Where does your dog sleep?

[longtimecomin]

We've just bought a puppy and so far he's slept in a fluffy bed on the kitchen floor. He's locked in the kitchen all night which means if he weeks or poos it's on a surface which cleans easily but we're thinking of getting a cage so he doesn't wee and poo through the night. He's 13 weeks old and his general toilet training is hit and miss. I asked friends and their dogs range from sleeping on their bed to outside and various arrangements of basket, sofa, etc. I'm curious to see where most dogs sleep 🤔

Please don’t get a cage. It’s a baby. It will, after a few weeks, be able to last all night.

themuttyprofessor.co.uk/2017/07/20/crate-debate-crate-not-crate/

thepetshow.com/the-case-against-crate-training/

My two both sleep in the kitchen in their beds. One of mine is a pup and fortunately cracked keeping "dry" through the night fairly quickly.

Mine move all over really, we have a spare bedroom their bedroom which has a bed each for them and DDog2 spends most of the night in there (he takes himself up there to bed about 9.30pm ) then he tends to sleep on the landing for a bit before going into DD's room about 6am.
Ddog1 stays on the sofa downstairs most nights but will sometimes come upstairs to the spare bedroom.
When they were puppies though they were both crated for the first couple of months.

My two sleep either on the sofa downstairs or on the sofa upstairs, or given half a chance, in our bed.

I have a ripped apart, smelly sofa, I don't recommend it! They rip apart any dog beds I buy though, so I've given in. I'm don't really care.

Mine sleeps right next to me on the bed, and has done since the day we got him as a puppy. My previous dog however used to have a bed in the kitchen when we first had her - still ended up on the bed though.

Do you still get up in the night to let him out? We had to do that for quite a while before he was ready to last the whole night.

He is now 6 and sleeps in the dining room. I don't really like him being in the kitchen as he is very hairy and it feels unhygienic to have all that dog hair floating around where we cook food. Completely unsensical because he lives here so his hair gets everywhere anyway

Our dining room has proper curtains so we can let him sleep in the dark during the summer, whereas the kitchen or hall don't have curtains so I think he'd be woken up at the crack of dawn.

Don't agree with a PP that crate training is crueL. We crate trained and he was very happy there. It was his safe space and he was very settled in it. We never used it as a punishment though.

My dogs either sleep on the kids beds or in their dog beds in mine & DH's room. I wouldn't get the cage, just try putting puppy pads down and he should be toilet trained soon.

Wherever he wants - usually in a bed in the tv room, but a couple of nights per week he’ll sleep on the floor in my bedroom or in the hallway between me and dd. When he was younger we were much more strict and he always slept in his own room but he’s old now, I think he’s earned the right to choose

Ours sleeps in her bed in our bedroom, so about 2 feet from me! We hadn't intended that when we got her, but she was so anxious and insecure when she came home (rescue) it seemed really mean to keep her apart from us. She sleeps through and is quiet in the night but wakes at 5 most mornings though despite our best efforts so we are now very early risers! Sometimes we wake up and she's taken herself off to the spare bedroom or the sofa downstairs but it's rare, very occasionally we'll get a lie in til 6.30ish which always feels like such a luxury!

Why do you want a cage? Some dogs like their own space so for this reason they can be good but not for locking them in.

One of my dogs sleeps on my bed, the other in his basket. The bed sleeper steals all the covers and WILL NOT MOVE, the other is deaf and a bit senile, licks his balls all night, threatening my sanity. So yes, if he's happy in the kitchen, stick with it !

Up to age of 1 my dog slept on his bed in a massive crate.

After that he slept on the sofa in the kitchen.

Then around age of 2 we moved his bed into our bedroom.

At age of 2.5 years he slept on our bed and has done ever since.

We alarm the downstairs of our house at night, the only space that doesn't have a sensor is the hallway, so he sleeps there, it's a big hall and he's a v small dog. Was unkeen on having him sleep upstairs with us because, my friends dog is in his later years and often has accidents on their bedroom floors and the kids step in it by accident when they get up in the morning, so that put me off!

Thanks, lots of anti crate posts which I didn't expect. The crate would just have been to help with bladder control but it looks as though we'd only use it short term so it's probably not worth getting.

Also lots of dogs sneaking onto beds. I do fear that just because I know they'll end up hogging the bed!

He shreds puppy pads so that's not a option 😕

we had ours in bed for the first few months as this helped with toilet training.. we were able to wake up throughout the night when the dog woke up/was restless and needed to be put outside.
after that he goes in a crate (by his choice) as its covered In blankets and must feel safe like a den. it's the only place he sleeps properly and he only goes in there at night. when he was in a normal dog bed he would constantly wake up and wander around.

A lot of dogs do like their crates - I got one but he cried so much he never spent a night in it as I’m a soft touch.

My friends husband is a fireman and he told me a horrible story about a dog being trapped in a cage in a house fire. The owners were desperate to get back in the house to try to let it out. I've always had my dogs sleep in a bed in our room.

We use a crate in the kitchen and have done since we got her (now 8 months). It is great and she is happy sleeping there. When we open the crate in the morning she sometimes stays in there, but other times moves to one of her other beds. We have found the crate really useful for going to other people’s houses as she just goes to sleep in there and also nice for the hosts as they do not have to consider where the dog is/where to put her and we do not have to have her in the same room as us. I cannot see what would make us stop using it.

My puppy sleeps in a crate in my bedroom. He seems to like it - will put himself in during the day when the crates is downstairs if he feels like quiet time and just sleeps or chews his nylabone. He does cry a little when I put him to sleep, maybe 30 seconds or so, but I stroke him through the bars or just shush him gently and he’s soon fast asleep. It’s like a toddler protesting being put down for a nap or the night rather than a insistent ‘I want to get out’ state of distress.

I put him down for a nap after every hour of waking so he’s quite used to being put down - many times he doesn’t even make a peep, just settles right down.

My lad is a very sunny natured boy though so I think I just lucked out. And he’s very small still - only 10 weeks - plenty of time for him to decide to hate the crate!

On the bottom of our bed, she's an excellent foot warmer. She's a rescue, we had good intentions that she would sleep in the kitchen..the first night she cried and cried and realised from that moment on that she had us wrapped around her little paw and has been in with us every night.

When he was a pup he slept in a bed in the kitchen.We were very lucky as he didnt cry in the night he just slept.
Hes nearly 4 now and he chooses to sleep in a crate in the kitchen,he likes the "security" of it I think.

Yes. Ours cried for the first week (initially all night, then less and less, perhaps just for the first five minutes after I put her in). I “slept” on a camp bed next to the crate for the first few nights, then realised that wasn’t helping. I quite often put treats in the crate, either a filled Kong or little bits of treat hidden around . She sometimes goes in there to sleep during the day, but only if she gets too hot lying on her beds/the grass in the sun. We follow Pippa Mattinson’s Good Puppy Guide (or something).

We also got up in night with her to go to the loo. Again, following guidance in that book. It worked.

Mine sleeps anywhere she likes, but its usually on her bed in our bedroom. she sometimes moves to the a sofa, hallway front room or kitchen in the night.

She can open any door for access to a room, but we leave most doors just pulled too so she can just push or pull them open quietly, instead of waking us up when she grabs the handles.

He has free roam, usually starts in bed with us, then moves to under the kids' beds. He's currently snoozing in the shower.

He does have a lovely comfy bed downstairs but very rarely goes in there.