Dog Behavior: Is The Dog Sleeping In Bed With You?

Dogs are not solitary animals the way cats are. They like sleeping in bed with you. But is this a problem? Well not always, but it can be.

They have spent almost all of their evolutionary history existing with families of dogs. When night arrived, all of them curled up next to one another. Sleeping like this kept them warm. It made them happy and secure. Now that they live with humans, they need to continue this ancient and comforting ritual.

More critical than comfort is closeness. Dogs like packs, and they feel lonely when they sleep by themselves in a washing room or basement. It is the company that makes the bed where they to be. Some folk need their dogs on the bed and inspire them to leap up. The praise dogs get for coming on board is perhaps all of the incentive they have to do it constantly.

Left to rule themselves, actually, a few dogs would opt to sleep close to the bed, but not in it. That king-size mattress offers the last word in comfort, but there's lots of activity up there. We roll around. We push with our legs. We hog all of the covers. A large amount of dogs start out on the bed at the start of the night and wind up on the floor. They may come up for the closeness, but they will climb back down for more significant sleeping.

The Power Of Height

There is another reason dogs gravitate to the bed, one which has very little to do with comfort or closeness. Picture a little executive who sits in an exceedingly huge chair. That is how dogs understand the bed. In their world, height is power. A shy, retiring dog, for instance, will be extraordinarily careful about raising his head so it's higher than a more-assertive dog's. An pushy dog, on the other hand, will stretch his entire body upward to appear taller than he is. Sleeping on the bed instantly adds some feet to a dog's stature, and that may be quite a perk.

There's little wrong with indulging a dog's search for upward mobility. Just be certain he isn't taking advantage of what he perceives as his privileged standing. He may start expressing it to other pets - snarling when the cat dares to climb up, for instance. Some dogs will go even farther. Since I'm as tall as the people," their thinking appears to go, "I'm permitted to complain when they push into my spot." Never forget that you are the leader of the pack (in this case the family) and do let your dog think he has taken over this role. Some serious problems could occur if you do. If your dog is sleeping in bed with you, this is the biggest thing you need to look out for. And it's also why most trainers recommend against it.