-collar, plus then softened dog food for an additional week, oh yes and to top it all off the surgery was $1700 and the appointment before that, so it was a good $1800-$1900 to fix the problem, he now has about an 8 inch incision down his stomach as a happy reminder on a daily basis.

I watch my dog VERY closely because he does like to eat stuff, but I had NO idea as it was a big blanket and I thought he had just ripped holes in it, nope he actually ate some and let me tell you I wouldn't wish that on anyone it was HORRIBLE. I learned my lesson, he gets nothing now, and some may feel it's being mean, personally I feel it's keeping him safe (he also had toys in there, but preferred to destroy the blanket). I do have a dog pillow downstairs, but he is 100% supervised around it and it never goes in his crate. "

My concern for you would be that you have no idea if he's eating the foam from the couch, eating a portion of the dog bed, eating a portion of the blankets torn up, etc and that can be extremely dangerous (as you read above). So, if it were me, I'd put him in a crate, no bedding, and give him a stuffed frozen Kong, or a raw meaty bone to keep him occupied while you are not home.

Good luck.

I can at least tell he doesn't eat most of what he pulls out of the couch, as there's a nice sea of fluff and foam all over the living room when he does it. But I don't know for positive that he doesn't swallow any of it. That was a concern of mine though. He doesn't crate well at night, which is where the spare bedroom comes into play.

I've tried bitter apple and various other no chew sprays. He ignores them. =/