Does your dog sleep upstairs with you?

[bbcessex]

Hi all

Our lab puppy is nearly 10 months old now. He is beautiful, adorable, amazing and we all love him 😃😃

He sleeps downstairs in a crate. He’s happy there, he loves it and often puts himself in it when he’s ready to go to bed.

I’d love him to sleep upstairs with us - either in / on our bed or in a dog bed nearby.

He did this when we were in a holiday cottage and it was lovely.

Am I mad? What are the pros and cons of doing this in everyday life?

If DH is a poor sleeper, I wouldn't. You've said your dog is very happy in his crate. You know the saying....let sleeping dogs lie. Dog is happy, DH is happy. Only one hankering is you. If you try and DH can't sleep properly you will upset your dog by switching back.

Yes. I have a quilted throw on the bottom of the bed which she lies on and is easy to wash every couple of days.

I do feel / hear her moving around though and now she is older she snores like a foghorn but I wouldn't change a thing. I find her presence comforting and I love to pop my feet under her to warm them up in the winter

I wish we could do this, but I don’t like the dirt getting in our bed. I know she is dirty as when she gets her weekly bath, dirt in water. Plus she rolls around in the park and mud etc. We made a compromise and now allow her on couch w a blanket.😀

My 8yo lab has her own bedroom/boot room with her crate in it. There is no way I would have her in my bedroom. She does sleep with us when we stay with friends and as a result I don’t get any sleep as she thinks we are v dirty and spends the night cleaning us. Dog breath at 3 am is not my idea of fun.
During the day she is glued to my side and isn’t left alone.

Mine doesn't shed and he sleeps upstairs on a dog bed in our bedroom. It suits me. He isn't allowed upstairs during the day but I open the babygate in the evening and he hops up the stairs with me and jumps on the big bed. When I am ready to go to bed I climb in and he hops off to his own bed on the floor. He climbs back in at 6:00 am for a cuddle but he is happy to snooze next to my head until 7.

No, he sleeps in his 'bedroom' which is under the stairs. I like the idea of him sleeping with us but in reality he is a huge male greyhound and there'd be no room for us! Alongside the fact that DS3 sleeps poorly at the moment so I am frequently up in the night.

I have three (two big one small) and all sleep upstairs in our room, two in a crate one on some vet bed at the end of our bed. Part of it is also fire reasons. I have two harnesses and lunge lines and slip leads so that DH and I can lower each dog out of the window safely. Our kitchen and back hallway with stairs are all one, so it's likely we'd lose our stairs pretty fast in a fire. Also one of mine has threatened bloat a few times and he isn't the kind to make a big fuss but he will nuzzle me and whimper if he's having an episode of colic and if he were downstairs I don't trust him to make enough of a scene to wake me so that I can help him.

I am quite anal over safety. I will never put mine in the car boot of a normal car either, it is a crumple zone and I know a dog who died travelling in a boot. All of mine are harnessed into the back seats. If I had an estate or a 4 x 4 that isn't designed to crumple in the same way or a crash tested crate I would relent. I use Sleepy Pod harnesses for the big dogs and Bergan for my little dog (more effective when crash tested at a lower weight the last one).

Bumbledog sleeps on my bed. A couple of weeks ago he started growling in the night. I rolled over and told him to shush. Turns out the next morning that our neighbours across the road had had their van broken into... 🙊.
Next time he does it I will put him out in the front garden!!

Ddog has a bed in our bedroom. He starts off on the bed with me then when DH comes to bed goes in his bed. Sometimes he will be on our bed again when I wake up other times he is still in his bed.

I like having him in the bedroom because then I know he is not getting into mischief downstairs, the cats get to mooch about all night without him trying to herd them. I feel safer with him there as he is a good watch dog.

Our dog has his bed in our room. Used to be a crate but doesn’t need it now. He never comes up on the bed unless I let him in the mornings, which I always do

Our pup sleeps in his crate in the living room, but he is a St. Bernard cross and I worry about him going up and down stairs and there is no room for him on the bed with dh and I! He is very happy and is a total lapdog (if allowed) all day so seems to like stretching out in his crate for bedtime

Thanks for sharing your experiences everyone.
I thinks Ddog will stay in his crate for now.. he loves it so I am really only being selfish as I’d like him with me, but obv don’t want to risk routine that works.

As a PP put it - let sleeping dogs lie!

Our dogs do sleep upstairs, but not usually in the bedroom with us (only if they're unwell so we can keep an eye on them). We have a pretty big landing just outside the bedroom and they sleep in their beds there. For us it works pretty well, I wouldn't mind keeping them in the bedroom but they both snore really loudly and it would keep me awake all night. It's nice having them close by though, and they come into bed most mornings for cuddles.

My dog I had before them slept downstairs in her crate all the time. She was perfectly happy there, and always liked to sleep in her crate overnight. I tried moving her crate into my bedroom, but she used to fidget a lot and her rustling would wake me up several times a night.

If I was you, I would just move his crate into your bedroom. If you like having him there and he likes his crate it seems the best solution.

No, because he barks at me when if I snore!

Our one started hating his crate at around 1 year of age. It felt horrible to force him in there so we got him a comfy bed and he now sleeps in our bedroom. Sometimes on the bed but mostly in his bed on the floor.

Yes. He sleeps wherever suits him.

He sleeps on my bed and I know if the temperature drops because he burrows down under the duvet.
If a co sleeping dog is ill or hurt then of course you sleep downstairs with him. He gets the sofa and you get the floor. Some people have their priorities all wrong!

Yes. We all sleep in the same bed

How do you fit everyone in? Kids, dogs, parents?! You all just have very big beds!

Right now I have with me one dog and one cat who adores dog and has spent 10 minutes purring at him, rubbing his chin all over him and kneading his chest. Dog is not so keen. Peace reigns now though.

If he's happy in his crate I'd just leave him there. Can't see the attraction of an extra day drooling,snoring, farting, hairy beast in my bed, one is quite enough.

My 12 year old dog has always slept upstairs in/on one of our beds, the puppies 9months old are crate trained. We didn't want to stress Maxxi out/disrupt his routine too much and we worried about aggression/possible fights between Maxxi and the puppies while we were sleeping. I'd happily have them all on my bed and when I'm able that will be the case and I'll have any dog I have sleep on the bed with me, I'm only small so there's plenty of room at the bottom (everywhere) in the bed for them to lie with me. However if I get with the guy who's interested in me I may need to rethink that, well buy a bigger bed because he's well over 6ft and sleeps diagonally across the bed otherwise he doesn't fit, but I'd rather share the bed with the dog if I'm honest

I wish :( my partner won't let our cocker pup even in the bedroom- let alone on the bed with us! So sad because he's so cuddly when asleep (the dog- not my boyfriend).

Ours sleep downstairs, our first dog slept in the room with us but when he got old he had a brief period in which he did incredibly smelly messy poos with v little warning. There is nothing that wakes me up faster than a dog retching & then vomiting in my bedroom (avid grass eater when given the chance). He was always allowed to sleep in our room despite these charming habits & the vet gave him medication that helped the first problem. New dogs (who are 8 & 6 now) continue to sleep downstairs on dog beds, no access to sofas as the first dog chewed the sofas & most of the cushions (& shoes, boots, football shoes etc).