Choosing the Best Sleep Spot for Your Dog: Bed, Crate, or Bedroom?

Where does your dog sleep at night? In your bedroom? In your bed? In a crate?

If you’re bringing home a puppy for the first time we highly recommend crate training and teaching your puppy to sleep in his crate at night.

What about your well behaved, well trained older dog?

Should he be allowed to sleep on your bed at night? It’s a personal choice and as long as everyone in bed is comfortable and safe then by all means allow your dog to sleep with you.

There are definitely pros and cons to allowing your dog to sleep in your bed and in our house the pros outweigh the cons as we allow our two elder dogs to sleep in bed with us at night.

Where Our Dogs Sleep At Night

We just got back from vacation (actually it was our honeymoon) and one thing my wife and I noticed was no matter how tired we were we both had trouble sleeping at night.

It’s true we slept in a wide range of beds from a regular queen sized bed to a murphy bed to a pull out and maybe this was a big reason why we had some issues with our sleep.

On the flight home from Colorado we both conclusively decided that the main reason for our restless nights was that we did not have a dog(s) sleeping in the bed with us.

I guess we missed the dog fur, stealing of the blankets, hogging the bed, snoring (Stetson snores louder then anyone I’ve heard), etc that comes with having a dog cuddled up against you at night.

Raven & Archer

So where do our dogs sleep at night?  For starters, all of our puppies in training start by getting crate trained and will sleep at night in the crate.

After our puppies in training master the crate, potty training, and display good house manners they are given the opportunity to sleep anywhere in our bedroom except in the bed.

Raven and Archer have both graduated from sleeping in closed crates, but even with the opportunity to sleep outside the crate I often find them sleeping in their crates.

Linus & Stetson

However, our pet dogs are a different story.  Linus is allowed to sleep on the bed and he has made the large king-sized pillow his own.

He will usually start the night sleeping above our heads, but often times I wake up and Linus has taken residence in his crate for the majority of the night and morning.

Stetson is our original Puppy In Training raised to be a guide dog and career changed to mentor future guide and service puppies. Stetson was trained not to be on furniture including the bed all the way until he was career changed and transitioned from a working dog to a pet.

Now that we’ve allowed him to be in the bed Stetson absolutely loves the bed! LOVES IT!!!

Where Does Your Dog Sleep At Night?

Dogs are social animals and so are people so it’s no wonder many of us like to allow our dog to sleep in our beds at night.

Here are a few pros and cons we thought of for allowing your dog to sleep in your bed.

Pros

• There’s nothing like cuddling up with man’s best friend.  Linus from time to time will cuddle into my armpit 🙂
• Your dog can be like a built in heated blanket.  Stetson makes for a great leg warmer!
• Dogs make for great alarm clocks.  Stetson knows his exact meal time and starts jumping up and down on the bed.
• Your dog is less likely to be stressed.  I’m pretty sure having my two buddies, Stetson and Linus in bed reduces my stress level as well.

Cons

• You will likely eat more fur then your Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA).  Linus blows out his coat twice a year…not a fun time 🙁
• You might not have the greatest smelling bed.  I’m resigned to the fact I and all my belongings will always smell like dog.
• You will have to clean the sheets more often.  Well, not necessarily if you don’t mind points 1 and 2…
• Sometimes dog’s snore.  Stetson and Ali battle it out for who can snore louder.
• Some dogs like to sprawl across the bed and steal the covers.  Stetson will sometimes sleep diagonal.

3 Reasons Why We Would Not Allow Our Dog To Sleep In The Bed

1. Your Dog Is Not Housetrained.  It’s an accident waiting to happen.  Your dog will likely not alert you when he has to pee/poop and either A. Jump down from the bed and have an accident on the carpet or B. Even worse sneak off to the corner of the bed to do his business.
2. Your Dog Does Not Have Good House Manners.  If your dog still have behaviors you don’t want him practicing while you cannot supervise him then a crate is more suitable when it’s time for bed.  After all you don’t want to wake up and find that your dog chewed up your favorite Christian Louboutin heels.
3. Your Dog Shows Aggression When In Bed. You don’t want your aggressive dog to bite, nip, or attack anyone.  If your dog is showing guarding aggression it might be a good time to hire a professional dog trainer to work with you and your dog.

It’s time to hear from you guys.

How many of you allow your dog to sleep in your bed at night?

Tell us your pros and cons for allowing your dog to sleep in your bed.

Leave us a comment in the section below.

Speak soon!

Colby

Top Picks For Our Puppies

1. BEST PUPPY TOY
   We Like: Snuggle Puppy w/ Heart Beat & Heat Pack - Perfect for new puppies. We get all of our Service Dog pups a Snuggle Puppy.
2. BEST DOG CHEW
   We Like: Best Bully Sticks - All of our puppies love to bite, nip, and chew. We love using Bully Sticks to help divert these unwanted behaviors.
3. BEST DOG TREATS
   We Like: Wellness Soft Puppy Bites - One of our favorite treats for training our service dog puppies.
4. BEST FRESH DOG FOOD
   We Like: The Farmer's Dog - A couple months ago we started feeding Raven fresh dog food and she loves it! Get 50% off your first order of The Farmer's Dog.

Check out more of our favorites on our New Puppy Checklist.