I have read some articles by people who think that letting a dog sleep with you gives them a bad attitude. I have had my dogs sleep with me all my life and have never had an issue. I guess the people who think it is an issue compare the domestic dog to a wolf and in wolf land the dog who sleeps on top of the pack is the alpha dog. My little Maltese always slept at the bottom of the bed. No issues. My Shih Tzu only slep near me on the bed if it got a little chilly inside. Gracie is one who likes to cuddle, probably because she gets cold easily. Gracie is a so called "alpha" personality but it has nothing to do with sleeping with me. She was born a bossy little thing but I have learned how to deal with it and have no issues with her except that she thinks she is boss of all the cats in the house! She has slept with me from day one. I am a light sleeper and Gracie slept all through the night from the day I got her so potty training was never an issue. The few times she did wake up at night I just put he on the pee pad and then we went back to bed. She has pet steps to get up and down off the bed now.
It's a personal decision. We have always raised our dogs to have free run of the house. I know crate training has become quite the rage but I prefer to have a dog that knows the house rules and can be trusted to keep them. Obviously that takes some training and when you are not home several hours out of the day it takes more time to accomplish that training.
Maybe you could start leaving your dog for an hour or so a day before you have to leave for longer lengths of time so he gets used to you not being there all the time. I am home much of the time and when I leave for more than an hour Gracie gets very upset and shivers and shakes for a while after I get home. She does not bark or cry when I'm gone. Her reaction seems to be more when I get home.
As for marking.....we used to have a male Yellow Lab that had certain places in the yard where he went. He never did it inside just on the trees in the yard. I'm not sure how people deal with it with their little indoor trained dogs. I'm sure someone will have ideas. |