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November 30, 2006
SofaGuard keeps the pets off the furniture with extreme prejudice
Authored by Dan Moren at 3:58 PM
Category | Home & Household
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One of my roommates has a cat, and this has been my first experience living with a furry little creature. Overall, I find the animal to be pretty friendly and a pleasure to have around (the fact that he's been declawed, and thus can't shred furniture or, er, my leg doesn't hurt).
However, the kitty does have a habit of jumping up on all sorts of furniture, from futons to beds to the kitchen table, some of which we'd like to discourage. I prefer not to have a side of cat hair with my dinner.
I'm not sure I'm willing to invest in the SofaGuard, though. The £18.95 (~$37) pricetag isn't the source of my reluctance though, it's more the manner of Pavlovian conditioning by which they hope to correct the animal's behavior:
As soon as your pet jumps onto the mat, which is fitted with sensors, an audible 105 decibel alarm will go off – a ‘warning’ which will have the little rascal jumping off the sofa in a flash. The alarm will stop as soon as your pet has left the mat. Neither you nor your neighbours will be annoyed by a constant noise.I'm glad that my neighbors and I are not being annoyed by constant noise, but 105 decibels is, according to Wikipedia, louder than a jackhammer at 2 meters. Nothing better than interrupting a good night's sleep than construction work in my living room. Maybe I'll stick with putting the cat back in his room during dinner.
[via Red Ferret]
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