Who sleeps with their dogs?

[kayharley]

After a few disasterous incidents when Madison peed on my bed for no reason and then Elliott did the same months later, I refused to allow any of them access to the bedroom. It was a closed door 24/7.

Why am I now starting to soften?

Last night as I was getting ready to retire and the dogs weren't crated yet, Maddy jumps up on my bed with the saddest eyes and lies down. Elliott can't jump that high so he's pawing at the quilt trying to join his sister. Then Winnie, my older Cairn just sits at the doorway with a look that could melt the coldest heart. I knew I was in big trouble!!

So last night we all got together for the big Cairn sleepover. I didn't sleep well because I either had a tail up my nose or a head on my legs or found out my oldest snores or I kept waiting to feel something wet.

Hubby usually stays up real late and falls asleep on the couch...I've given up trying to wake him at 2:00 so this dog thing could become a habit.

Advice from any of you who routinely let your Cairns sleep on your beds....is there a downside to it? Is it healthy? Can it be broken once it becomes regular?

I know next week when I start work and have to get up at 4:45, the sleepovers will only be on weekends.

Thanks

[MikeC]

Duffy and Miki won't sleep on the bed. They think its time to play but when we put them in their crates at night they know its time to sleep. I've only had two dogs in my lifetime that slept on the bed with me. Both were Springer Spaniels. I keep hoping that when my two terrors get older that they will actually sleep on the bed rather than want to play.

Mike

[Guest mrskti]

Well, since Ellie and Dori are only 6 mo old, i'm not gutsy enough to try it yet. I can see pee all over my new mattress!!! But, at night they play all over the bedroom, having a ball....and they love to get on the bed, it's also real high so they need help, but they end up falling asleep and it's so cute. My husband also falls asleep in the living room! In his recliner, so i know I'll be tempted one of these days to just 'let sleeping dogs ly"!!

They do sleep in their crates, and do great with that....around 8:30 or 9 till 7am or so. Can't hate that. Now if I could just sleep!!!

[Brody'sMom]

The first time Brody slept with us was right after he ripped his toenail. He had a bandage on and we were afraid he'd chew it so we brought him to bed with us. He curled right up at the foot of the bed and slept great. It started to become a problem when he'd lick our faces so we'd let him out in the middle of the night. He went back to his own bed for a while. When we got Mia, both dogs slept in their ex-pens. At some point we brought Mia to bed and then it was both dogs. Now, if we even walk towards the bedroom after dark they follow us in hopes of sleeping with us! Now I know why I didn't order the bed that came with my bedroom suite, somewhere in my subconscience I knew I'd be upgrading to a king-size bed!

[Mama Kim]

Piper has slept on the bed since the second week we got her (so she was about 10 weeks old). She's always been good, never an accident. The only problem I had initially was she would wake up and want to play if I had to get up and use the bathroom during the night. But if I laid real still and closed my eyes, she'd eventually give up. Piper loves her big bed!!!!! She even has her own pillow. And she's a bed hog too. It's amazing how much space a little Cairn can take up in a king-sized bed!!

As far as a downside or breaking the habit once they start, I have no idea. I haven't discovered a down side yet, and my goal was always to have her sleep on the bed like Lucy, our first Cairn did. Piper is a thorough bed sleeper. She never, ever gets down. We used to keep a dog bed alongside our bed for Lucy because she generally got down at some point during the night. Not Piper. I generally wake up with her curled up right next to me.

[Pepandfriend's mom]

My two start off sleeping in my room but on "their" little sofa with blankets over it; by the time it is morning, Pepper is next to the pillow, and Henry is somewhere toward the end of the bed.

Pam

[Carolinasmom]

Carolina has slept with me since the day I brought her home. She peed in my bed once. Yuck!

Before I got married, she would sleep on the pillow next to me, (double bed.) Can you say spoiled?!??? Now that I am married, she sleeps at the foot of the bed, (queen bed) however, she starts out on my pillow until I come to bed and kick her off. When she is at the foot, it's amazing how much of a bed hog she is. She definitely takes up more than her share of the bed. She stretches waaaayyy out, perpendicular to our feet.

She always starts out on the bed, then after about 20 minutes, moves to the floor. She eventually ends up on the couch down in the living room, only to return to our bed before it gets light out. Goofy dog. I don't know if I could get her to break the habit or not.

As for healthy, I try not to think of what invisible cooties are on my pillow when she climbs up on it. I will also never buy a "dry clean only" comforter b/c it does get dirty and need washed.

I think my favorite thing is when Carolina wants to snuggle. She will nose her way under the covers and snuggle right up against my stomach with me curled around her.

[AllAboutPetey]

Petey has slept in our king size bed since about age 7 months, when he was no longer having any "accidents". He is a bed hog, too, and sleeps all over...foot, pillows, between, sideways between, you name it. Belle is still crated in our bedroom at night because she is still not completely reliable in the housetraining department...she has good days and bad days, but she's not trustworthy yet. Hopefully one day she'll sleep with the "pack" too. Oh, and Petey is not a morning person and would snooze all morning if we let him. Belle, on the other hand, is up at the crack of dawn and ready to go.

[Eliz222]

Scout started sleeping with us when she was about a year old. She once peed on the bed too! I think she was about 4 months old then.....that was a bear to clean up!

Finch started sleeping with us when she was about 9 months old. They have their "own" space and get in their position each night. Finch sleeps by our feet and Scout is up higher, between us. The other night Finch got in Scout's position and Scout would NOT sleep....and stood and waited for Finch to get up and then she returned to her normal spot.

My DH likes to stay up late too, so we get lots of snuggle time in before he comes to bed. The other night, I punched the pillow, which was beside me, so it wouldn't flop over. The pillow slowly started to take shape (the "hole" filled in....down pillow) and Finch just stared at it in amazment.....like she discovered a whole new thing. She let out a a little bark and then pushed her head right into the pillow! It was the funniest thing...I don't know what she thought she was going to "do" to that pillow!

As far as if it's a good thing....I don't know.....but I sure love having our dogs in bed with us! I wash my sheets fairly often (not as much since I'm still going through chemo)...about 3 times a week (I know...I have a thing for clean sheets)...so I don't worry too much about the dirt they bring in the bed.

[Guest rottndobie]

I've done it both ways. When I only had Dobes and other large dogs, they had their bed on the floor right next to mine. Keep in mind that I have always had 3 and sometimes 4 large dogs. No way could all of them sleep on the bed with me so instead of playing favorites - no one slept with me.

Now that I only have Ashley (big) and Shadow (small) I do allow them to sleep with me.

As long as they are housebroken there is no problem. Crate training goes a long way to hasten that end. My guys were always housebroken by the time they were 3 mos of age and could sleep loose in the bedroom all night.

[toomanypaws]

Talk about a family bed, we win the prize! Besides my dh and I, we have a Lab, 1 Cairn and 2 cats sleeping w/ us. We first tried w/ letting our first Cairn, Kiara sleep w/ us, but all she cared about was where the cat was. With our 2nd Cairn, Abbey, all she wanted was to sleep w/ Kiara. Then came our 3rd Cairn, Hannah, the bed hog. For such a tiny thing, she'll sleep sideways w/ her head toward me and bottom toward my dh. Besides Hannah, we have our Lab sleeping at the end of our bed. Hannah's still adjusting to the new kitten and will sometimes get too anxious so we have to crate her, but she's coming around. On weekends, my dd will sometimes squeeze into the middle of it all. We take the family bed to a new level.

[GIDGETSMOM]

Wow! Now that's a bed full of love.

I can't imagine not having my baby sleeping with me. Gidget sleeps on the pillow right beside me.

Little Greta now sleeps in the floor on a bed. She has fallen out of bed twice and just about scared me to death, so I'm not taking any chances anymore. I think a lot of it is where she's lost a lot of her hearing and sleeps so sound. Bless it's little.

I truly love both my girls. Now my German Shepherd is a different story. He either sleeps in the floor by my bed or in the living room on his big bed.

[abe's dad]

When we first Got Abe My wife said "That Dog is not sleeping in MY bed" well that lasted about 2 Weeks and I came in from work one night (I work the evening shift)and guess who is on my pillow. None other than Abe he has now settled into whatever space he can find between us. THen we adopted Scruffy He was going to be dd's bed buddy but nothing would satisfy him but to be where Abe was So now we have Abe between us all night and Scuff between us until he gets hot and he moves to the foot of the bed. They will get up when I come in from work and sit with me on the couch after everyone does buisness and gets a treat then it is back to bed unitil Mom gets up to get the non furry kids off to school. Then the furry kids come back to bed with me for a little while in the morning.

Edited to Add a picture I just remembered

[Mama Kim]

My twins like to take turns sleeping the big king-sized bed with me and Piper when DH is out of town. This morning I woke up and Piper was snuggled up with my Brian. under the covers, with her head on his pillow. Too cute for words.

[kayharley]

That picture is hilarious, abe's dad! I might be a bit concerned someone would start chewing my hair as I slept though.

This is what I could not say "no" to....the innocence. And the fact that they did not attack my Chip and Dale.

[Marmielin]

Tink has slept with us since the second night we got her, and we love cuddling with her. The only time we have a problem is 6:15 a.m. when SHE decides it is time to get up - even on weekends. She starts pawing our heads and whining. Other than that, she sleeps under the cover, between us with her head lying between our pillows.

Lindab

[Milopup]

My pup won't sleep with us - he doesn't mind lazying with us, but when it is sleepytime, he prefers his crate.

For those that crate - we still lock his door even at 22 months, since he seems to prefer it. He feels it keeps us out while he is resting. Are we the only ones doing this - I feel cruel. :(

[bradl]

Nope, you're not alone. We have two on the bed but two in the hall in closed crates. The hall monitors Echo and Stella serve as an Early Warning Detection System for burglars, racoons, and the occasional bit of paper blowing by outside in the night.

Haggis (the male) starts out where I want to sleep so I drag him to the foot of the bed; after a short while he moves under the bed or to a doggy bed we keep on the floor; later he moves to the floor at the foot of the bed; sometimes I find him in the hallway just outside the bedroom; in the morning he used to always move back to the bed, but lately he's liking the doggy bed on the floor for his morning slumber. Quite the Night Patrol. Barley? Like a fur lump - doesn't budge until Cookie Call in the morning.

[bubba]

I can sleep with one, or sleep with another, but not both at the same time....they think it's a playground and I'm the obstacle course!

This past couple of weeks I have had pluerisy. It makes me quite tired due to my lack of oxygen intake. Quite often (alright, everyday) I come home from work and take a nap. I woke up last week to Yoda's nose in my mouth and my husband laughing hysterically! He kindly said that's what I deserve for snoring!!!!

Whatever!

pat.

[Tuff&Tippy]

Tuff and Tippy have slept with us in bed since we got both of them. We only have had one pee accident with Tuff when he was about 4 months old, nothing since.

Our nightly routine is take out for potty then watch a bit of TV to relax, then get up and say "are you ready for bed?" pick them up (they are usually passed out) and carry each one into the bedroom and go to sleep. They both are sound sleepers and sleep through the night. Tuff won't budge from the spot you lay him in sometimes they take my side before I get a chance to get in and I have to fight for the space. We also have the cat

[Teri9672]

if Tabitha sleeps in the bed it's always down by our feet. She usually gets tired of the ceiling fan blowing her hair and usually retires to her crate beside the bed.

I just wish Teona would sleep..period! She went to bed last night at 9:30 was up again at 11:30. Back to bed at 12:30 thanks to some benadryl... then back up at 4:30.

She's my little pistol!

[Kathryn]

Just like taking naps, I think dogs sleeping on the bed are some of life's extravagances. Each of my dogs has slept on our bed. Our first, Annie, slept up on the pillows and, in her later years, didn't bother to get out of bed when we did. We'd have to go upstairs and roust her out after an hour or two.

Allie didn't get bed privileges early on because the first time we invited her up, she chewed a hole in the bedroom carpet and tore the bedskirt off the bed within the first half hour. After she was about 2 or 3, though, she finally settled down and we trust her enough to let her sleep. She chooses the foot of the bed unless there's a thunderstorm, when she heads up to the pillows and trembles until the noise stops.

In the morning, she'll ask to come under the covers if the weather is cool. That's the best! Cairns don't snuggle enough for me ever to get tired of that.

[savannahsmom35]

Savannah slept in our bed once and I would love to have her in there everynight but 1) she is not reliable enough with the potty training and 2) dh says he wouldn't be able to sleep because he would worry about rolling over on her (party pooper). She seems to like sleeping in her crate but I think in a month or so she may be sleeping in the bed with us...

[Brody'sMom]

To Milopup - Brody and Mia sleep with us a lot, but since they also need to be prepared to sleep in their crates if we travel, they still sleep in there (with the door shut) on occasion. Brody actually really likes his crate, he jumps in for naps if the door happens to be open.

[hallswel]

Rebel doesn't like the bed. When he is in the room he wants to sleep under the bed. He likes being in the room with us but he wants his space. Hamm our pug loves sleeping in the bed with us but he likes sleeping on top of feet or sleeping right beside your leg and resting his head on top.

Sugar has not slept on the bed. She will fall asleep curled up in my lap but when she wakes up you have to get her outside quick.....or you get peed on so no she will not be in the bed for a while.