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hunniebunnie · 01-03-2007, 07:16 PM

Most trainers will tell new dog owners not to sleep with the dog in the human bed. There are a lot of reasons for this:

- dominance issue: alpha dog sleeps higher than others in the pack. the alpha dog also dictates who sleeps where. your dog may get used to sleeping in your bed and insists on sleeping there going forward despite your say, thereby making him/her alpha to you.

- potty issue: having a puppy that is not potty trained in bed is an accident waiting to happen. a dog will not want to soil his bed, but it's a big bed and what he/she defines as "sleeping area" and off limits to pee/poo may be within the confines of the edge of the bed. hence you can wake up with a poop pile by your foot.

- size issue: trainers deal with dogs of all sizes. they will teach you good training habits that's consistent across all breeds. they will teach that what is not acceptable behavior for a bigger dog should not be acceptable for a smaller dog, although owners of smaller dogs tend to neglect this and give small dogs alot more latitude. hence, imagine having a puppy that will grow to an 80 lbs adult dog. many new owners find it cute to have a 10 lbs puppy in bed with them, but most find it difficult with an 80 lb dog in bed with them and will boot them out of the human bed. but the dog on the otherhand is already in the habit of sleeping with the owner. this is just another bad habit that needs to be broken so it's better not to even start.

- cleansing issue: unlike humans, dogs wear the same "outfit" for indoors and outdoors. you would never consider wearing your jacket, jeans, and shoes to bed with you, but having a dog in bed with you to sleep, you're basically allowing your dog to bring his/her "outerwear" into your bed.

Now, with that being said, my boys are small so size is not an issue. i've trained them to move off the bed and furniture on command to reinforce my dominance over them, so dominance is not an issue. they only started sleeping in bed with us when they're potty trained, so potty is not an issue. and they get a little foot bath and baby wiped body whenever they come back from the outside so cleansiness is not an issue.

yeah they are spoiled!

01-03-2007, 07:16 PM	#22
hunniebunnie Follower of Yorkietology Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Cali-fo-nee-ya Posts: 1,325	Most trainers will tell new dog owners not to sleep with the dog in the human bed. There are a lot of reasons for this: - dominance issue: alpha dog sleeps higher than others in the pack. the alpha dog also dictates who sleeps where. your dog may get used to sleeping in your bed and insists on sleeping there going forward despite your say, thereby making him/her alpha to you. - potty issue: having a puppy that is not potty trained in bed is an accident waiting to happen. a dog will not want to soil his bed, but it's a big bed and what he/she defines as "sleeping area" and off limits to pee/poo may be within the confines of the edge of the bed. hence you can wake up with a poop pile by your foot. - size issue: trainers deal with dogs of all sizes. they will teach you good training habits that's consistent across all breeds. they will teach that what is not acceptable behavior for a bigger dog should not be acceptable for a smaller dog, although owners of smaller dogs tend to neglect this and give small dogs alot more latitude. hence, imagine having a puppy that will grow to an 80 lbs adult dog. many new owners find it cute to have a 10 lbs puppy in bed with them, but most find it difficult with an 80 lb dog in bed with them and will boot them out of the human bed. but the dog on the otherhand is already in the habit of sleeping with the owner. this is just another bad habit that needs to be broken so it's better not to even start. - cleansing issue: unlike humans, dogs wear the same "outfit" for indoors and outdoors. you would never consider wearing your jacket, jeans, and shoes to bed with you, but having a dog in bed with you to sleep, you're basically allowing your dog to bring his/her "outerwear" into your bed. Now, with that being said, my boys are small so size is not an issue. i've trained them to move off the bed and furniture on command to reinforce my dominance over them, so dominance is not an issue. they only started sleeping in bed with us when they're potty trained, so potty is not an issue. and they get a little foot bath and baby wiped body whenever they come back from the outside so cleansiness is not an issue. yeah they are spoiled!