If You lie Down With Dogs . . .

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I grew up in a home where the dogs slept in the bed with my folks, period.  There was never any type of discussion about it.  I didn’t even understand there were other choices up until I was older.  When I discovered available were people with dogs who DIDN’T have them sleep in bed with them, I wondered what was wrong with those people.  Why have a pet dog if it didn’t sleep with you? That’s like, eight hours of “dog-time” down the drain.  What a waste.  Weirdos.

Fortunately, my mind broadened a bit as I got older, as well as I began to comprehend why people may not want to share their beds with their canines. Dogs aren’t always the cleanest of animals, as well as if you believe mommy screeches when Mr. Puppy-head gets mud on the floor, you must hear the noise she makes when he gets everything over the bed.  Plus, even if they are clean as well as pristine, a lot of dogs shed.

As I got even older (considering I’m only on the cusp of 30 here, envision what wonders I’ll understand by the time I’m 60), I discovered about even a lot more reasons to not have the family pets in the bed–potentially disgusting reasons.  I mean, animals don’t have gain access to to soap as well as bit bidets as well as they like to get into bacterially disgusting things–dead things even–and, well, you get the idea.

Let us not even speak of the kid security program I went to when I was pregnant.  That class’s action to the subject was, “If the infant is going to be on it EVER, then the family pets can be on it NEVER.”  I’m quite sure the woman who ran that class would have happily told everybody to just get rid of their family pets if she believed she might have gotten away with it.

Yet  I regularly checked out articles about exactly how great having family pets can be for us as well as for our kids, as well as I just shake my head.  What’s a dog-owner to do?

When I very first got Loki, she slept in a crate with old towels.  Puppies are adorable bit furballs with great deals of teeth, a hardcore wish for destruction, as well as untrained bladders, so you can bet that’s where she slept.

As Loki got older, I believed not letting her sleep in the bed was the “right” thing to do.  I got her a cushy bit doggy bed, put it where her crate utilized to be (she never truly took to the crate like I’ve seen other dogs do), as well as let her snooze on that.

And then my other half went out of town as well as I got lonely.  And that “right” concept I got from goodness only understands where fell out of my brain . . . up until he got back.  But it was as well late then.  Expecting to sleep on the bed, Loki would come over to my side of the bed as well as chuff as well as bounce at me.  AND SHE WAS truly adorable as well as I’M A overall SAP.

Aaaaaaaand then I got expecting as well as went to the “pets will kill your infant as well as most likely you too” class.

So when the infant was, well, a BABY, I did keep the dogs off the bed as well as away from the co-sleeper.  (I might just SEE Loki crawling in there, since she is that type of pet dog who declares all comfy containers as hers, regardless of the small human who may or may not currently be sleeping in stated container–and that is 30+ pounds of corgi we’re speaking about.)

But the infant got older as well as transferred to his crib.  And my other half went out of town again.  And Loki had obviously not forgotten exactly how to bounce as well as chuff in an charming fashion.  AND I’M even a lot more OF A SAP considering that I had A KID.

After agonizing for at least a week over my failure of enabling the corgi back in the bed, I spoke to my dog-trainer friend.  Do you understand what she told me?  “My dogs sleep in bed with me.  Heck, one of them likes to sleep virtually on my head.  It’s fine; what’s your problem?”

So Loki sleeps on the bed, as well as I stopped worrying.

Disclaimer: Do I believe poorly of you as well as your pet-owner skills if you don’t let your pet dog sleep on your bed? No.  Do I believe letting a pet sleep in bed with you is the super, best, 100% awesomest  thing to do ever? No.  Do I do what’s finest for me as well as mine as well as expect you to do the same? BINGO.

Pet Behavior