Dog Bed vs. Human Bed

[TylerDurden]

I know there have been similar threads in the past, but most of them seem to be old.
Do your dogs sleep with you? I‘m personally 100% against it. I couldn‘t sleep at all, and don‘t to wake up covered in dog hair and/or drool. I‘m asking the question because a co-worker was basically telling me that I didn‘t "really" love my dog. To me, my sleeping routine is not in any way related to the love to my dog. I would do everything for him, but I simply belove that dogs do not belong in human beds. I understand that some people are OK with it, and I don‘t judge at all. Generally, I like my house clean at all times, which is challenging when owning a Mastiff, but I‘m not too crazy about it. However, I draw the line when it comes to our bedroom. He‘s not allowed in there, which I think is fine and reasonable.

Again, not my intention to judge, I‘m just curious and thought I would pose the question the dog lovers on here.

 

[Smokeycat]

Mine are allowed on the bed. Kryten spends only a little time on it as it is cooler to sleep on the floor. Jiggers tends to cuddle. Unfortunately there is a significant portion of the "pet parent" people that I've met that think if you don't treat your pet like a spoiled human child you clearly don't love them that much. After a few very bizarre conversations with this sort of person I've come to the conclusion that I'm never going to understand that mindset and the best response is just to smile and nod without trying to hide any facial expressions that indicate that I find their opinions nuts.

 

[Pastor Dave]

Although on rare occasions my dogs are caught on the bed or couch, we do not allow sleeping on the bed or couch. If we have to be gone for any length of time, we cover the couch and close the bedroom doors. Chev the mastiff used to like to get up on the bed beside us when time to sleep, but we discourage that for sure.....hair, twitching, chasing imaginary dream-time cats and chippies, all that....sleeping on the bed would not work at all unless we didn't care to sleep. We have not found a suitable "doggie bed" for either of our dogs, so we put some old pillows and comforters on the floor and the dogs have gotten used to sleeping on them. It works. Thanks for asking, Smokycat. You can see a couple of the old pillows on the floor by the hearth of the fireplace, living room. Chev scatters the sleeping pillows all over for sure !!

 

[glen]

I dont let mine on the bed, not even as pups, i dont let them on furniture either, they have blankets near me so they lay on them to be close, they each have there own beds, theres times whem i would let them on the sofa but glen doesnt allow it, so as not to confuse the boys i dont allow it either, he likes them to respect our space as we do theres if they go to the crates we made the grandchildren leave them alone.

 

[April Nicole]

We don't allow Logan on the couch or in any of the bedrooms. For one it is to keep him in check on his status. The Alpha always gets the best spot. Allowing them to get on the furniture can cause problems with them thinking they are higher in rank in the pack. Also like you Tyler, I am a bit OCD with the cleaning. Not that anyone who let's their dog sleep with them isn't. I just don't have time to put into the extra cleaning it would take if allowed to be on furniture....

Also I don't judge either. If someone wants to let their dog on the furniture and sleep with them, that's their choice. Not my business. But for someone to say you don't love your dog because you choose to treat Bane like a dog. that's crossing a line. They obviously don't understand pack orders in dogs...

So my choice is to keep him off, so that it doesn't become a problem in the future.

 

[April Nicole]

Although on rare occasions my dogs are caught on the bed or couch, we do not allow sleeping on the bed or couch. If we have to be gone for any length of time, we cover the couch and close the bedroom doors. Chev the mastiff used to like to get up on the bed beside us when time to sleep, but we discourage that for sure.....hair, twitching, chasing imaginary dream-time cats and chippies, all that....sleeping on the bed would not work at all unless we didn't care to sleep. We have not found a suitable "doggie bed" for either of our dogs, so we put some old pillows and comforters on the floor and the dogs have gotten used to sleeping on them. It works. Thanks for asking, Smokycat. You can see a couple of the old pillows on the floor by the hearth of the fireplace, living room. Chev scatters the sleeping pillows all over for sure !!View attachment 60570

Chev is so cute. I love his big ears... oh, and his pink toenail.

 

[Jarena]

Same here, no judging. We don’t allow Lettie on the bed or any furniture. We also close doors and booby-trap couches to keep her off if we leave and don’t crate her. If I lived alone I would probably sleep with Lettie. To be fair, somewhere deep down, I would regret it. The dog hair on my skin would drive me nuts and I would probably wake up bruised. But if I lived alone, there would be a lot of things wrong lol, I’m not a grown up yet.

We also keep things clean here, I thought it would be really hard with a mastiff. Maybe since she’s a “pocket mastiff” she’s not as drool-y and not as much of a bull-in-a-China-shop .

We are crazy dog parents and we don’t allow her on any furniture, it just means we spend a lot of time on the floor!

 

[Boxergirl]

I'll be the odd one out. My dogs sleep with us. Not all at the same time, but the boys one night and Ella another. We actually take the pups to be with us once we know they can be crated overnight so they learn to be good sleepers. They're also allowed on the furniture. If they're asked to get off, they get off.

 

[Jarena]

I'll be the odd one out. My dogs sleep with us. Not all at the same time, but the boys one night and Ella another. We actually take the pups to be with us once we know they can be crated overnight so they learn to be good sleepers. They're also allowed on the furniture. If they're asked to get off, they get off.

My boyfriend and I have discussed this. We recently upgraded from a full to a king size bed. So maybe someday when Lettie has matured we will let her sleep with us. We talk about how much we want her to all the time lol. She just isn’t ready yet.

 

[April Nicole]

Just want to clarify that I do know some people think the Alpha status in dogs are a myth. And I completely respect that view. I have studied both sides, and have decided to hold to the view that dogs are indeed social pack animals. I do not in any way condone or agree with people who think they have to be an Alpha and rule with an iron fist. I am not an Alpha. I'm not a dog. I just want my dogs to have a complete understanding that they are beneath every human in my house. I don't do this by using fear, but rather respect and love. Just wanted to put that out there cause I know there are people out there that believe in the Alpha theory and think they have to make dogs fear them and sometimes use abuse to accomplish that. And I don't want to be associated to that side of the belief.

 

[TylerDurden]

Thank you all for the interesting discussion!

@April Nicole I didn‘t even think about pack order in that particular context, but definitely understand your point of view on it.

@Pastor Dave We are finding that Mastiffs seem to like the cold, hard floor much better than the softest bed (at least in our case). He hasn‘t experienced a real hot summer yet, but I‘m expecting to find him on the cold kitchen floor a lot during that period.

 

[Sheila Braund]

OK so I guess I'm m on both sides of the furniture . Sunny my puff of a 6lb poodle does sleep with us in our bed.....in my opinion that was a mistake... We wake each other up all the time during the night. Now Bella doesn't even sleep in our bedroom..... Only because our bedroom is on the second floor....and once these EMs get a little up there in age and weight they have a hard time with my stairs....I'm in an old farm house and my stairs are steeper then most. Bella just takes over the couch when all the humans are off of it.

 

[MastiffMillie]

Millie is not allowed upstairs at all and never tries if I’m honest. We put a baby gate on the stairs when she was a pup and since it came off she’s never tried at all...... makes bathing difficult as I have trouble coaxing her upstairs to the bedroom! I wouldn’t be able to sleep with her on the bed as she’s just too big (and she’s relatively small for a mastiff at 40kg) she also snores far too loudly and farts !

Now, she was never allowed on the sofa as a pup but just in the last few months we’ve started letting her up in the evenings when we’re watching TV. She knows not to get up if she gets an ‘uh-uh’ as sometimes I just don’t want her massive head on my lap!! She’s not often told no though as I love that she wants to snuggle. However, she is such a good girl that she absolutely knows that if we’re not on the sofa ourselves then it’s a complete no-go for her. She has an elevated bed in the lounge which she LOVES.

 

[Zeela]

I think I made a mistake, Zeela sleeps with me in my bed. Since she is now about 85 lbs and I am only about 110 lbs, it's hard to push her out of the way and she is shedding like crazy so I am washing the sheets every day. I will have to eventually get her use to her own bed. For now it's okay, she snores on my back. lol...

 

[CeeCee]

In my house we all sleep together. It absolutely takes some careful arranging (to make sure I get my place in the bed first), but there have absolutely been some mornings where getting out of bed felt like I was being birthed and nights where I have slept at the headboard because everyone was all cuddled up and cute and I didn't have the heart to make everyone move so I could get in.

I will say though that my dogs don't start out with or assume these privileges. Maybe I'm mean, but in the beginning I want them to ask permission (sit, watch me, and wait for me to invite them up). I also want to know that when I tell them off, they will get off.

 

[Nik]

I don't think keeping them out of the bedroom means you don't love them. That said, psychologically it does strengthen the bond with your dogs to sleep with them. They are pack animals and sleeping together as a pack is one of the bonding behaviors. As for the human side of things cosleeping tends to strengthen our bonds as well. Also there have been scientific studies that have shown that sleeping with pets has health benefits for blood pressure, stress, etc. Of course, there are plenty of other bonding behaviors so doing without the one shouldn't really negatively impact you.

My dogs sleep with me most nights. Some nights I will only have one up and rarely we sleep without either. Most nights it is both. But... it is a privilege for them and if they misbehave or are disruptive they go to their crates. If I tell them off they are expected to get off.

The cat isn't allowed to sleep with us or in the bedroom at night. He tends to be disruptive and disturb our sleep too much. If he could calm down and settle he would be allowed in also. So far no luck with that so he gets locked out of the bedroom every night.

Personally I like having the dogs in the bed and I often feel like it is empty and lonely without them. I like falling asleep to the snoring. As for the shedding. They aren't allowed under the covers (this morning was the first time Kahlua tried to worm her way underneath). They do leave sheddings on top of the bedding but honestly when they shed it just tends to get everywhere anyways and it doesn't really bother me. We don't have carpet so sweeping and an occasional washing of the bedspread takes care of that.

 

[Steven C]

Poodles in the bed and CC on the floor. Poodles do not shed so that would take care of the dirty part @TylerDurden

Secondly our Poodles are our more our companions and the CC is more for working, although she is happy to sleep right next to the bed either side. I agree with April on the alpha status thing especially with a high drive dog always plotting to rule the world. Even if there was no domination thing, it would be very dangerous for the small Poodles to get crushed accidentally by the large dog.

 

[Nik]

Poodles in the bed and CC on the floor. Poodles do not shed so that would take care of the dirty part @TylerDurden

Secondly our Poodles are our more our companions and the CC is more for working, although she is happy to sleep right next to the bed either side. I agree with April on the alpha status thing especially with a high drive dog always plotting to rule the world. Even if there was no domination thing, it would be very dangerous for the small Poodles to get crushed accidentally by the large dog.

My dogs are really careful around the cat. They love their "little brother". I also notice they are extra careful when around little dogs.

 

[April Nicole]

My dogs are really careful around the cat. They love their "little brother". I also notice they are extra careful when around little dogs.

I hope I can get Logan that way. He has chilled out a bit with it. But still when he gets those zoomies, he goes after her to play. She is doing well with dealing w him, but I do intervene. Now when he gets going and doesn't want to stop, I leash him.

 

[DennasMom]

Our house is one big dog bed... seriously... Denna is SPOILED! But, she's not rotten, so we're fine with that.
She normally sleeps with me on the bed, unless she gets hot, then she falls onto the floor and stays there.

The only time I would require her to get off the bed (or couch... another one of her 'bed' choices) - would be if she refused to get off when asked, so far, that's not a problem.

Even after 6 years of being allowed on the bed, she still sits patiently at the foot of the bed and waits for me to climb in and then invite her up to join me. She's very polite that way.

We do have a lot of hair and some dried drool spots around the house, so I can see where anyone who wants to maintain a clean house would have to draw tighter rules than what we have at our place. Our "disgust limits" are pretty far out there when it comes to dirt in the house... we try to have company come over a few times a year, just because that forces us to clean up the place. LOL.