For Dog Owners: Does Your Dog Sleep In Your Bed?

[MushyMushy]

Yes! The bigger one can't get up on the bed anymore, but she used to sleep in the bed, but only on nights DH fell asleep on the couch or was away on a business trip. She's too big to sleep with both of us. The smaller dog sleeps curled up between my feet. My daughter sometimes wants one of the dogs in the room with her and when she takes the one that sleeps with me, I have a hard time staying asleep.

 

[DopeyFan1966]

Our dog is a bed hog. But she only comes up when called and will get down when we ask her to. She is a boxer mix and weighs about 60 pounds. If she stays up on the bed until we fall asleep she usually gets down eventually. She has her own bed that she will sleep in for a while (next to my bed), but then will go sleep in our daughters room on the floor for a while. She has to check on all of us to make sure everything is okay.

Not allowed under the covers though. WAY too much dog hair. She's a shedder

 

[Ilivetogo]

Nope. My 110 lb. Akita occasionally hops up to "sniff" me goodnight - just to say hello -- but he hops down within a minute or so. If he did stay on the bed, I'd have no room. I think it's cooler on the floor so he likes it better down there.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

My dog is welcome to sleep in our bed if she wants to.

The biggest problem is that if she does, I can't stretch my legs out.

Usually she comes up for a while and then hops down.

Having a dog as a special part of your life like that - to me - is so worth a few dog hairs.

 

[robinb]

Yes, my standard poodle sleeps in my bed. My akita did not. If you allow a dog to sleep in your bed you give that dog a higher status in the pack/family. That's all fine and good if your dog is a submissive one like my poodle. It's NOT fine if your dog is an aggressive or dominant dog. They get too "full of themselves" if they are allowed to sleep with their masters.

I had one friend whose dog would growl at HER when she came to bed late and had to move the dog from next to her husband. According to the dog, her DH was pack leader and she came in between the two cats in the pack. Everything worked out great after she took charge of training him (clicker training) and kicked him out of the bed.

ETA: My poodle sleeps on the foot of the bed and doesn't shed. Oh ... and Dawn Jude is beautiful! I never thought about putting Darci's head fluff (top knot?) in a pony tail holder! I usually have her groomed when I can no longer see her eyes. A pony tail holder will gave me another week or two between groomings .

 

[zipuzee]

we have two dogs and they are both in the bed at some point during the night. I sometimes think its their bed, not ours.

 

[2binak]

Our 40lb dog has her own bed and sleeps there most of the night. She comes onto our bed to say goodnight and after a minute or two, she's in her own bed. She wanders downstairs to the living room and sleeps on the couches and in her crate and sometimes next to the front door for part of the night too, but never in our bed.

We dogsat for friends of ours and their 80lb dog was constantly trying to sleep in our bed but we were having no part of it! We kept waking up and making her get off the bed. In the morning, as we got the dog off the foot of our bed, our dog stood up, walked around the corner of the bed and growled at our friends' dog as if to say, "Don't you get it! You aren't supposed to sleep in their bed!"

For us, it's not a doghair or room issue, it's a respect and dominance issue.

 

[phoenx79]

We have 2 dogs. One sleeps with DS13 most of the time, but she is only about 12 pounds so its not a big deal. The other dog has his own room. Lucky dog. But he is almost 100 lbs. Both of them will lay on anything they can. Sheba is hilarious because she will lay on socks on the floor, or a newspaper, or a plastic bag. It doesn't matter what it is. If its on the floor she wants to be on it.

 

[PghLybrt]

Mine do. All 4.

They have their own beds too, if they want to sleep in them. The biggest (38lbs) usually sleeps on the floor in the summer becasue she is hot.

 

[airhead]

:utting on the flame suit here::

IMO, a dog sleeping in your bed is just nasty.

Most dogs shed. Who wants dog hair in their bed? YUCK!

Yup,it is certainly not a good idea to let your animals sleep in/on your bed. Shedding is the least of what happens.I have a customer(I own a dog daycare) who used to let her cute little Yorkie sleep in her bed. They even shared a pillow! Then,the dog owner got ringworm from her precious pet! Dog now sleeps in her own bed in her own crate.

 

[MerMom60_94]

I had one friend whose dog would growl at HER when she came to bed late and had to move the dog from next to her husband. According to the dog, her DH was pack leader and she came in between the two cats in the pack. Everything worked out great after she took charge of training him (clicker training) and kicked him out of the bed.

Our first dog did this. She was definitely a dominant dog and I made the mistake of treating her like a child. I had never lived with a dog before and didn't understand dog logic so she totally used to try to dominate me. DH would always go to bed first and when I would try to get in the bed she would stand up and growl at me. Luckily, my current dog is a runt and I have gained a better understanding of dog interactions. As much as I baby her I also let her know who is boss.

Yup,it is certainly not a good idea to let your animals sleep in/on your bed. Shedding is the least of what happens.I have a customer(I own a dog daycare) who used to let her cute little Yorkie sleep in her bed. They even shared a pillow! Then,the dog owner got ringworm from her precious pet! Dog now sleeps in her own bed in her own crate.

I'll admit I am forever petting and hugging my dog. So, wouldn't I risk getting exposed to ring worm anyway, whether she stays in the bed or not?

 

[Hercules10]

I wish I could teach Hurley (the one that sleeps with me) to sleep at the foot. He is a Pit/Lab/Mutt? mix and weighs about 80 pounds. He also sleeps directly in the middle of the bed and I can't get him to move most of the time so I end up sleeping at whatever angle I can.

I have 3 shepherds and one Lab/Heinz57. All together ~275+lbs of dog. The girls usually sleep nose to butt taking up the entire foot of the bed. Leaving some room for the big male next to me. So in summer my feet are on top of them and in winter they're nice feet warmers. Like I said...it's THEIR bed.

 

[debf]

We have two small dogs.They sleep with DD.If she is not home or has a friend sleep over they sleep in their crate together.If DD is away for a couple of nights I start to feel sorry for them and let them sleep with us. They don't shed.

 

[CathrynRose]

:utting on the flame suit here::

IMO, a dog sleeping in your bed is just nasty.

Most dogs shed. Who wants dog hair in their bed? YUCK!

That's what washing machines and those pet hair removal thingee's are for. Besides, Charley get's baths with snazzy salon shampoo, and quite frankly the hair is just everywhere anyways. We've given up on having anything 'hairless'.

When we first got him we said 'no furniture'. As the weeks went on, we didn't really understand why we came with this rule. It's what everyone else seemed to do, but we didn't really care - so why did we have this rule?

So, he started sleeping on our beds, and laying on our couches. And he loves it. He knows "move over", too. And sometimes he looks so darn cute, I can't even ask him to move. I just smoosh up smaller.

I'll tell you, the ONLY reason I'd ever want a small dog in the future is simply for more sleeping room. 85 pounds of muscley-ness sprawled out on a bed can really squish you up into a ball, when you sleep.

So, my answer is yes.

 

[suejai]

Our Fox Terrier always sleeps on someones bed. Usually with DS all wrapped up in the blankets. If DS is at a sleep over and DH is away he will sleep with me, but I only allow him onto the foot of the bed and I lay a sheet or towel down for him to lie on; otherwise, if DH is home, he will just sleep on DS's bed . The Bouvier will jump up on the bed if invited by will get off immediately, but he has his own bed.

Growing up, our Cairn Terrier always slept with one of us kids. My grandmother said it was indecent for a dog to sleep in a girls bed. I've always wondered what exactly she thought was going to happen, especially since our dog was female.

 

[joyjoy]

My 70 lb. boxer sleeps on the end of my bed every night. I love her.

 

[NMAmy]

My golden retriever sleeps under our bed with only her head sticking out--using her doggy bed as a pillow. We have a full sized bed--there's not room for the three of us.

She does have a twin bed of her own in DH's office in the basement. She sleeps there while he's working or when we're gone.

 

[Ephany]

Nope, never. In this house they're not allowed down the hallway to the bedrooms and our last house they weren't allowed upstairs at all. They're both large lab-mixes though who LOVE the dirt; I'm not willing to bathe them every day so they stay in designated areas. They often seem to prefer stretching out in front of the tv or on the kitchen floor where it's cooler anyway so it's all good. They like to be near their people and we don't tend to hang out in the bedrooms.

 

[CathrynRose]

Nope, never. In this house they're not allowed down the hallway to the bedrooms and our last house they weren't allowed upstairs at all. They're both large lab-mixes though who LOVE the dirt; I'm not willing to bathe them every day so they stay in designated areas. They often seem to prefer stretching out in front of the tv or on the kitchen floor where it's cooler anyway so it's all good. They like to be near their people and we don't tend to hang out in the bedrooms.

Just as a hady tip - not so they can sleep with you - but check out these 2 products:

http://www.petco.com/product/106080...-8381-DE11-B7F3-0019B9C043EB&mr:referralID=NA

and


http://www.petco.com/product/106078/John-Paul-Pet-Full-Body-and-Paw-Wipes.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch

With having a white dog - comes in super handy between baths. And that first one works REALLY good.

 

[MomofKatie]

Hi! I'm a cat owner checking in- hope it's OK for me to do so. It's interesting to hear about dog owners' situations. We would let all 3 of our kitties sleep with us, if they wanted to. Unfortunately, they seem to want to be on their own at bedtime. Our old cat, Woody, who we had for over 16 years, always slept between DH and I. He slept curled up between our heads. After he died, it took us a long time to get used to not having him there.