I’ll be the first to admit that my dog is a bit spoiled. In fact, my wife would argue that Spock gets treated better than our kids on occasion! He gets high-quality dog food (and tons of human food…), has a warm roof over his head, gets plenty of exercise and training, and receives tons of love and attention from everyone in the house. He’s got it going on!
Despite all of that, there’s one place that Spock is not allowed—our bed. We wake up every day dealing with enough from deadlines, work, kids, and many other of life’s challenges. We don’t also need a dog to kick us out of the bed in the middle of the night. While I’m not a hardcore alpha dog fanatic, I do believe there are some areas that should be off limits to our firkins.
In my own non-scientific survey of dog enthusiasts, this topic was split down the middle. Some loved having their pets in the bed sleeping with them; while others regarded their beds as a no-go zone. For the record, we’ve had varying bed rights to different dogs: Odin just loved thrashing eccentrically on everything and could not behave on furniture, Leila loved the bed but was definitely too big for it, Spock often sneaked his way into the kids beds to sleep in despite knowing the ‘rules’. It’s definitely been both an interesting and learning experience for us over the years.
For now, Spock is allowed on the couch where he often finds his way underneath the blankets to snuggle with whoever he could find. But that’s what it ‘stops’ (for now…I’m sure). How about you? Do you let your dog in the bed? Or do you think a dog in the bed is a training faux paus? I look forward in hearing some of your experiences!
