How to prevent stray dogs from climbing on top of my car?

Question

Background: I park my car on the side of the road right opposite my house (so do all my neighbors).

Problem: A stray dog climbs on my car (I can see from the pugmarks made in dust that was already on the car surface) and sometimes sleeps on the top of the car during the nights. When it sleeps on the car, it scratches up the surface and bites away the antenna. Is there anyway of preventing the dog from climbing on my car?

Note:

1. This happens only at night when no one's watching.
2. I sprayed pepper spray on my car hoping the dog will find it repellent but it doesn't seem to work.
3. I put the cover on the car - it works, dogs hate car covers apparently, but it is too cumbersome to do it every day. I am looking for an easier solution.
4. I am not sure if there's a particular dog that takes fancy to climbing on top of cars - there are a couple of them
5. These dog(s) take fancy to three particular cars (among many in the street) and climb/sleep on them - mine is one of the three

Answer 1

You could try to use something less aggressive than pepper spray to discourage your occasional tenant.

There are dogs that do not like the odour of citrus fruit. If you try the zest or juice of lemons near where you think the dogs nose might be, maybe that is enough to discourage your "guest." Dogs have a good sense of smell so maybe you don't need much. Look for strategic places to apply it. The car antenna is a good candidate.

If it works after a couple of applications you can use it occasionally to keep the memory fresh in the dogs mind to avoid the hassle.

Good Luck

Answer 2

If you want to prevent dogs from climbing on your car you might want to try a natural car wax product - at least applying it where they like to jump on the car. Car wax also smells terrible to dogs (and humans) so it might repel them. My dogs HATE car wax.

In my experience, wax protects the surface of the vehicle from scratches - so it could minimise the damage. However, you'll want to be careful to choose natural car wax without petroleum (as opposed to synthetic - see the difference here). There is some concern that petroleum is harmful to dogs if they ingest it, but no solid answers. Still, you'd want to be safe. You could also try spraying water on your car before you go to bed. That should make it an uncomfortable sleeping place.