of the first questions I ask my clients when they start training classes with me is "who lets their dog sleep on their bed with them?"
This question is met with wide eyed owners generally feeling caught out and needing to confess this perceived sin of dog ownership bracing for the following lecture.
Relax - of course we let our dogs sleep on our beds, the greatest gift our dogs give us is their loyalty and nothing beats a weekend sleep in with your fur buddy.
For some of us the feeling of security our dogs give us as they sleep beside us is priceless.
There are a few points to consider however to ensure our dogs realise this is a privileged invitation to share our space not their right. It is equally important to make sure your dog can and does settle in their own space whether that be their own bed or crate within your room or another room in the house.
This will ensure if your dog ever stays in someone else's care or home where bed sharing is not permitted you will have a dog that is not stressed with the sleeping arrangements.
We balance this behaviour in our home with a few basic rules.
If your dog races to your room and plonks itself right in the middle of the bed this needs to be corrected. Ask for the off command and get yourself sorted and comfortable in bed. You can then invite your dog to join you with the up command. This outlines that you are in control of what is ultimately a high value resource for your dog.
The bed is an area where no play happens, if you encourage rough housing or play this behaviour will be normalised in this environment so when you really are trying to get that sleep in an unexpected nip or body slam is really not appreciated.
If your dogs are over excited ignore them completely until they settle before you speak to them or pet them so they know exactly which behaviour gets the reward from you.
A few nights a week in their own space is essential and daytime naps on the bed when you are not in the room should not be allowed as who owns this space can come into question causing confusion for your dog when you correct it for being on the bed when it believes it is their safe place.
The same rules can also be put in place for the sofa, no invitation no access, to give clear resource boundaries to your dog.
Paw point of the week
Allowing our dogs to sleep with us is a natural sleeping arrangement in our dogs' minds - a pack will curl up together for the night to ensure security of the group.
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