Absolutely.

Huh? Cat not allowed...? Doesn't parse.... : )

One of my dogs will come on the couch only when asked too.
The other two are not allowed only because each one would take up the whole couch.

I have leather couches for exactly this reason - they don't hold the cat hair (I have three puddies) so you don't have to spend five minutes cleaning your seat before you sit down.

I don't really like leather, though - a big dead animal skin in my living room kinda bothers me - but the couches were free from my parents. When I replace them I will have to look into vinyl or else suck it up and start vacuuming upholstery again. Ugh!

never. ever.

I have a 65lb dog.

He's allowed on the bed because I can wash all of the bedding. So, there's no build-up of street germs and dog smell.

Furniture? No. He has a couple of beds around the house that are his.

we bought our westie a pet bed, but he will never use it and his favourite spot is still on the back of the couch snoring in our ears. i love it, so he stays. :)

The cat that is sleeping on the sofa is not destroying it with her claws. Our cat loves a particular chair. Can't keep her away (she is so sweet, she's our wittle baby)

LOL, we have three cats, what a losing battle that would be!

Training a cat to stay off the sofa sounds like mission impossible (not that it bothers me). I'm just proud I've trained mine to stay off the countertops and that he only hops up on the dining table when he wants attention!

Our house is designed to encompass those we share it with - 3 dogs. People design and customize their houses to better accommodate their kids, we do the same with our puppies. They are part of the family and that is important to us.

My dog and all of my friends' and my famy's dogs are allowed on the couches and beds in my house.

As mentioned above, bedding can be washed and I have coverings for the couch and upholstered chairs that can be thrown in with laundry as well.

My pets are part of my family - my family is allowed on the furniture, especially for cuddling :)

We keep our cats out of the dining room and kitchen, because they'd just be pests while we're cooking and eating, not to mention getting their hair where we cook and eat. We also don't let them in the laundry room because we've heard of too many horror stories about people's cats getting into clothes dryers. (Bad for the clothes but far, far worse for the cat.) Other than protecting the cats from their own bad instincts and protecting our food they have the run of the house.

Remember: Dogs have owners. Cats have staff. :D

Absolutely not. I have all I can do vacuuming dog hair from the floor and the rugs. Furniture? No way.

Yay! That's what lint rollers, brushed, and vacuum attachments are for.

Dogs allowed everywhere but the bed....and that's hard to enforce now that she's figured out how to open up the bedroom door when we're gone!

We trained our dog to go on furniture only if her special polar bear blankie is laid out first. And as much as I like cats, I know I could never train one to do this, so I don't have one!

http://www.inspiredroomdesign.com/blog.php?post=49

We have two cats who aren't allowed in our bedroom (husband has allergies and needs at least one dander-free place to escape) and they are not allowed on kitchen countertops or the dinner table. We only let them on the bathroom countertops to be brushed and to drink from the faucet (but that's a special treat for them). Otherwise the house is theirs.

We have microfiber couches that make cleaning up cat hair a breeze, but they are pretty ugly and we'll probably be investing in some slipcovers soon.

Yea! We started out training our dog to stay off the furniture to discourage any displays of dominance (she's part Chow, and we had heard bad things), but once her disposition was clearly not dominant, we started letting her up. It's worked out well. She still seems to think of it as a privilege, and usually asks permission before she gets on the couch or bed.

Most peoples' kids make more mess of their furniture than their housetrained pets.

The way I see it is if you have pets then you are already planning around them to a large degree- hours at work, vacation pet-sitters, etc. So plan your furniture too. Let them lounge with you and relax, isn't that half the fun? My pets were allowed on the sofa as soon as they were litter-trained, yes it is going to need cleaning sometimes but it would need that if I spilled my drink also, and its fun to chill and watch TV with the pets.

i don't allow my cat on counters or tables but she's free to enjoy on couches, beds, and chairs. i don't allow myself to sit on counters or tables either.

Our dog is allowed on one of the armchairs, but not on the couch itself. The cats? Well, you can't ban a cat from ANYTHING...

My two kitties are allowed on upholstered furniture only - three chairs, one footstool, the bed, and the sofa. If they try to get onto any table, they get shooed off promptly.

That said, I do cover one chair with a towel because I just HAD to upholster it in delicate pink damask...

I have tried desperately to keep my kitty off the counter (her paws have been in litter... gross) but its really hard.

try training a pug to stay off the sofa....impossible!

That cat looks sooo comfortable. I'm jealous. And I would not have the heart to shew it away. :) But then, I don't have any pets. Except for my husband. Just kidding. Love you, hun :)

In a cat's mind they are more entitled to the furniture than you are.

Ha, my cat is licking herself beside me on the couch as I type this. And growing up, our dogs were always allowed on the furniture. Grant it, they were small dogs all of them, but I'm sure even a great dane would be a lap dog in my family.

Three kitties, and they can go wherever they like, with the exception of our countertops and dining table. I really don't mind the clean-up.

I think of it as "if you can't handle a pet on the furniture, you shouldn't have a pet". Like saying kids aren't allowed on the furniture (they're messy too) - it's kind of ridiculous.

There is no way my cat would stay off our couches - we have four and she sits on each of them in turn throughout the day and night. She has her own little cat house where she also likes to spend some time each day - but she could never be convinced to only hang out there, and I wouldn't want her to - I like having her around! She is not allowed in our bedroom at night when we're sleeping there, but when we're out of town we leave the door open and she sleeps on our bed. She doesn't get on the kitchen counters except when she wants fresh water - then she will sit by the sink until we take the hint.

eh, no dogs or cats here... but we did learn our lesson with a hand-me-down couch we had before moving. One of our parrots got a hold of the arm- not the prettiest of sofas, so we didn't quite mind it. Now, with our month-old sofa, a completely different story. While they're allowed on it, we don't take our eyes off of them for a minute lol

We'll usually have a thicker blanket on top of wherever they choose to sit just for extra protection. It makes it, "fun." hehe

I have three, fifteen pound cats who are not declawed and I just recently bought a snow white couch without a slipcover!! I may have had temporary insanity but I've always wanted a white couch. I love my babies to death so they go wherever they want. We've broken all but one cat of clawing furniture and haven't had any luck keeping them off kitchen counters. Nothing in my home will ever be perfect so I just go with it....

Right now, one cat is on top of my CPU; one is warming herself under the light over the kitchen table; another is curled up on the recliner in the TV room; one is stretched out in the middle of my bed; and cat #5 is roaming the house looking to see what he can get into! Yeah, I allow my cats to do whatever they want and go wherever they want IN the house. They're NOT allowed outside.

I don't know how you can really keep pets off the furniture...especially when you're not home. It's one thing when you can shoo them off when home, when you're out...all he** breaks loose! This really applies to cats.

absolutely allowed - they're part of the family!! i have more of those lint rollers than i care to count, all over a 600sq ft apt!!

I thought my cats own my home. They are just kind enough to let me pay the mortgage.

While I don't mind terribly letting my cat on my couches, I've been absolutely unsuccessful at keeping her from clawing at the upholstery.

My cat is allowed everywhere except on the dinner table. I think it's a shame that some people would be that obsessed with a level of cleanliness that they wouldn't allow their pets free reign. I do understand that white couches and delicate fabrics could get harmed, but then those that have that kind of furniture don't have pets- or at least they shouldn't! You need to be aware of these things when deciding to take on the responsibility of a pet. I simply can't imagine my living room chairs without my kitty snoozing on them, it creates part of the cozy atmosphere in my home!

If you have cats and you don't let them on the furniture when you are awake, I can promise you they are doing unspeakable things to your stuff while you are asleep. Don't you read LOLCats.com or icanhascheezeburger.com?

Oh and....
If anyone is wondering... the Pledge Fabric Sweeper for Pet Hair really does work! I was impressed, and especially pleased to find something to handle 5 cats worth of hair removal. (Cut a hole in the top to remove the hair and to reuse it, just seal the hole with duct tape or similar. )

Absolutely "yes." They are so beautiful.

I used to give my dogs free reign of all the furniture. However, I'm slightly allergic to dog hair and dust, and a bit of a neatnik. And I have wall-to-wall carpeting which collects enough dog hair, dust, and other nasties in its own right. So now the mutts are relegated to their own dog beds and one old ratty futon in my office.

The first guy is so cute would not kick him off. Yes my dog is allowed but I keep a cover on my sofa and it gets washed once a week, not sure if I would do this with all dogs, my guy is clean and does not shed much..If I had a different dog I might just get him his own chair and call it a day.

@lifeinthefortress: Does the microfiber get ruined by cat claws at all? One of my cats enjoys scratching my couch and I want to replace it, but I don't want to have it scratched. My cats have their claws and I'm terrible at clipping them, but I refuse to have them declawed. I've also tried safepaws, but the scratcher just tugs them off with her teeth so it's a waste of money. Thanks!

At this current moment my cat is crawling around inside the box spring of our bed - her favorite place once she finished digging a hole into it.

I think it's safe to say that our pet is pretty firmly allowed on the furniture. Not always with our permission. It's the main reason I wipe down the dining room table before we eat dinner off of it.

For my kitties, of course. I can't imagine not letting them nap on my couch. My kitchen table and counters are another thing, no no no.

My two dogs, 180 pounds combined, have a "dog couch" in the TV room that they are always welcome to sit on. However, they prefer my MCM daybed or the "good couch" in the living room when I forget to put the X-mats on it.

"try training a pug to stay off the sofa....impossible!"

No it's not. Our pug has been trained to stay on the floor - the ground floor at that, he doesn't even come upstairs. He has his own cozy bed, and when we want to cuddle him we sit on the floor with him.

The cat, on the other hand, is allowed anywhere but the kitchen benches.

We use a (not tacky) plush, black, fake fur, machine-washable throw on our couch- it's so much more comfortable for our mini doxie to lie on than the leather couch that we never have any problems. We just toss it in the washer every week or so, problem solved.

When I first adopted my Newf/Chow mix I was firm about training him off the furniture; but one winter in a drafty brownstone made me cave, and I started inviting him up onto the couch with me while i read or watched television. Now, when we're at home- he "asks" to be allowed on furniture, but leaves telltale signs of his presence when we aren't there.

My canvas slipcovers stands up to washing and I should buy stock in lint roller manufacturers, but I've accepted that part of owning a pet is that I will get plenty of hair on my things and self.

I've drawn the line at him in the bed though- *I* don't even get into the bed without a bath first.

My dog sheds like a beast (pug), so no couch, chairs, or bed for him. I have enough fun sweeping after him. If he does want to cuddle on the couch, I put him on my lap and shake myself off when I get up. Aside from that, I just bring his dog bed into the living room when I'm watching TV, so he can hang out and be comfortable. He's totally allowed on the furniture at my mom's house, though, so it works out for him in the end :-)

I loooove animals, but I'm extremely allergic and can't own any. Maybe it's just my situation that makes me feel this way, but I think it's a little rude to have your animals all over your furniture (that your house guests will sit on), and at least not TRY to clean it off. A few of our friends have cats and dogs who have full reign of the furniture, and they really don't work hard to keep it clean, so I have limited friends who's houses I can actually go to without getting ill.

@cheep3r5: now why the hell didn't I think of that??? I bought the Pledge pet hair thing and loved it but felt so guilty about throwing it away and buying more. I tried to pry it open but of course they were smart and didn't make it pry-open-able. But a hole!!! Duh! Thank you!! I love my cat to death but she sheds more than any cat I've known. And she's almost 20 pounds, so that's a lot of surface area covered by fur...that eventually sheds.

The dog lives here. Would you tell a roommate that he wasn't allowed to sit on the couch?

One dog and two cats, and all are allowed on the bed and furniture. I value my pets more than my stuff, so my furniture is pretty pet friendly. Besides, they spend more time in my home than I do, and they don't get any say in the matter, so I think it's only fair to make it comfortable for them.

We have trained our cat not to sit on any furniture and also not to go upstairs where the bedrooms are. (Part of what made this cat training possible is that I work from home) My husband is highly allergic to cats, but I love animals, so this was our solution. Fortunately, we have a very smart cat! We have given him several comfy beds on the main floor and he sleeps in the basement at night.

I have 2 dogs. they are not allowed on the couch when company is over. they are also not allowed in the guest bedroom and we put up a fence and admonish them with a stern "out" when they go in there. I live in a pet friendly household but I repect my guests that might be allergic or don't want to be covered in dog hair. we have a leather couch so it's easy to clean up and a rhoomba that goes off daily. the rhoomba is pretty good at keeping the hair tumble weeds at bay (and I have ebony hardwood floors).

for those with excessive shedders I highly recommend http://www.dinovite.com/ and fish oil. since feeding both, I've noticed a marked decrease in shedding.

I was brought up with both cats and dogs. my mom's persian was fed on a rolling tea table that lived next to the stove. (kept her food out of dog's reach). I can remember the smell of burnt cat hair when she would walk across the stove and her long hair would brush against the pilot light! my mom made a concerted effort to teach her that was a bad idea and it worked. although her technique was scareing the cr@p out of her by banging pots together whenever she looked like she was going to dash. Poor Dolly Madison....

One of my cockatiels likes to fly to the dining room chair at mealtime. I set a plate for him with some food on it. He enjoys chewing on his (water hyacinth) placemat, too. When you have a place where you allow your pets to play they usually don't need to visit the other parts of your home.

My cat is allowed anywhere that isn't a counter top or kitchen table. I've also trained him to sleep on the foot of the bed where his fleece blanket is, a trick that's only worked because my kitty has a deep dislike of my favourite poofy down-filled comforter. It's great because I don't have to worry about cat hair on my pillows or near my face in bed.

I don't know if you really ever train a thinking animal - I thought I'd "trained" my cat to stay off the mantel - until one day I came home and found the tell-tell hairs and a knocked over picture. I think they are smart enough to stay off the no-no stuff while you're home, but once you walk out the door - baby, it's on!

@calderonlm: Neither of our cats have front claws (they're rescue cats) so I'm not sure how microfiber does with claws. I'm sure their back claws come out sometimes when they're running across the couch and I've never noticed any holes at all. We do have kitten teeth marks in one arm, though.

POSTED BY footballisforcrafters:
"While I don't mind terribly letting my cat on my couches, I've been absolutely unsuccessful at keeping her from clawing at the upholstery.
footballisforcrafters"

You can't stop a cat from scratching. They need to scratch, but you can give him/her something better than your sofa to scratch on. For example: My cat bill loves to scratch. I had a ratty free hand-me-down sofa and he destroyed the side of the arm by scratching (no amount of fussing would deter him). The good thing about this destruction is that I was able study how he scratched. So when I got my grandmother's mid century sofa to replace the previous one, I bought an upright scratcher pole and put it right next to the arm of the sofa where he scratched before. He doesn't touch the sofa now. A sisal rope cat scratcher feels better than the upholstery, so he prefers to scratch that. You can put a scratcher pole/mat/whatever next to any place your cat wants to scratch. I have a couple in my home for this reason.

As far as letting my two cats on the furniture: couches, chairs, and bed is a yes. Countertops, tables, and shelves, and desks is a no.

Anyone who has a pet is absolutely fooling themselves if they believe that animal is not sitting where he is not supposed to when you are not around. I snuck up on my cat the other day and he just about had a hear attack trying to get down from the table. At this point, I don't care; it's nothing a good wipe down with disinfectent can't handle.

My pets are part of the family and share in the use of the furniture...besides...how can you say no to a fuzzy face?

I am reading this post lying in my bed with a dog either side - our morning ritual and the only time they get up on the bed (though our gorgeous old Toby would LOVE to stay there all day if he could).

We too have leather couches as they are tough and stand up to both kids and dogs.

My dog loved a cuddle on the corner of the sofa. I still have not been able to sit that spot since she past away.

NAY!
I used to let my dog all over the furniture and she sleeps in my bed. But then I splurged on my first couch and I won't let her near it.
She sits in front of it and stares at the pillows and looks longingly at the cushions. But thankfully, she waits for permission before jumping on the furniture (when we're around).
http://hopelesschest.blogspot.com

"The dog lives here. Would you tell a roommate that he wasn't allowed to sit on the couch?"

Newsflash, roommates are human (mostly), dogs are not.

Therein lies the difference. I love my dog, and he's part of the family, but he's not sitting on the couch - it just gives him the idea that he's our equal, and he's not - and dogs thinking they're equal to their owners results in all sorts of problems, like barking and "marking" their territory. I don't particularly value our ratty old couch - in fact, I love the dog more than just about anything (except my partner), but I love him having good manners which mean he's not a menace or a nuisance to be around, and a that entails some discipline as well as love.

And to everyone who suggested that if you keep pets off the furniture while you're home they're on it when you're out, maybe with cats, but not with our dog. As someone else pointed out, pugs shed like the dickens (despite two fish oil capsules a day!) - believe me, if he was on the couch while we were out, there'd be evidence.

at this very moment, my cat is in an identical pose to photo #1. so yes. (and she is a notorious warm spot stealer if you get up for more than 10 seconds in the winter.)

but please, if you let your dogs on upholstery, bathe them often and do what's necessary to clean the furniture on a regular basis. nothing worse than a house that smells like greasy dog.

Dogs are not our equal?
You might be right... Sometimes they are leaps and bounds better than we are.

(Miminco: I feel you. Same situation here. Even the pillow she slept on on our bed still has some of my puppy girl's toys on it. I guess I'm just keeping it warm for the next great 4-legged love!)

pammyfay, thank you for the comment for me. I believe that our dogs play around at the rainbow bridge :-)

My dog allows me on the bed and couch.

Have you ever tried to keep cats off of the furniture? I would have to erect a chicken wire frame around my couch. Then I would have to watch tv through the little holes. I just use a rubber pet hair bar to get the long grey fur off of my black couch.

They are allowed on my bed as long as they are just hanging out. If they start cleaning themselves, they have to get down.

Actually, I don't really care what furniture they get on as long as they stay uninterested in my kitchen counters.

The cats have free reign and go everywhere except our bedroom, which they are not allowed in simply because we need somewhere to store breakables/things that shouldn't get furry. We'd like to have them be able to sleep with us at night though so we are hoping in our next apartment we can set it up so our office is the cat-free zone (can't in this one, they can open the office door). Technically they are not allowed on the counters or any non-upholstered furniture (end tables, coffee table, sideboard, etc.) but in practice this just means we yell at them a lot. They are well aware that it isn't allowed (if we come into a room when they are somewhere forbidden they jump down SO FAST) but they do as they please when we are out of sight.