Dear Stinky: Dogs roll in the most disgusting smelling substances sometimes, usually the more pungent the better. You are right in that your girl is marking her territory by laying down her scent over the invading deer smells. What’s unclear in your question is the behavior you want stopped – the rolling in the deer pellets or the jumping on the sofa?

Deer Pellets

The most obvious way to stop the rolling behavior is to put her on a leash when she goes outside and keep her away from the pellets. You didn’t mention whether you had a fenced in yard or not, so I’m going to assume your dog has free access to the great outdoors. Other than a physical barrier between your dog and the deer pellets or removal of the deer pellets it will be hard to change that behavior, especially if she is let outside unsupervised.

If you do let her outside supervised, then create her own area for doing her business and another area for playtime. Start her training on-leash, bring her to the new area, give her a command to go and praise with a treat when she’s done her business. Eventually, you can take her off leash once the routine has set in. But you must supervise her so that if she strays, you can give her a “Don’t” or “No” command when she starts to wander toward the deer area.

You could also install an invisible fence area around the house for her and spray the perimeter of her zone with a non-toxic deer repellant. Another option is to deer-proof your yard completely with tall black mesh deer fencing. 

Sofa Solutions

Changing you dog’s behavior about jumping on the sofa might be easier than eradicating the abundant deer. There are a few ways you can approach this. An easy way to keep that “smell” off the furniture is to buy leather rather than upholstered furniture. Leather is easily cleaned with some saddle soap if an offending odor should arrive. Or you can always throw an old bed sheet over the sofa when you leave the house. Clean up is easy.  Just throw the old linen in the wash with some bleach and be done with it.

If you truly want the behavior to stop when you are not home, then it time to bring out the big guns. One of the best products I’ve seen to cure this type of covert activity is at Drs. Foster and Smith (www.drsfosterandsmith.com). A pad is placed across your sofa when you leave the house. When the dog jumps up on the sofa, depending on which product you use, either a small electric charge or a loud noise is activated when the pet hits the pad. Similar to the training method employed in electric fences or anti-bark collars. A few times jumping on the sofa and getting zapped and your dog will think twice about doing it when you’re not home.

A poor man’s solution is to wrap the sofa cushions in tin foil, which creates a noise and tactile experience some dogs avoid.

Another option is to have an invisible fence installed “inside” your home, which keeps her out of the sofa area. Otherwise, you could just install a few baby gates to keep her out of the sofa room when you’re not home.

It’s easier to just prevent the dog from coming into contact with the deer pellets or the sofa than trying to change the behavior. If you go the behavior modification route, have patience, perseverance and consistency when training.

Lisa Peterson, a long-time breeder of Norwegian Elkhounds, is the Manager of Club Communications at the American Kennel Club. Contact her at ask@lisa-peterson.com  or Dogma Publishing, P.O. Box 307, Newtown, CT 06470.