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 🤔

Initially in a crate in the utility room. Now in a bed in a large pen in the utility room. He’s always been perfectly happy in both and will go there for a bit of peace when he fancies.

Usually on the landing - keeps an eye on the bedroom doors! DT’s use to find it a nightmare when they were trying to sneak upstairs when they came home too late.

Initially in an open crate with an enclosure in our conservatory. Once toilet trained and going through the night, he had a bed next to ours. He sleeps much better in our room as less distractions waking him up.

Our old boy has two beds, one downstairs in the living room and one in our bedroom. He's a Springer and quite needy and likes to be close to us at all times 😂

All my 3 dogs have been created through the night as soon as they arrived with us.

They are all fine, well adjusted dogs who see their crates as their safe space. The earlier you do it the better

Others a right in that if he can’t go through the night a crate won’t help. He’ll just wake you up when he need to go. Leaving him to soil his crate would be very distressing for him. I was up at 5.30 to take puppy out for a pee (6.5 hours after we went to bed) but that’s life with a puppy. I wouldn’t have him sleep in a crate out of earshot because he wouldn’t be able to alert me that he needs to go.

In her bed in the spare bedroom. She’d like to sleep in our room but she snores and farts too much! Now she’s getting older and struggling a bit with the stairs, she’s occasionally choosing to sleep downstairs.

Our dog
Puppy: crate with a little run in the kitchen, then just crate

Once older, bed in the kitchen with access to the hall.

Bed in the lounge during the day but we don't leave him in there when we're not there as he's sick sometimes

Ours sleeps on a double bed in our sons room , the son doesn’t live here anymore just stays the occasional night when he shares with the dog .

Ours slept in crate as a puppy. It was definitely his safe space and he would put himself to bed at night in there.

He decided he didn't like the crate anymore when he was about a year old and from then on he has slept in one of his two beds downstairs or he crashes out on the wooden floor if he gets too hot.

We don't let him upstairs at all so no bed sharing for us. A snoring DH is bad enough, I don't need a snoring dog adding to the insomnia!

At the bottom of our bed - normally under the covers with his head on my feet!

There's two reasons for this - one, he's a beagle and they're quite a needy breed and and like to be with you/touching you if possible. The second is because we have cats and it's the easiest way to keep them separate through the night - it means the cats have a chunk of time in total peace away from the dog!

Some people are very anti crate training, but our dogs both loved their crates. It gave them a safe space for day as well as nighttime if they wanted a break and they both regularly took themselves off to their crates. We kept the crates for each dog until they were around 18 months old; having rotties they unfortunately got bigger and bigger and we couldn't sustain the space they took up long term. Our male in particular pined for his crate long after it was replaced with a dog bed 🤷🏼‍♀️ Others are correct though OP, crate training in itself doesn't create bladder control where it didn't previously exist; puppies often need to go out to toilet at least once in the night for a number of months. Dogs generally really don't like to mess in their crates either, so leaving them all night to soil the space is a bad idea and very distressing for them.

Mine sleeps on either kitchen or living room sofa or she has a bed on the half landing but she uses that more in the day time. She also has a bed that she hasn’t bothered with for the last six months in the kitchen. As a baby she had a crate but she didn’t sleep the night in it for the first couple of weeks- but then she loved it til around 7-8 months when she seemed reluctant to get in it so we ditched it. She was pretty well into toilet training at 8 weeks when she arrived and we had a mattress in the downstairs hallway that either me or eldest son slept on for first few nights with door open to kitchen and we’d let her out to toilet in the night.

My dog loved his crate when he was a puppy, it was his safe den with all his cosy blankets and favourite toys in. It really helped us at the toilet training stage tbh, it was just good to have somewhere safe to put him if we needed to get other stuff done/shower etc as well as overnight. He would never wee or poo in it.

He’s too big for it now, he sleeps on a sofa in the conservatory overnight.

Mine sleeps in his bed in the kitchen. We did try crate train initially but he wasn't happy and I wasn't forcing it so the crate went and the kitchen is his space, with added lounge / garden / upstairs when we are around

Ours is a rescue & she was always crated, so she has crate (left open) & a bed in the kitchen & she has a bed in the hallway which she barely uses. Her favourite place seems to be the crate. But she has the options. Yes she’s got us wrapped round her 🐾.

Crate training is absolutely fine, providing it's an appropriate size. I had both of mine in a crate next to my bed as puppies - that way when they woke up and cried I could let them out in the garden, not once did either of them mess in their crates, even as 8 week old pups. Dogs instinctively do not like to toilet in their beds. That said, a crate should be used as a quiet, secure den that they can escape to and enjoy being in, not a punishment.

We don't use the crate now they're fully housetrained. They either sleep on our bed, or in their own dog beds on the floor. It was an invaluable tool during the puppy days though and gave us some peace of mind that they weren't getting up to mischief elsewhere while we slept!

Mine has two beds in our bedroom and goes between the two.

We did plan to have her sleep downstairs but our neighbour was very unpleasant about the noise so weren't able to complete that bit of training.

We started ours in the kitchen.. she was there for the first month..
She got really good at holding it in through the night, and she’s really good at looking cute, so we (I) let her into our bed one night abd now it’s her bed too
Crate training isn’t a bad idea, i have friends who did it and their dogs view their crate as the safe place. It’s up to you really. Once your dog starts sleeping in your bed you’re never gonna be able to reverse it!

Started off in crate in my bedroom as a pup. Now my 4 yo goes from bedroom to bedroom (we block off stairs at night as sleeping downstairs causes him to rise much earlier than us).

He spends most of the night in my bedroom going from his crate to the radiator - likes the coolness of the metal.

He'd sleep until 12 if we let him!

We have a needy GSD for reference

Three boys sleep in baskets in the utility room, with a dog flap to the garden. The baby boy sleeps in DP's room, the old boy has his own bedroom, as does the blind boy and the princess sleeps next to me

My 9 month old has been in a cage overnight since we got him - first in our bedroom, then the landing, now downstairs. He takes himself off to bed at night and is quiet until we let him out.
We crate so that the cat, who is mostly upstairs, can come and go freely at night (she doesn't like him) and so he doesn't mooch around looking for food!

Conservatory tiled floor so cleans easily. I walk her quite late and she goes out first thing. Puppy pads just in case but rare to use nowadays she's 9 months now though.

They tend to roam between the utility room, kitchen & hallway. They're not allowed on the furniture or upstairs. They have beds but 90% of the time I'll find them asleep on the floor