Hi there, I'm Chris from Roger and Chris and I'm here today to talk about an important topic. That topic is the best leather for a dog. So if you want a leather sofa, leather arm chair, a leather loveseat, whatever it might be, and you got a dog, what's your best bet?

I think you're probably best-suited with something that's gonna be a little bit resistant to scratching, a little bit resistant to staining, and easily cleanable without causing discoloration or damage.

There are a lot of beautiful, natural leathers out there that have a really very natural finish, and by natural I mean there's nothing really on top of them to give them sort of protection or any sort of adjustments to the finish. It's just, it's just leather, you know? And it's gorgeous. The only problem is if your dog drools on it it can stain that and that drool mark may not come out. Like period. It may just be there forever. And if you're going for a really rustic look and you like your sofa to kinda be a little bit worn and look like you've had it for decades, past down through the family and all that, that's a very specific aesthetic, it's great. I think it looks awesome, but it's not for everybody. So I think you really have to seriously think like, ugh, is this gonna drive me crazy? Is this something I'm gonna be constantly chasing the dog off the sofa, nervous that if I leave the house that he's immediately gonna jump up on it and, you know, go to town on it. I think you're best with something that has at least a little bit of protection.

Now, we can get a little bit of protection from drool and such a few different ways. With a natural leather, you can look for a leather that has a bit of a wax coating to it. That wax is gonna be sort of a water-repellent of sort. It's a wax, you know. And that'll give you a little bit of protection. If you need to go a step higher from there, you're looking really at a protected leather, performance leather. Those leathers rather than being a traditional aniline dye process, they're gonna be pigment dye. It's gonna be a little bit more solid in color, a little bit more uniform, and then they add a lot of variation by hand after the fact. And frequently they will also then give it a top coating of some sort to give it additional protection that's gonna prevent any sort of moisture from seeping into it. You can clean it with a wider range of cleaning products without causing discoloration.

It's going to give you a little bit of fade resistance, as well, and also frequently scratch resistance. That's the other factor. Dogs have claws. They are, you know, not always super graceful. I have a big, dumb clumsy dog myself so I can relate. You want something that's not gonna show every claw mark. I think, again, if you're comfortable with a little bit of wear, that's one thing, but you don't necessarily wanna look like it's beat up after six months. That's not ideal. So protected leathers are gonna be more resistant to scratching.

The easy test is to request some swatches from us and run your fingernail across it, run your keys across it, see how it responds. Do your Good Housekeeping seal of approval on it to see how is this leather going to behave once it's on a sofa. Anything that has some scratch resistance to it, again, it's within a range, right? There's gonna be a point at which, if you really go to town on it it's gonna scratch and there's not much you can do about it. But we're just trying to cover your bases and give you a little bit of insurance here. I think for most people, most dogs, that's gonna be more than enough to give you a high-quality, high-end feeling leather that still has that kind of extra safeguard that's gonna make it look its best for the long haul.

So protected leathers, definitely worth looking at. We've got all kinds of colors, all kinds of finishes, so, again, browse our site. We've got 'em kinda categorized pretty straight forward. If you have questions or want specific looks, shoot us an email and we'll be able to point you in the right direction on that.