leather furniture and dogs

[thumpersfriend]

I am looking at new living room furniture and we have always and still have a dog that is on the furniture. I have always had sofa covers but I am thinking about leather so we could leave covers off . Question is : do their toenails poke through? If you have leather, is it easy to clean?

 

[Gabes_mommy]

My dogs have never poked through the leather, but they have scratched it.

It is super easy to clean - I just use a damp rag and rub off any dirt or dog fur. We will only get leather furniture for as long as we have dogs. It is much easier to maintain IMO.

 

[Aimeedyan]

We have leather because of the dogs. They already ruined one microfiber sofa.

You need a durable quality leather - not a buttery soft one or a cheapy one. Their nails can scratch it but our sofas are dark and we use saddle soap on them; we actually prefer a more "used" look of the leather that comes with time and use. There hasn't been any damage to it.

After a rainy day, there is nothing better than simply wiping the mud off the sofa. It's so easy to clean! Ours are 4 years old now and look practically brand new. The microfiber sofa didn't fare so well in our house =(

 

[Pakey]

We have leather furniture and two dogs. I have not noticed any scratches due to the dogs' nails. They are only 12 lb dogs so not much weight behind those nails.

 

[ilovepcot]

Leather is the way to go! My little dog only weighs 5 pounds so his nails aren't an issue, but I love the fact that I can clean the furniture so easily by using Swiffer Dust & Shine. It cleans leather as well as wood furniture. Leather feels and smells sooooooo good after it's used.


ETA: After posting the above message, I walked away and remembered this: DH didn't want leather furniture. He tried to talk me out of it and said we'd be sorry because of having a dog. He thought there would be tiny scratches all over the sofa from the dog's nails. I wouldn't back down and he gave in saying, "You'll regret this".

Fast forward a few months. DH fed the dog barbecued chicken with tons of spice. Next day the dog was resting on the arm of the leather sofa next to DH when he suddenly sat up and dragged his entire backside across the arm of the sofa. He'd had diarrhea earlier (we found evidence in yard) and obviously realized he hadn't gotten "clean". I leaned over and softly said to DH, "Can you imagine if that was fabric instead of leather"???

Recently I overheard him saying to friends how you should go with leather if you have pets.

 

[Gabes_mommy]

I should have mentioned that we only have scratches on the leather where my pug sits and deliberately runs her nails loudly - if she didn't do that we wouldn't have scratches. I don't know why she does that actually but she always gets fussed at for it.

So if you have a dog who is a scratcher you may get scratches but you shouldn't get them from regular day to day use.

 

[Poppinsme]

We have leather chairs and a sofa with cats and dogs. Fabulous! So easy to clean. I can't imagine having cloth again.

 

[Luvchefmic]

I'm so glad you posted this thread, don't know why I never thought to ask the fellow Dissers...I LOVE leather furniture & I always thought I could never have it with the dogs....you can learn so much here !

 

[thumpersfriend]

Thank you for the replies. It will be leather then, my husband thinks it will be bad but I am so sick of having throws all over the furniture. Does Art Van have a good leather?

 

[Jockaroo]

We got leather because we felt it would wear better with our dog. Cleans well and no nail scratches. I keep my dog's nails trimmed well and she is only 23 pounds. One big caution however! I need to schedule a repair for my sofa. My dog got on the couch with wet topical flea treatment (Bayer Advantix) and somehow the flea treatment took the color off the sofa. Don't let a dog, or cat, on leather furniture with wet flea treatment. This is my PSA for the week.

 

[PatsGirl]

My new kitten has virtually ruined my leather set, every piece has claw holes and scratches all over it. He doesn't use it as a scratching board but is very rambuctious running from chair to couch to ottoman, downstairs and back up....

We keep his nails clipped pretty well but he is still managing to destroy some pretty expensive fixtures. My wood stair bannister and door to my bedroom has deep gouges in it as well. I had no idea cats could do so much damage.

Well, back to the leather ~ I don't think a dog would do the same kind of damage (at least my dogs never did but then again they didn't get on furniture like a cat does).

 

[Mickeypooh99]

Does anyone else besides Patsgirl have experience with cats on leather. Is it just because hers is a kitten that her furniture is getting ruined. We have 2 older cats. They aren't rambunctious at all, and they are front declawed. They do lay on the furniture, but they like to lay on a blanket. So maybe we would be okay.

Also what brands do you all have. It seems like most of you like the leather. Our last couch is falling apart after 8 years. Seems are ripped (and I've sewn them many times) and now the frame is falling apart. So I want to really research brand before I buy this time.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

Thank you for the replies. It will be leather then, my husband thinks it will be bad but I am so sick of having throws all over the furniture. Does Art Van have a good leather?

I don't know about good leather, but our last couch we got from there started falling apart within 6 months of purchase. I got tired of waiting around for the service guy to come repair it, so I started sewing it up myself. Everytime they were coming out they would give a date and a time of between 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

I'm with you on going to leather. I feel like I can never get this couch clean even with multiple cleanings. We even got the stain protector stuff.

Anyhow if Art Van carries such poor quality fabric couches, I'm not too confident about their leather.