leather furniture - w/dogs

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

Does anyone with leather furniture have dogs? I'm considering getting a leather sofa, but we have two big laborador retrievers who are permitted on the furniture. Are leather sofas resilient to doggie nails?

I like the idea that I can swipe the pet hair off easily and can wipe it off it if needed. We have an old woven sofa that collects and traps the hair and I definitely won't go with another woven fabric sofa again. I also like the look and feel of microfiber and a faux suede. Can anyone lend me their experiences with any of these fabrics and big dogs?

Worst case - the dogs are demoted to the floor. Maybe they won't even like the feel of the leather.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

I am on my second set of Leather furniture (as of July 2006). First set lasted me just about 8 years.. would have lasted longer had I not put the love seat in front of my window! Besides my one dog eating the top cushion when he was a pup I have a 13 year old German Shephard (nearly 90 lbs) a 6 year old rotti mix with maybe lab (nearly 90 lbs) and a 2 year old Jack Russell Terrier (19 lbs).. my Jack Russell is the one that seems to be making my new set sag a little. He sits on the top of the love seat.. where you would expect a cat to sit Yes, they have some thin scratches in it, but nothing major. You can rub them out with a good leather conditioner... I have a Natuzzi set...and one of the top grain leathers by them for that reason.. the better the leather, the less likely your dogs will ruin it. If you get a cheap set, they can destroy it..
but it you get a puppy.. be sure to lock them up when you go out.. they tend to want to chew on leather (must remind them of rawhide bones or something.. my 6 year old rotti mix did that when he was a pup.. he ate it, litteraly ate the leather. There was a piece of it missing!! I was too new to buy a new sofa & too expensive to throw out.. to expensive to recover.. so I just threw one of my throws over the top of my sofa all the time and no one ever really noticed
I love having leather & dogs.. would never go back to fabric.. like I said, this is my second set....

 

[mamajoan]

We have leather furniture.. and are looking for another leather set to put in the tv room... We have Scottish Terriers.. about 15 pounds each.. they are on everything... The Leather has been a lifesaver.. THEIRS! LOL Really Leather .. good leather is great for dogs and kids.. very easy to keep clean.

We have their nails trimmed every 3 months.. never had a problem with the furniture. No marks, punctures or tears...

I will never, ever go back to fabric furniture.

 

[teacups]

.. the better the leather, the less likely your dogs will ruin it. If you get a cheap set, they can destroy it.....

I agree. I gave up on leather party due to the dogs... and also didnt like how cold it was on my fanny.

 

[stevenpensacola]

We've got a 15lb schnauzer/poodle mix who likes sit on the back of our leather sofa and chairs....he's not hurt them yet.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

I figured the better the quality of the leather the longer it would last. I'm looking at sofas in the $600 or less range, but I'm not expecting a lifetime of wear. I'm mostly looking for something that is not going to collect and hide the hair. You can't see the hair on our current sofa, unless you sit on it, but this set is old and I know how grossly coated it is. It was passed down from my mom and must be about 15 years old by now and needs to be replaced.

A Mickeyfan - 8 years with all those pets doesn't sound too shabby to me. I doubt I will be buying Natuzzi brand, but glad to hear your big dogs haven't destroyed it. We have an 8 yo and a 1.5 yo who are crated while we're out.

teacups - I noticed how cold some of the pieces were on the sales floor today. The store was a little chilly and I wondered how it would be in our place.

How does the leather react to warm and cold temperature changes?

 

[happybratpack]

The sofa I bought two years ago I specifically bought because of the dogs. When I was looking I got tons of sample leather pieces and brought them home to "test" them with the dogs. I scratched nails across them, etc to see what held up best. (Yea, goober, I know)

I could see a huge difference between the leather prices and how well it held up. This sofa has been great - two years and you can see no wear and tear.

I bought two (over priced IMO) recliners from LazyBoy at the same time. They look HORRIBLE already. I'm going to have to pay to get them recovered. I'll never buy fabric in anything the dogs can get on again. I know I should probably just keep them off but it's not feasible 24/7.

Good luck!

 

[WonderfulDreamer2]

We have leather furniture.. and are looking for another leather set to put in the tv room... We have Scottish Terriers.. about 15 pounds each.. they are on everything... The Leather has been a lifesaver.. THEIRS! LOL Really Leather .. good leather is great for dogs and kids.. very easy to keep clean.

We have their nails trimmed every 3 months.. never had a problem with the furniture. No marks, punctures or tears...

I will never, ever go back to fabric furniture.

 

[Liberty Belle]

I have a medium brown leather sofa and a black lab . The sofa is his bed. He's not hurt it at all.

 

[KristiKelly]

We've had our leather sofa almost 10 years. It's a very durable distressed leather. We have a very, very, very, (you get the picture) active Goldendoodle approx. 60 lbs. She has long nails by nature, even when trimmed they're long. It has held up great. She will go through her wild spells almost nightly, where she tucks her tail and runs in circles and runs across the sofa and jumps off about 3 times in a row. She has not ripped it. There are scratches on it but it's just the type of leather, it's distressed so it shows scratches.

I think it's pretty nice leather, we paid $1300.00 about 10 years ago. When it comes to furniture, I'm a firm believer in you get what you pay for.

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

We tried to train Chloe to stay off of the couch before we replaced our furniture recently, but she's pretty hard-headed. Our couch was fine, so we rearranged and got two leather chairs to go with our existing furniture.

Chloe's too big to get in them. Thank goodness too, because the leather is very soft - like calf-skin.

With that said, I do take her in my car all the time, and I have leather seats. The leather is tougher in the car (Nissan), and her nails have never done damage to it.

I would be very worried about what she'd do to my couch/chairs though.

ETA: I'm not worried about Chloe scratching the leather (I did a test on it myself), so much as I worry about her nails going through the leather.

Here's a pic of the chairs. There are other pieces that go with it too. They're very, very comfortable. I love them!

 

[crz4mm2]

I have leather too. We have two dogs. One is a Boston who is allowed on the furniture. She does have nails that scratch it, but ours is distressed and it does not show. I use the leather cleaner and it does a fabulous job. I would never go back to material either. I love leather.

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

I have leather too. We have two dogs. One is a Boston who is allowed on the furniture. She does have nails that scratch it, but ours is distressed and it does not show. I use the leather cleaner and it does a fabulous job. I would never go back to material either. I love leather.

What kind of cleaner do you use?

husband, in all his wisdom, decided he didn't want the furniture store to have our chairs treated with protectant, so now I'm petrified someone is going to get something on them.

Our leather is the type that you can rub with your finger, and a scratch will fade away. I can't remember what the sales lady called it now.

 

[Aimeedyan]

We got leather BECAUSE of the dogs. I was tired of the dog hair on my fabric couch and when/if they did puke on it, get muddy paws on it, etc it was a pain to clean. Our previous fabric couches were pretty much ruined from them.

So, we bought a Natuzzi couch and loveseat and we'll never go back to fabric. Things wipe up easily and the hair just gets vaccumed off. They do put little scratches in it but nothing more than scratches I make doing things. We use leather balm and saddle soap on them and it lightens the scratch and gives it "character." You'd have to closely examine them to see it.

A really thick, pebbled leather wouldn't show anything at all. The cheap leathers won't last. The thin buttery leathers will get easily scratched (by anything) too. Good luck!

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

A really thick, pebbled leather wouldn't show anything at all.

This is what ours is like. It's really, really soft, but it has what my ste-daughter calls "zits" on it.

We paid dearly for it, but it's worth it.

I totally agree about dog hair! Even though Chloe can't fit on this (thanks to the ottomans - she's scared of them), her hair still wafts on them. I can blow it off.

Can't say the same about the velvet on the other two pieces!

 

[poohandwendy]

We have middle of the road, buttery leather couches in our living room. Our Golden retriever did leave his marks (as did the kittens when they were younger). The saving grace is that this isn't a room we use tons...so, the wear is not too bad.

I would definitely buy leather again, and we are planning on it when we replace the furniture in our family room. But I would go for a higher quality leather the next time. We really like the look and the fact that they don't collect fur like fabric.

Definitely pay for quality when it comes to leather furniture.

 

[harleyquinn]

I have to echo what others are saying from a different perspective. We bought a 3 piece leather set 2 years ago for $1600. We have two cats who have scratched the crap out of the whole set. I wish we had done more research. Buying the leather was a whim, I had planned on another set, but DH wanted the one we got. If your budget is only $600 for the sofa, I don't think I would buy leather, you'll probably end up with the low quality stuff we have. It's already showing major wear from us sitting on it.

Next time we buy, it'll be the high quality stuff, but that's a long time away!

 

[LittleBlue22]

We have a leather couch, chair, and ottoman set. The dog sneaks on it from time to time, but the kids do the most damage to the couch. I caught ds rolling is hot wheel on the seat cushion. I guess if you let your gentle pet on the leather, keep it conditioned. I wasn't sold on having leather anything until I got the leather set I liked. I was very ant- leather.

 

[Anewman]

With fabric hair and odor get everywhere and it is pretty tough getting them all out. Leather is a dream in those departments.

 

[DawnCt1]

I am on my second set of Leather furniture (as of July 2006). First set lasted me just about 8 years.. would have lasted longer had I not put the love seat in front of my window! .

What happened from the window, did you get a lot of fading?? If so, can it be redyed? I get lots of sunlight.