How do you stop a happy tail from clearing glasses off the coffee table?

My pup is just over 4mths old and her tail is now swinging at coffee table height. True to her name Kali the Destroyer has now started knocking over glasses on the coffee table and today we had the first breakage. Other than the obvious "don't put things on the table" does anyone have any good tricks to deal with this?

 

This will calm down a bit with age, in time, (years, not months) but honestly I'm not sure this can be fixed - you can deploy certain processes to keep your dog calmer when visitors arrive, or exciting stuff is happening, but the tail wag is fairly intrinsic I think. You can train a 'go to your bed/crate/mat' cue which could help you out -therefore training an alternative behaviour.

And welcome to the forum, from Natalie, and my chocolate lab Monty

 

I think it must really depend on the location/height of your coffee table. I might have to take a photo to show you our set up, but what we've done has worked (coffee table pushed right up to tv, and sofa maybe 0.5m from table) - Xena has never once knocked a bottle/mug/wine glass off *finds a piece of wood to touch* Whenever her tail is going a mile a minute she's not next to the table, which helps.

 

1. Get a higher coffee table.
2. Use plastic glasses.
3. Don't allow your dog in your lounge.
4. Give your dog away.
5. Stop drinking?

 

We have the occasional glassware casualty and/or wine spillage.... Keeping the coffee table clear, eternal vigilance, educating guests, lightening-quick tail grabbing reflexes - those are the best preventions.

 

You just gain a constant awareness of your dog around the table, a bit like you do with a toddler in the house... That said, I've had five Labradors now, and Merlin still managed to knock several glasses off the table this Christmas, due to enthusiastic wagging!

Oh, and welcome to the forum!

 

Welcome to the forum! Partly because I’ve changed to rooms around, I’ve not yet put the coffee table in the sitting room, but have small tables next to the sofas. To some extent they’re out of the way of lab tails!

 

Funny how lives adapt. We have a convention here that when a happy Pongo is spotted approaching the coffee table, someone will yell "Tail" and everyone grabs their glass. This happens without a break in the conversation or an eyelid batted.
Only taken us four years to learn.

 

I think you are doing very well to have only had one breakage. We have a flat coat and I do sometimes curse the person that decided the breed should have such a large tail when the temperament is to permanently wag it. In full wagging mode his tail becomes a lethal weapon. I have lost count of the number of coffee cups and wine glasses that have been sent ricocheting across the room to empty their contents across the walls and sofa. At this time of year, there is also the Christmas tree which gets redecorated every time his tail makes contact with it. We have recently bought new sofas so the rule is: if drinks are taken in the room the dog stays out. I think this is the only way we can guarantee avoiding spillages as it is not very relaxing to be on constant tail vigil. As it has turned out, the dog ends up in the room and the drinks stay out - has done wonders to reduce my wine consumption

 

Impossible lol!

I have coffee tables but they have things in front of them to prevent the dogs sweeping all away.



Welcome to you from Mags, Tatze and Keir from Manchester UK

Tatze is my pet dog, a black Lab and she's four years old. Tatze means 'paw' in German.

Keir is my fifth Guide Dog puppy, a yellow Golden Retriever/Flatcoat cross and he's six months old.





My chair -

 

Hahaha!! That’s exactly what we do.

 

We just call Stanleys tail a weapon of mass destruction and have given up trying to stop it.

We place everything in the centre of the coffee table and the tail usually doesn't reach that far

 

Coffee table? What's that?

I bought my first (and only) house so that I could get a dog, so just planned furniture from the get go to be dog-friendly. That meant no coffee table and only little side tables (like @Boogie 's photo) at the ends of the sofa for drinks. Also all my tumblers were plastic. And I learned to drink only colourless liquids.

I move around a lot now so can't control my furniture situation in furnished rentals (and also don't currently have my own dog but that's another story). For foster dogs with big tails, when I have a coffee table I just shove it into a corner and if I need to stick a glass on it, it goes into the corner furthest away from the dog-accessible edges. It looks kind of silly, but it works.

I guess all that to say that it's easy to get rid of (or disable) the coffee table than to control a happy tail!

 

Keir’s tail is the longest tail I’ve ever seen! He’s yet to get his really big ‘feathers’ which will make it lethal

On buses he just doesn’t know how to tuck it in so I put my foot next to it to prevent folks standing on it.

 

Nope, no coffee tables around here. Only problem I have is if I sit on the floor playing with him and then he decides he needs a rump scratch. Not only am I faced with his backside, I have his tail slapping me around. Ahhh, well, such is life!

 

First coffee cup casualty occurred this morning (just a few drops left thankfully). Vigilance required. You can never blame a happy dog. Good luck.

 

We’ve been trying to find a coffee table that will fit in our narrow lounge. I now realize how fortuitous it is that we’ve not found one (in 6 years!).

Some toddlers love to stand behind Snowie and have his wagging tail whip their faces - much giggling from them so I guess it’s not one of the lethal tails.

 

Sorry but I've never found a way to stop a happy tail we just don't put drinks on the table its part of being a lab owner same with the hair/coat loss and muddy paws if there is water around then my labs are in it

 

Some of my rooms have very little furniture in them. With three dogs careening around the house it is just easier.

 

I see a business opportunity - tail proof coffee tables! Mr Boogs made the small table in the photo. He could do them with box-like deep sides for putting cups/glasses in!