Dog owners..

Totally agree with this. I never let any of my animals, or my children for that matter, sleep in my bed. Once they start its very hard to get them out. My bed is the one place in this house thats MINE!!!

I don't let Bubba upstairs but that's because it's the cat's zone!

I would probably let him on my bed if I could. I just can't resist.

this

dog has been known to go upstiars but not at bedtime!!!

No. It is tempting especially if they're poorly but it will only lead to problems. I have to admit since H has been away and I have been out and come in drunk I 'may' have let her up for company but it shows because the night after she is whingey in her own bed. Serves me right and I wouldn't do it sober ?

Totally agree with this one - he has his sleeping place which was chosen for him, and we have ours, and because we are the "pack leaders" we choose where we go to sleep too and its not for those "lower in the pack" i.e. him

Never. He isn't even allowed upstairs.

Shea isn't either - the little monkey has realised that he can get to the first little landing thing (where the stairs turn) if he's not being watched

Yes. When I lived at home she either slept at the bottom of my bed or my parents. She is small & doesnt cast so to be honest its no biggie.

She sleeps on our bed when at ours - OH doesnt mind, its only wkends and the odd night through week but if she lived with us full time I think he'd make me put her on a beanbag on bedroom floor.

At the end of the day its whatever works for you - but if your OH isnt happy with the arrangement then my advise would be to stop it now.

When we got a dog I said she wouldn't be allowed upstairs but shes ended up sleeping on our bed and what started off as at the bottom of the bed has ended up with her in the middle of the bed and me with no room and getting stabbed in the back by her claws!

She sleeps on the bedroom floor when H is away so I have some company. She doesn't sleep on the bed. I'm a bit sceptical of the pack leader thing but I don't want her dragging outside dirt into my nice clean bed.

Saying that, I did call her on to the bed this morning but only because she had a operation yesterday and I wanted to keep an eye on her in case she started licking her stitches. She hated it though and wouldn't stay put. Apparantly one time when she stayed at my parents' she got into bed with my dad and started spooning him ?.

He sleeps in his crate at night but I may have brought him back up to bed with me when I fancied a lay in! H never let's him!

Well he slept in the kitchen last night and he started barking at around 6 so I got up with him, it's the only down fall really. He's a good boy though, I expected him to wimper and bark most of the night but he was fine.

this! stop it before it becomes impossible! it'll be the start of a never ending process to get your pup to stay downstairs. it could also spark separation behaviours that could occur not only at betime but when you are out in the day too! xx

See above. He was fine. I'm not going to say I'm never going to let him sleep in the bed again, but I certainly won't make a habit out of it.

The problem is, he won't know the reason you've let him sleep on the bed one night and not another. He might feel like he's being punished if he's not allowed to the next night. It's the same with allowing them on the sofa with you when they're pups, and then suddenly stopping them from doing this as they get older. They won't know why.

When we had a dog as a child he used to stay downstairs all of the time and wasn't allowed on the sofas either.

What I mean is his sleeping place will primarily be the kitchen, but say if S is away for the night, then that night I will more than likely allow the puppy to sleep with me.

He's allowed on the sofa but this will always apply he's such a small dog, he doesn't shred, we have a leather sofa, so we are more than happy for him to be on it.

I used to let the cats sleep at the foot of my bed when they were little but H banned that when we moved in together. To be fair, I was getting a bit fed up of them waking me by biting my toes...

I didn't miss my face being licked this morning either CO, or my ears being bit to shreds!

I am also with Tricks and the others, my dog never sleeps in or on my bed and is not allowed upstairs.

What Barry says is spot on too, the poor thing will be really confused, how can you expect them to be well behaved when the boundaries of what is acceptable change!

When my dog has been really poorly and I have been worried about him he has slept in his bed as normal and I have slept on the sofa so I can keep an eye on him (this is also not too unsual for him as I regularly fall asleep on the sofa while watching tv, oops!)

Snap - people may think my dog is a pampered pooch but she is a housedog, doesnt cast & is regularly groomed. Our sofa also is leather & if she has been out in the rain I give her feet a dry with an old tea towel. It really is personal preference but the key thing to a happy owner & happy dog is consistency.

My dog is lazy though - she has never woken me up, Its always me waking her to take her out to pee!

I am a complete softie with my dog but the main reason he isnt allowed in my bed is because he would jump on me and would probably break my nose in the middle of the night!

aww poor old boy- cant you let him in all the time?

Im so soft my guinea pigs used to live indoors as I was worried about them being outside all night in the cold!

In response to the OP- I am a bad person as I let my cat sleep on our bed (has to be shut downstairs if any squeaky bang bang will occur) if I had a dog then I imagine I would probably do the same. Unless it was a big dog. There just wouldnt be room?

Ours sleeps on the bed ?

What sorta dog we talking about Kharv?

Patterdale Terrier. He's relatively small. About the size of a Cocker Spaniel?

I know it's bad. when OH is on nights he sleeps with his head on his pillow! Ha.

Aww hes a cutey. And im not a dog person ?

I was really yawning in a meeting at work the other day- I told everyone I had had a really bad nights sleep- what I diddnt tell them was it was due to my cat taking over the whole bed and I felt to mean to move him.

The irony was not lost on me when I went to work that day and the cat was still asleep, nice and comy- and thats where I imagine he spent all day....why did I care that he wouldnt sleep- what about me?!!

Cheers Mins! Your cats are pretty darn nice too.

I've been there though. I don't do it anymore. Despite being allowed on the bed he's really good at going in his own bed if told so if he's being an arse I kick him out now.

It's extremely rare that we go to bed at the same time. He works shifts.

Not to go into too much detail but obv there's no how's your father with the dog in the bed. Good god he'd be traumatised poor thing.

We don't let our dog sleep on the bed, he has his own bed downstairs. Anytime he was Ill etc as a puppy one of us would sleep on the sofa so we could hear him getting up. We do let him upstairs (only now he's older, we didn't when he was a puppy). He knows he's not allowed on our bed so doesn't do it. We have a small cheapish ikea sofa in one of the rooms so he is allowed on that so often goes up and lies on it. As others have mentioned, when they are puppy's its the most important time for setting boundaries and it will be much harder to stop them doing it as they won't understand why it's changed.

We never planned to let him on our sofa in the livingroom but we did when he was fairly young so had to keep doing so. The only way we stopped it (well reduced it actually!) was when we moved we also changed our sofa so everything was new to him and we bought a big beanbag for him to sleep on in the livingroom so he was quite happy that he knew that was his and not to get up on the sofa. He is a really cuddly dog though and still comes over and literally tries to climb onto my knee so occasionally I will bring him beside me and just put a blanket down for him to lie on.

? Both our dogs sleep on our bed. They also have their own beds on the floor in our Bedroom and during the night will go and sleep on them when they want to, so they're not on our bed the whole night.