I recently made the aquaintance of a very, *very affectionate beagle-mutt. He’s what I would call an aggressive cuddler. He’s a stray and was picked up at the humane society. My significant other tried to no avail to get him to sleep on a dog bed, but now he is sleeping completely in the human bed.
I have had dogs my whole life and NONE were allowed on the bed. IMHO there is one sacred space [read: one sanctuary that is only for humans] in a house and that is the bed. My SO agrees but cannot get the little guy to stay on his doggy bed without obviously closing the door.
What do I do? We are moving in together and I don’t want this to become an issue with the dog nuzzling his way up through the covers ending up between my SO and I snoring in our ears. I’m not the kind of man to grab him and put him on the floor 10 times a night, so he usually ends up being relegated to the foot of the bed…by force.
*Aggressive Cuddler - crawls under the covers and must be touching most of his body to yours…if you sleep naked this can be a little … anxiety producing. I’d hate to have him dreaming of eating hotdogs or something… :eek:
HELP!
Do I need to shut the door until he is trained? I’d much rather train him properly so we can get some sleep.
It is not out of the question to get another dog who would keep him company, when we have friends over that is about the only thing that keeps him off the bed…another dog to sleep with.
My dog sleeps under the covers with me and it doesn’t bother me. ie. I’m not worried about hot dog dreams on his part. I can certainly understand why you wouldn’t want the dog to sleep in your bed. Yes, by all means close the doggy door. Alternatively, just keep kicking him out of the bed and let him know he’s not supposed to be there. Set up a little bed for him to sleep in that’s near yours.
If that doesn’t work out for you, the Illusion collar changed our lives.
We keep two closed doors between us and the animals at night for that very reason. The boyfriend allowed the dog in bed one damned time and found out that his previous doggy parents much have welcomed it. God, did I yell.
Crate train him. This is good for other things as well.
You may have to bite the bullet and physically remove him ten times a night until it takes hold.
If you don’t want him snuggling under the covers, it is best not to allow him on the bed at all. This takes patience and perseverance, but you do have him out weighed and out witted.
Our two springer spaniels were crate trained as puppies. The advantage is that they willingly go into their crates whenever we want them to, and it’s no big deal. We have the open, cage-style foldable crates (rather than the dark plastic ones), with a sheepskin dog bed and perhaps a toy for comfort.
About a year ago, Dottie developed a chewing habit when unsupervised, so now she must sleep in her crate in our bedroom. She had her bed, and she can see us (or at least the bed), and she can see her sister, who is still allowed to be loose in the bedroom at night. We let her out in the morning for a snuggle on the bed before we get up.
Dogs will learn. Put him on the floor. Tell him “no!” when he tries to get back in the bed, in a loud, deep voice. If you wake up and he’s slipped into bed while you were sleeping, repeat the above. He will learn.
Give him lots of pets in the morning (if he’s not in bed with you).
This will probably go to IMHO soon since this is not exactly factual, but IMHO, you just have to grow a little bit of a spine and chunk him off. Give him the stern NO! when he is about to jump back up. If he makes the attempt to jump back up, arrange it so his chest hits your knee. I promise this will not seriously hurt him. There should be a physical wall of your will (as alpha dog) that impaires him not to get on your bed.
Stick with this, and he will get the picture pretty quickly.
My dog is a PASSIVE aggressive snuggler. He is a rescue and on his first day here, he ran all over the house, drinking from the toilets, and then immediately jumped on the couch, right on the spot our previous dog (of the same breed) used to claim. (He learned where the water bowl was later.)
Later that night, his first night in our home, when bedtime occurred, he leaped immediately onto the bed. I thought, “well, that answered that question.”
He sleeps with me in the bed but on top of the covers, whereas I’m underneath. But then there’s the shivering issue when he’s cold, so I have to cover him with a blanket to make him stop.
He prefers the other side of the bed until early morning (4-5 a.m.), when he likes to lay horizontally over my hip, his back to me. I actually like the pressure against me, because my previous dog was a leaner too and I needed that.
Anyway, after that rambling, how did the dog figure out how to get under the covers? That would save me some trouble if I could teach him that.
Also, after watching Cesar and Victoria, Victoria clearly wins. Cesar teaches a lonely yard dog how to deal with being lonely and suck it up that another dog gets to live in the house with the family. Victoria would say “WHY is that dog not allowed inside the house?!”
Your role as pack leader is to provide leadership. Showing him what NOT to do doesn’t tell him what TO do.
Give him his own special place. get a nice doggie bed and put it in the bedroom, so he can hear and see you without being in the bed. At bedtime lead him to it and indicate he should get into it. Coax him with a treat of you want. Praise him when he gets into the doggie bed, and pet him until he relaxes.
Then get into your own bed. He will get out of the dog bed and climb into your bed.
You don’t need to yell. Just pick him up and put him back in his bed, and praise him/pet him.
Do this over and over (and both humans MUST be consistent about this) and he will get the message: not just “the thing I did is bad” but instead “Hey, THIS is MY spot! I get approval for being here!”
