No dogs on the furniture

I've heard that some people don't allow their dogs on the furniture. As someone who bought an extra-large armchair for the sole purpose of sharing it with her dogs, I find this hard to grasp.

It's also hard to enforce. Years ago when we bought a new sofa, we put one of those electric-shock "scat mats" on it to discourage our dogs and cats from getting up there. It made absolutely no difference, and we soon gave up.

My husband picked out the living room chair he favors. It's a platform rocker and not what I would have chosen, but he paid for it and he sits in it. He strongly discourages the dogs from getting up in that chair. He's generally pretty mild-tempered, but when he yells at the dogs, we all go running. Mostly they do stay away from that chair, maybe because the rocking motion when they jump on it is so disconcerting.

Lately, though, Georgie has been sneaking onto his dad's chair. He rests his chin on the wooden arm rest, which doesn't look at all comfortable to me, but he seems quite content.