Sleeping On Dog Bed

1063 Views 6 Replies 7 Participants Last post by kbigge, Jul 19, 2008

FoxTrot13

Discussion Starter · Jul 17, 2008

Hi Everyone,

I hope this is the appropriate place for this topic. So I recently went out and bought a dog bed for my 7month GSD Koda and have placed in my room near my bed. This will be her first night sleeping on it and I was wondering, how do I go about training her to sleep on the bed. She is outside for most of the day and then comes inside at night to sleep in my room. Before the doggy bed, she slept in her crate.
My worry is that she will not recognize the bed as a place to sleep and will simply run around the room the whole night. She knew that when she was in her crate at night that it was bed time. But without the crate I am afraid she might not realize that its bed time. What should I do make her bed more exciting and safe place to sleep? Anything you can provide is appreciated. Thank

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Liljah

· #2 · Jul 17, 2008

I didn't have to do anything. Shane recognized a comfortable sleeping spot and just went for it. The moment I brought out his bed, he labeled it as his. However, I would just make sure you can trust your dog to sleep outside of the crate first. We had to test Shane a few times before, we bought him his own doggie bed first.

If your dog are unsure about the bed, then I would do what you did to crate her. Make it feel like home, praise him when he goes on it, or when he is sleeping. Just don't force her on the bed.

Good luck!

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mkennels

· #3 · Jul 18, 2008

If your dog don't know it is his and is restless maybe put the bed in the crate with the door open and once she knows after a couple of nights that is her bed take it out and she should know that is hers

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SunCzarina

· #4 · Jul 18, 2008

Originally Posted By: mkennelsIf your dog don't know it is his and is restless maybe put the bed in the crate with the door open and once she knows after a couple of nights that is her bed take it out and she should know that is hers

That's what I did with Morgan. Many years later, she got a new bed. The kids and I brought it home and put it in the livingroom. 3 kids piled into it so she didn't know it was hers until I brought it up to my bedroom and put it in her favorite spot. She looked at me like 'Oh it's for me?'

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GSDOwner2008

· #5 · Jul 18, 2008

My boys like sleeping in thier crates, it's like their own little cave of privacy. We used to have Apollo's dog bed out in a room, where he used it, but not as much as he slept in the crate. So we put the bed in the crate, and when he's tired, he'll go to his crate,lay down and fall asleep with his crate door open.

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Timber1

· #6 · Jul 19, 2008

I bought a dog bed for my pup and put it in his crate. When he went to bed, he would take the dog bed out and sleep on the harder crate bottom.

Assuming Koda is house broken I would niot be concerned about whether the dog likes the crate or not.

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kbigge

· #7 · Jul 19, 2008

I trained Kodee to sleep in my room uncrated by using a 6 ft leash, and putting the leg of my (heavy) bed-side stand through the handle on the floor, and having him tethered by it to the bedside stand on my side of the bed. I put his fleece bed next to the bedside stand, and 2 or 3 of his favorite chew toys (nice, quiet Nylabones, no squeakies)

on his bed.

Every night before I head into the bedroom, I tell Kodee "bedtime!", and we head to the bedroom (he races in, I follow - LOL! ). Once we were in the room, I'd tell him "place" (he already knew the place command when we started this), and he'd pounce down onto his bed, and I'd give him his "bedtime treat", and clip the leash to his collar. We did this every night for a few weeks, until I was ready to try it without the tether.

It seems to have worked - now when I say "bedtime", he automatically goes in and lays on his bed for his treat. If he lays anywhere else, he doesn't get the treat. He occassionally will just pounce on the carpet into the "down" position, and I just shake my head and sah "uh-uh", and he moves onto the bed and looks at me like "ok, NOW can I have my snack?" LOL! He goes into the room and sleeps without messing with anything (I keep clothes, shoes, etc off the floor). However, if he gets hot, he will sleep off of his bed and onto the small tiled area of our bedroom floor in front of the French doors to our deck. (The rest of the room is carpeted).

I think this would be as good a way as any to try to teach your dog that the bedroom is for sleeping, and not playing/roaming around all night. Kodee knows that when it's "bedtime", it's "lay down and be quiet time." He usually is passed out before I am.

Good luck!

P.S. I meant to tell you that the first 2 or 3 weeks that Kodee slept in my room without being tied to anything, I kept my bedroom door closed so he couldn't roam the house and get into anything. Then there was a home invasion less than 2 miles from my house, and I've left my door open since then so he could roam in the house if he wanted. So far he has never left "our" room.

Occassionally he'll sleep just inside the bedroom door to "guard" it, I think, but he never leaves the room as long as I'm in there at night. Just FYI.

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