Losing the battle - puppy in bed - do I give in?

[Mamabear12]

Our puppy is 10 months and just the sweetest. We were adamant she is not allowed upstairs ever. But of course now she is allowed up sometimes (mainly in morning to wake up the family. Whoever is first down let’s her up). She loves this little ritual in the morning and so does everyone in the family. Now as I write this she is in my bed (along with my dd lol...so you can already see we are softies and let our dc sleep in our bed when they want, which is always!). I would have the dog in our bed every night if she was clean. But I know she is so dirty from walking in London and the park! And I’m a germ phone! Argh. What to do!!

Germs are everywhere! Why not dodgy wipes after walks? At least it will keep obvious dirt off furnishings.

Ours is in with us now. We were trying to fight the inevitable.

Bath her in sink after walkinh

Can't imagine having much spontaneous adult fun in bed with a puppy there too.

Ours has slept in the bed since the day we brought him home. He settles on the floor if we need him to, though. However he is a pack hound (beagle) so he's not great at being alone. If we had two they would sleep together however we can't afford two!

As an aside, I hope you're wiping her paws clean after walks? It should be a given especially at this time of year with all the mud and grit on the roads.

If you don't want her to get into the habit of sleeping on your bed when she wants to then you have to stop her going upstairs completely, unless you're going to allow her upstairs but train her not to go on the bed, which would probably be a bit of a pain to stick to.

You have to be consistent, you can't expect her to understand that she's allowed on the bed in the morning but not at night.

Give in if you are happy for her to feel that your bed is her bed permanently, with no distinction in her mind between muddy paws and freshly shampooed. I could not. Grit, hair, doggy smell, the odd tick or flea, dog breath, anal glands... not a chance but lots of people do it.

My giant gsd sleeps in my bed with me. I’m still alive and well

My puppy comes up to great me most mornings when hubby gets up for work. But he goes back downstairs with him after. I love the morning rituals and cuddling him on the couch. But no my bed overnight is a no go for me, his own bed was bloody expensive enough!

I think you can definitely teach a dog when they are allowed on the bed. Mine is allowed in the morning after breakfast (i lazily work in bed in the morning) or in the evening. At night my dog is in the hallway or downstairs. He doesn't whine when he gets relegated to the hallway, he knows it's bedtime. I love cuddles with pup in bed, but I'm also married so...

We keep toying with the idea of letting BiteyDog on the bed but actually having one place dog free is handy so we don't. He is allowed on the spare bed as we never have visitors and if we want a cuddle we just camp out in there with him for a bit. Otherwise he knows our bed is out of bounds and sleeps on his bed beside ours.

The downside of letting them on your bed is hairs, dirt (mitigated with rinsing), scooting, ticks etc. I have killed ticks crawling along the spare bed before. You also need to consider what happens if they injure themselves or get older and jumping on and off your bed then becomes a no. That would be very hard on them after years of going on it. They also fidget and lie on you which can make it bloody hard to sleep if you are a light sleeper.

We started like you OP downstairs in his crate but at about 15 months he started to dislike the crate and starting hiding under the living room table when it was bedtime. We bought him a comfortable bed and put it on the floor at the bottom of our bed and he actually loves it and sleeps in it. Now and again he gets on the bed to sleep but that's fine with us and if we move about too much for his liking he slinks down to his bed. Has worked really well actually! Try a comfy bed in your bedroom