The question of where your pooch should sleep at night is a loaded one. It’s a question that can prompt heated debates between dog loving couples and dog owning friends. It’s also a question that has generated hilarious memes, where people are squeezed out of their beds by the likes of a miniature Dachshund.
Some will say ‘Dogs are pack animals, and since you are the leader of the pack they should sleep with the pack’.
Another will say ‘The pack leader should always be positioned on the highest rock – to maintain leadership status’.
There are also people who will remind you that the genetic proximity of every domestic dog, even a Chihuahua, is 99.9% wolf.
Seemingly everybody is an expert. The only person who can decide what is right for you and your pooch is YOU.
But consider this. When you bring your puppy home, remember it has never spent a night alone. It’s always been curled up warm and cosy with its mother and litter brothers and sisters. Being alone on its first night with you might be a recipe for triggering discontent and separation anxiety. It also might not.
You might consider one option, which is to allow your puppy to get sleepy in your arms, then put it down to sleep for the night in a crate next to your bed. That way it can still smell you, and sense that you are close.
Other people take the option of crating a puppy, leaving an item of clothing that smells of them and hope they will eventually get tired of crying, barking and howling.
Older dogs can generally be left at ease around the house to pick a comfy spot – unless, of course, you’ve decided dogs aren’t allowed on the furniture… Another debate for another day!
Every dog is different and so is every person. Your call paw-rent!