Welcome sstehm!

As far as cleaning goes, what works for me is use a 50/50 white vinegar/water solution. That really helps with the stain. It virtually makes it disappear, and it also takes away the ammonia smell of the urine. Then I use “Nature’s Miracle” (follow instructions on bottle). That seems to do the trick. IMPORTANT NOTE: I found out the hard way though that Nature’s Miracle can seem to stain/bleach some carpet (and so I figure the same would happen with some fabrics) so be sure to test it first on an small area out of sight. It doesn’t stain any of the carpet I have now and it hasn’t stained any of our current fabric furniture. There is also another good product that didn’t stain called Simple Solution. However, though it worked well, it didn’t do as well as Nature’s Miracle.

Regarding the urinating problem.

I have a couple of questions first to try and help figure out why they are doing this.

1. How old are they?
2. How long have you had them?
3. How long has it been since they’ve been altered?
4. Has anything recently changed? like any new animals enter the house,have you changed any furniture around? Any new cleaners, perfumes, colognes? Were you and your fiance around any other animals the day they peed on you?
5. Have they been peeing and pooping in other new places recently?

Rabbits LOVE to pee on the couch-Usually because they are claiming it-it’s pretty comfy. If you two were on the couch, well maybe you were in the way of them ‘claiming it’ -I’d not let them up on the couch now, make sure they now it’s yours (and fiances) and they are visitors not owners of the couch!

I had a lot of trouble with my bunnies peeing on my bed. Bunnies seem to like both beds and couches a lot, and want to mark them because they smell so strongly of people. Even though they are fixed and have been for awhile, the fact that they have found a new place that they want to claim can cause them to start marking again. I agree that they probably need to be kept off the couch or they will keep trying to claim it.

Ah ha!  It all makes sense now. So being with you in the house all the time is not their norm?.  Well, they seem to like i their new inside freedoms enough to claim the prized locations AND claim you in you both in the process. A sort of back-handed….er….backended compliment. .  It is not unusual for a bunny, who believes that this is their new permanent home to try to claim the compfy places where your scent is. 

In the wild, rabbits of the same herd will also mark in the same places to re-emphasize their belonging, so they may be doing that for that reason as well.

You will need to let them know that  the couch is your territory only, that they can be part of the “herd” in the house, but the couch is the only place where your scent is allowed,  and so like the others have said, you can’t allow them up there at all.   Later you can try again, if you think they have gotten the message that  you claim it.    If they just hang out with you, but don’t mark  it or you then it could work, but if they are like my bunny Jack who will always try to claim it in time, then the couch will have to always be off limits.

Jack marked the couch if he was allowed up on it.  – plus he liked to dig and chew at it -I think because he was trying to dig out “our scent” .  So he’s never allowed on the couch. It’s been a rule that he’s been used to for years, and he won’t jump up there even when we are not there.  (well he might, but he doesn’t mark it, and he shows no interest to jump up on  “HUMAN’S”  stuff at all anymore.

Keep us updated.

To keep them off the couch.   You could use nic cubes or the xpen.   With the xpen though you may feel you are behind bars. HEhe.  the NIC cubes I think would work better.

A squirt bottle is something handy that you can use too in a pinch especially if you are across the room and you see their tail lift up. It helps stop it right away, but then after that if they just stay up there, you will have to escort them off yourself so they know YOU are claiming it. It’s also a to catch them when they are about to jump up, and prevent that from happening. That way,even the “thought” of jumping up is discouraged.

This is something you may find constantly repeating. It can be tiring with the most persistent buns. So if they continue to just jump back right up, then put them in their inside pen for some time out. The idea is they will associate freedom then with NOT jumping up on the couch.

oh, the couch! i also decided a long time ago to show my girl how to get on the couch and it’s been constant ever since. no pee marking (thank goodness!) but she loves to dig and bite the couch. we have a system that when i’m on the computer and she goes on the couch and starts to dig or chew, i stand up and look at her and she hops down. then i sit back at the computer. 30 seconds later she is back on the couch, i stand up, she gets down. we repeat this probably a hundred times in the course of the morning. water bottles don’t work with her in this situation…

so my suggestion is to not show your bunny how to get on the couch (or bed… we have the same issue with the bed). of course, you already have ;o) so it just comes time to deal with it. i agree that you might block off the couch with grids or an xpen. another option some folks have done was cover the couch with a waterproof shower curtain and ALLOW the bunny to mark it until they were done, probably a week. once they are confident it is fully marked, they should stop marking and you can throw away the shower curtain.