What's the best furniture if you have a large dog - fabric or leather?

[Wendi]

We need new family room furniture badly. We love the look of leather. We also now have a large dog (golden retriever). I don't know if leather will get scratched. But I know that stains will be a problem on fabric.

 

What do you have? What do you recommend?

 

Wendi

[Dory]

We don't allow dogs on furniture. Ever. They have their own beds and they're nice beds. This includes the Great Dane who naturally likes furniture, and my dd's cocker who likes to cuddle with her everywhere possible. I have NEVER had furniture damaged because of dogs and I have had numerous litters of puppies in this house and rehabed a couple hundred dogs. I would go for the leather if you like it. We one leather lazyboy chair and a fabric couch and loveseat.

[jeninok]

I would go with distressed leather if at all possible, I like the new super stain resistant fabrics, but they are so full of static that it was a dog hair magnet. We just bought new furniture, good leather was out of our price range so I went with an almost cordoroy chenille, thick fabric with a lifetime warranty against any "incident"

[Pawz4me]

Our leather furniture is almost 13 years old. During that time we've almost always had two dogs and two cats. The current dogs are about 50 pounds and about 15. Former dog (before the 15 pounder) was about 30 pounds. The furniture does have its share of scratches and worn spots now. The scratches were caused by the cats in the normal course of jumping on/off, and my fault for not keeping up with nail clipping. I can't say that the dogs have caused any damage, other than perhaps contributing to some of the worn spots. But I suspect if we'd had upholstered furniture it would've had to be replaced years ago. So for us it's a no-brainer . . . leather.

[MercyA]

If I allowed my dog on the furniture, I'd definitely buy some sort of cover like these.

[TXMomof4]

If you go with leather do not get smooth bonded leather. Our cat has managed some serious scratches just jumping onto the couch.gettinge getting rid of it and going back to a slipcover sofa to preserve our sanity.

[nukeswife]

I've never been a fan of leather furniture. I have a 68lb shar pei (yes she's fat), a cat, and a pug. We have microfiber which seems to be wearing very well. I do have a few fleece throws I put on the chair and one end of the couch but that's because the cat sheds horribly and the throw is easy to toss in the wash when it need to be de-haired. The other one is for the big sharpei and that's because she drools in her sleep.

[RoughCollie]

Here is a leather primer (info about leather), and you can join the forum to ask questions if you like. http://www.myfurnitureforum.com/showthread.php?1517-A-primer-in-selecting-leather

 

I chose leather + dogs over fabric-covered sofas because leather is more durable, lasts longer, and can be easily cleaned. I have a 50 lb. dog, and used to have a 100 lb. dog, and they did no damage to the leather. If either of my dogs tried to chew on the leather, which never happened, I would have trained them to stay off the my sofa, and I would have covered the sofa with a large blanket every time I left a dog loose at home, or resorted to crating him.

 

Bonded leather: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonded_leather

 

I did read on that forum that there is a shortage of steer hides, so the price of leather may increase this summer. Cowhides stretch too much and are not used for covering quality leather furniture.