pets in bed

I have an issue I have been torn with since we got Odin. At first we thought we would crate him at night since we were told he was a chewer, and when we started seeing how messy he was, we decided to keep our bedroom dog free. We learned that he was ok outside of the crate, and now he usually sleeps on his bed outside our door, on the futon in the spare room, on on the couch in the living room.

Yet...everynight when I go to bed I feel so bad and anxious leaving him out alone in our apartment. Our trainer said that night time can be considered quality time spent with your dog, even if you are sleeping, and I beleive that.

The problem we are having is that whenever we do a trial of letting him in the room and in bed with us, we just get fed up of the mess and his behaviour.

My BF is a clean freak when it comes to bed, but with a good reason. he had BAD acne for years and had to take acutaine for 2 years to get rid of it (most people only take it for one year), so he has strict rules in bed (no socks in bed, the sheets must never turn around/nothing touches the pillows, etc) so that bacteria doesn't get on his face causing acne. Well, when Odin gets in bed with us, we realised that he goes through an elaborate cleaning routine before settleling down to sleep. He will lick his paws/chew his nails for so long that he leaves a huge wet puddle in bed. He also "nests" which screws up the covers (which is my pet peeve because I can't sleep unless the covers are tucked in tight at the bottom, and he always pulls them out). And the worst thing is that no matter what, most times he has been in bed with us, his anal glands end up expressing on our bed!! EWWWW!

I think it wouldn't be so bad if we had a house with our own laundry machine, but we live in an apartment, and the laundry isn't open at night, so if he gets our bed all icky, we would have no way to clean it (we only have one comforter, so if he gets it icky, we have nothing to sleep under!). Plus, after 2 or 3 days, because of all the dried saliva from his licking, our bed stinks. We don't have large washers in our building, so we have to take the comforter to the laundry mat which cost $5 a load...is that really worth it so that we can have Odin sleep with us?

Do you think there is a way to train him to just lie down and be still when he is in bed? That would be ideal. Once he finds a spot, nests, licks a bunch, moves around some more, comes bugs us by nibbling/suckling/"corn cobbing" on our faces/arms (he has some suckling issues probably due to being taken away from his mom too early), then nests some more, licks some more, then finally lays down, but if we move a single muscle at all, he is back up moving around again! Grrr...usually 1 to 2 hours later, he is finally asleep.

What we usually do is let him "relax" outside the room while we get ready for bed, then we let him in and we read or relax while he gets settled (if he lets us).

And it's not like its that he's not used to it. We did it for a week or more over christmas, and he didn't settle down or get used to sleeping with us any better.

I have seen people suggest tying him to a short leash at the base of the bed to teach him to sleep beside the bed, but I don't like that as Odin likes to drink water at night due to getting phelgmy (being a bulldog)...and we don't want the waterbowl in the bedroom on the carpet.

I just don't know.

I also don't want to have to step over a babygate for the rest of my life while we have dogs just do they don't come in the room.

Could you bring his bed in your room and leave the door open? This way he can move freely through the apartment and spend the quality time with you in the room and there will be no bacteria on the bedding.

we tried that, but he liked our bed better than his...

Of course he does...:D

Since we moved (and are still unpacking), we have our bed together -- which Jesse sleeps with us in -- but also have old comforters and blankets on the floor right now until we get them situated, but for some reason, Jesse loves them and has preferred them over us. I even put them on the closet floor to get them out of the way and she crawled into the closet and went to sleep on them. Do you think if you have some blankets on the floor with both of your scent on them, Odin might like that??

Wow - I have NOTHING to complain about. I'm apologizing in advance here because reading your post gave me the bad-giggles (you know the kind you get when someone falls really awkwardly...you know they're hurting but, it looked SO funny). I'm not sure how to say this graciously... between the goobering, suckling, chewing and smelly-rear-endedness, Odin doesn't exactly sound like a dream boat in bed. But the whole thing does sound like this is a routine he needs to put himself to sleep. How does he feel about being outside your bedroom? As I too am living with a baby-gate as we speak I appreciate you wanting to be done with it.

I'm guessing you don't think he would, at this time, stay in his bed (and off yours) if it was placed beside your bed. But, rather than try to train him out of a huge series of behaviours - a routine he seems to need and enjoy wouldn't it be easier to just have a in-bedroom but off-bed policy and train him to do one thing (stay in HIS bed)?

Based on what you descirbed I can totally understand why you are frustrated.

I only have a couple suggestions to offer:

1. Maybe try bringing his crate into your room and slowly transitioning him out of it at night eventually working him up to sleeping with you guys.

2. Perhaps get an old blanket, comforter etc. to put over your bed at night when he sleeps with you. You can remove it in the morning and that way your stuff stays clean and should you need to launder the one for him, you still have one to sleep with.

Hope you find some helpful suggestions. :highfive: to you and your BF. You are WAAAAY more tolerant than I could be given what you described, esp. the anal glad part :yuck:

yeah...the last time he slept with us, his glands leaked on the fitted sheet RIGHT between us in bed! And guess what? Our other sheets were dirty! (we are lame...we need to buy more bedding I know, but it's expensive!). So I had to get up, get soap and try and clean it, but it just smeared! So I tried soaking it with febreeze, no luck (this was already after midnight!) then I tried soaking a towel with water and laundry detergent, let it soak in a bit, and tried drying it with a hairdryer...after all that it still stunk. SO I put a towel over it, sprayed it with a mild perfume and tried to sleep...which I didn't do that much off. Needless to say, he hasn't been in our bed since.

I do beleive he needs to do his "grooming" each night before bed, since he does it no matter where he is. I will have to see if my BF's mom maybe has some old comforters she doesn't need that we could put over ours on the bed.

his glands leaked on the fitted sheet RIGHT between us in bed!

Well, I agree with your b/f! From the sounds of it I wouldn't want Odin in my bed either.:p

Can't you get him a nice bed of his own and put it on the floor right next to yours? It's not hard to teach him that is his bed and he must stay there.

Sleeping next to the owner's bed is comforting to dogs, since it makes them feel part of the "pack", without all the yucky, stinky stuff.:D

Any tips on how we could teach him to stay in his bed? He has several (three) so moving one into the room each night isn't hard.

Keep in mind he is very stubborn...

We are working to on getting Joey to sleep in his bed in the living room. I would like him to sleep in our bed but my hubby doesnt really like it so we sort of compromise.

I let him stay with me in bed while I read for a bit or watch tv. When I am ready to go to sleep. I call Joey to his bed. He knows "in your bed" he gets his toys to once he is in there I tell him to stay then give him praise. The first time he came out after 30 seconds, then after a minute, then after like three or four minutes, well you get the idea. It took about a week for us to get him to through the night in the bed. He is there waiting for me in the morning when I get up (with the bum wiggle thing going on so cute :D ). On occasion he actually will get up and go sleep in his crate, which is fine with me.

You have to out-stubborn him. If you give in, just once, you have taught him that he wins.

It may take a few nights of interrupted sleep, but each time he gets on the bed, you must guide him down with an "Off". He must learn he will never, ever win and he'll concede.

My dog still tries to sneak into my bed before I get there. She thinks if she lies very still I won't notice her.:p

I had a similar issue with my 2 wanting to sleep in bed with me, problem was, when we were all living together and had a king bed, there was space. Now that it's just me and the pups and an antique double, we had to figure out a different method. It took a few nights of me being firm and not caving to Peaches "you don't love me anymore?" looks and Simon's 2am raiding parties until they realised that their beds on the floor were still close enough and with all of the mommy shirts laying around, they could make their own nests without me wrecking them in bed (yeah I'm a bit of an UN-neat freak :P). Good luck and hopefully Odin will get the picture that you're still close enough, but that his routine is far more worthwhile uninterrupted on the floor :)

with all of the mommy shirts laying around, they could make their own nests :)

Okay, without getting too freaky about all of this...I'm just putting it out there...I know that a friend of mine who has a very highly strung, older dog with issues around well, everything, puts her - shall we say, delicate underthings - in his bed as a comfort mechanism. But then, you'd likely just be hitting the lingerie department every week instead the laundry ! :eek:

Our dogs know "No licking in the bed".... We taught them that early because it's just gross. Now they usually don't even try it.

Our bedroom is also really small and our bed is pretty low to the ground, so when we kick them off the bed, almost the whole floor is dog beds, so they don't feel so left out.

But, if my doggies had anal issues, they'd definitely be on the floor. And they'd like it.:D

I say just bring the bed close to your bed and do not for whatever reason allow him on the bed. Like others have said it should take a week of interupted sleep. capone used to sleep in his crate closed, then opened, then on a bed right beside our bed then he started waiting for us to be asleep and boom in the morning a dog face in yours. Now he sleeps right on the bed and I have always kicked him off AS SOON as he starts licking himself. Now all I have to say is... capone in a certain voice and boom he stops.

Winnie...under any circumstances is ever allowed in our beds...absolutely, unequivocally, out of the question, NEVER...:D :D :D someone forgot to tell her

ya this picture pretty much sums up where my dogs are allowed to sleep :)