Bedtime is Going to the Dogs
Jodi Webb
It starts out innocently enough. He’s just a lonely puppy, crying in the kitchen. So you bring him into bed—just this once. “Just this once” doesn’t exist in the canine vocabulary. As far as he’s concerned every action you make is etched in stone. So before you know it you’ve got a 200 pound, snoring, farting, smelly, restless-leg-syndrome sleeping buddy. In our family it happened when my family went to a family wedding—everyone except my husband and Maggie our dog. Four days later I returned to a lot of dirty dished in the kitchen sink and a dog in my bed.
That’s the problem with letting a dog into your bed: things change but your dog doesn’t want to. You get a girlfriend, your dog gets too big to be a sleeping buddy, you get a second dog and know there’s no way you could sleep with two dogs in the bed. And suddenly he’s shoved on the floor, wondering what he did to lose his exalted spot in the pack.
The best idea is to head off this problem by making your bed off limits from the beginning. If you’re convinced the floor is too hard(although many dogs prefer the coolness of a kitchen or bathroom floor in the warm weather months)find him a soft dog bed—they come in all shapes, sizes, and firmness. Does he miss you at night? Try covering his dog bed with a shirt you’ve worn—your smell will comfort him. Does he jump up on your white sofa instead?(What were you thinking buying a white sofa and a black dog?) Take the time to flip the cushions into an upright position or cover the sofa with a few uncomfortable barricades(books, baskets, a kitchen chair). Make his new dog bed a comfortable and convenient spot and before you know it he’ll be snoozing there every night without a whimper.
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