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Is it bad to allow your GSD to sleep in your bed with you?

153K views 263 replies 204 participants last post by  Gaia 
#1 ·
First post, dont hold back :p

My 5 month old GSD has his own bed, and uses it most nights, however some nights I need to go to sleep and he just isn't getting bored or comfy, If I let him in my bed with me he goes right to sleep. Now Im aware this might not be the best thing down the road. But if i continue to do this, is it really going to haunt me in the future?
 
#30 ·
mine get the privilege after they show they will get off when i say off the bed. usually rufus puts himself to bed around 9ish, and he sleeps on my side . sadie joins him for a bit, then switches sides then goes to the other bedroom, i normally wake up in the middle of the night with both of them crashed out and sound asleep lol... as long as the dog isnt a jerk its fine to let them in the bed or on the furniture
 
#32 ·
working with doggies a lot easier when you set boundaries and rules like don't go on the bed or stay off a particular couch. :)
Tell that to mine that decides at 4am to cry in my face...I tell her to lay down, she cries again and noses me, I move over, she jumps up and gets real cuddly. Lets put it this way, I still have not turned on the heat...I have dogs:D
 
#34 ·
I wish I'd never started letting the dogs on the beds(or sofa). I kept pups in a crate by the bed until they outgrew the crate. Then when they were safe to be out of the crate, they could have free roam at night.
My bedspreads have been snagged and the one I have now, I really love, but it has holes in it from the dogs nails.
Most often the dogs go on it when we aren't home, Karlo will lay on my feet right when I go to bed, but he jumps down after a bit/probably gets too warm for him. I love my footwarmer!
When my DH leaves early in the am, Onyx takes his spot. Very routine how the dogs are!
I don't think letting them on, or not on the bed is a biggie as far as 'dominance' goes, when I tell them to get off they do.

I wouldn't let my foster on furniture as I didn't want him thinking it was ok when he went to his new home.
 
#37 ·
Singe has only slept on the bed once - when we were in a motel overnight for a trial. I ended up making him get on the floor because he was perking up to check out every noise from outside.
I wondered if he would try to get on the bed when we got home but it seems the thought never crossed his mind.
He did love that motel though! When he first got on the bed, he was bouncing like a little kid lol
 
#38 ·
My boy is allowed in our bed but only when I invite him up and he knows to get off when told. He usually spends only about 20-30 minutes with us before he gets too hot and lays on his carpet next to me. It might be different if I didn't have a husband go TDY (work trips) all the time, Vader makes up for the empty space when hubby is gone.


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#40 ·
My dogs do not sleep on my bed but they are allowed up and must get down when told. Lakota was a princess in another life and must have something cushy to lay on. She has the most bed privelges of any of my dogs. Usually when my husband gets up in the morning, she takes his spot. On weekends she usually will come up on the bed in the morning curl up at the foot of the bed and she has to have her head on me. The kittys usually have the foot of the bed when it's cold.
I don't like them on my sheets, but I don't care about the comforter I can throw it in the wash easy enough.
I figured when my husband was in the hospital she'd sleep in the bed with me but she didn't, she slept in her own bed.
 
#41 ·
Mine sleeps in our bed. Sometimes Sieger will stay just a bit then move on to the living room. He always starts with me every night until I go to sleep. But if my husband comes in later and the dog is in his spot then the Sieger either hops down or scoots over. But then it gets too crowded so does not stay long. Sieger normally makes it back into bed in the morning to sleep again for a bit. Never had any behavior issues. IF he is too dirty to get on the bed he has a tether in the dinning room and I always have a thick blanket laid out for him on the bed so my sheets don't get dirty...unless the hubby leaves them thrown back when he gets up. I have rolled over to find a 90lbs snoring dog with his head on the pillow:) THank goodness for King sized beds!!!!
 
#43 ·
I slept with the Hooligans for many years, but one night I just got fed up sleeping with up to 7 GSDs, so I made everyone get off and don't allow them on the bed when I'm in it (but they have access the rest of the time). I'm down to 4 now and sleep much better than I did having dogs shifting around, jumping on and off the bed, etc.
 
#44 ·
Hmmmmm, ways this could haunt you in the future:

1. When your dog has to wear a cone. Sleeping with Ninja and her cone was like sleeping with a couple of five year olds and a tobaggon.

2. One day your dog will come in soaked or muddy or skunked or after he rolled on some dead thing, and then directly up on your bed, yay!

3. When your pup is blowing coat, you will itch like crazy sleeping in all that hair.

4. One day you might trap a momma mouse. And than the babies will stagger out one by one trying to figure out where the meal ticket is. And, then Babs, the surrogate momma dog, will bring Jr. Mouse up into the bed with you -- yay!!!

5. When dogs feel bad they go to their comfort spot. That is often your bed. Yay. The dog does not deliberately vomit on your bed to make a statement, it is just that it is his comfort spot, and he feels sick, and he wants to feel better, and...

Well, I could probably go on a few days, but for me, the positives outweigh the negatives:

Well, there might not be room for you.....
 
#46 ·
My 4 dogs all have the option of sleeping with me. My GSD does every night, the other dogs do when they feel like it (usually they're all up when it's cold, in the summer only the GSD). The only time I have obedience problems is if I've been too sick/busy to get them their normal amount of exercise for a few days, but obviously that isn't tied into where they sleep and goes away as soon as I work them regularly again.

I usually go camping/backpacking with my dogs for at least a couple of weekends a month, and one or two week+ long backpacking trips a year, and we all sleep in a pile in the tent during those so I figure sleeping on the bed isn't much different. ;) I grew up doing that so it just never really occurred to me not to let my dogs on the bed. I'm also very strict about a "move" command--they need to arrange themselves around my partner and I, not the other way around. I sleep better with my dogs around though, and have trouble falling asleep when they're not with me. Especially because before I moved in with my boyfriend a month or so ago, I was living alone in a very remote area--very comforting to be surrounded by a pile of dogs!

Actually the biggest problem I have is training my boyfriend not to encourage Hector (the GSD) to climb all over him in bed and take all the covers. My boyfriend loves Hector and thinks it's great fun. But that's not the dog's fault!
 
#47 ·
We recently lost our 8 year old GSD "Nikki" to cancer. She was a great dog, but slept on the floor at the foot of our bed on her own bed.

Prior to Nikki, we had a Doberman that would sleep on our bed. How we managed that I will never know, because he was 100lb of solid dog!

We currently have a 6 mos old female GSD but have no plans on letting her sleep on our bed. The several cats that do sleep on our bed would not like it very much! LOL!
 
#51 ·
I have one that loves to sleep on the bed. She's not allowed under the covers and I have a sheet over top the duvet so that she doesn't make contact with the duvet. It's amazing how much fur gets on the sheet in one week from wash to wash.
 
#52 ·
Due to different work schedules, my husband and I sleep in separate rooms. Jake starts out with my husband on his bed and gets too hot and has various places on the floor in his room and in the hall where he sleeps. He has a nice comfy dog bed in the hall upstairs as well that he uses quite regularly.

When I get up to let Jake out and feed him at 4:30am, Jake goes back upstairs and then sleeps the rest of the morning on his bed until they get up around 6:30am.

Jake comes and hangs out on my bed while we’re getting ready for bed. I’m a light sleeper, so no dogs allowed sleeping in my bed at night.
 
#53 ·
IMO dogs new to the house and puppies shouldn't be given free reign of furniture until they are settled and all the rules have been firmly established.

Medo wasn't allowed on the couch until he was about a year old....and I finally relented on the bed when he was around 15 months or so on the bed. I go to bed way before my husband and I used to drag Elsa to bed with me to snuggle....she did NOT like it, but tolerated it because mom said so, haha. Well, at some point whenever I would go brush my teeth, etc Medo started running to the bedroom and would jump on the bed and just give me this look when I walked in the room like "oh PLEEEEZ PLEEEEEZ let me stay on the bed!" It was so stinkin' cute I decided he could be my pre-sleeping cuddle. Now it never fails--as soon as I start the process of getting ready for bed he'll go RUNNING back to the bedroom and just wait there for me. If he's tired and wants to "go to bed" he'll go back to the bedroom to wait, come back to the living room and give this kind of pitiful whine after awhile and then run back to the bedroom.

Elsa likes to jump on the bed sometimes...it is definitely crowed when it's the 4 of us on there!

To avoid the nastiness of having the dogs on the bed, I have a large el-cheapo king size sheet that I put over our comforter that I was once a week or so. It definitely gets dirty.....they would not be on the bed without it! (we also keep the couch covered). And I keep the bed all neat and "put together" so they never have access to get the dirt all over our sheets (I'm one f those weirdos who has to have the bed tucked in and made perfectly every day as soon as I wake up).
 
#54 ·
I'm heading to Mississippi on Sunday to pick up a new puppy. (This will be number 13 for our household). It will be a Lancashire Heeler puppy (adult weight will be around 12-15lbs). As I do with all our dogs, she will spend the first few months sleeping in a crate. When I feel confident she is clear on the housebreaking thing I will let her sleep loose with the other dogs. My other Lancashire Heeler starts out the night on the bed but usually moves to his "den" under the bed. I'm guessing she will do the same.
 
#55 ·
Apollo actually...doesn't really sleep on the bed with me o:
He's much more content either sleeping on the floor by my bed, at the very end of my bed off to the corner, or sometimes he even goes into his crate himself to sleep.

He just likes his own space at night I guess, cos during the day he follows me everywhere I go, even if I just have to go to the bathroom! xD
 
#57 ·
I have read a lot of times that it makes the dog feel as an equal and not that you are the leader. My dog sleeps in bed with me but if at ANY time I tell him to get down he will do so immediately. So, I feel that tells me he can sleep in my bed whenever and still know I'm boss..so to say.
 
#58 ·
Our Newfie, Bear, would have loved to sleep in our bed-but rules are rules. My dogs have always had their cave (crate) that I don't crawl into, and I have MY places that are inappropriate for my dogtooth get into unless they ate expressly invited.
 
#59 · (Edited)
Kono is allowed to sleep anywhere in my room. Usually she sleeps on my bed but then she sometimes will sleep in her crate or on the floor. I have the crate in my room so if I ask her to go in she will and just sleep there. Usually I let her roam around my room but when she has flea and tick stuff on or if she is making noise I tell her to go in because I want to sleep :p I think it shows I have authority yet still want her to be around me and comfy c:
 
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