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I and my wife are adopting our room mate's dogs, but they "insist" on sleeping in the bed with us because that is how they lived with my room mate. This would not be much of a problem if I could sleep okay with them. However, one of the dogs moves around a lot if I move, which wakes up frequently through the night. They also get fur in the bed. It causes me serious problems (e.g. dizziness, poor work performance, dangerous driving, etc...) if I am not able to sleep / sleep well.

Things we have considered:

If we leave them out in another room, they whine and try to break down the gates to come see us, which also keeps us up. My wife also won't stand for this solution because she does not want to see them upset (and I don't either, but I need to be able to keep my job, etc...).

I was thinking about getting dog beds beside our bed, but they probably will not stay in them. Temporarily, my wife is sleeping in the living room with them, or my room mate is sleeping with them, but neither of these are good long term solutions.

I have also considered giving away the dogs, but it has been my wife's "dream" to have dogs, and I do not want to crush her dream. This would be a last resort if all else fails.

Do you have any suggested solutions to this problem?

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    Bunk bed
    – James Jenkins
    Commented Apr 16, 2014 at 18:06
  • @James That is an interesting idea, a bit out of our budget right now, and would probably not work well with our sleep number bed. Thank you for your suggestion, there may be some way to make it work!
    – Jonathan
    Commented Apr 16, 2014 at 18:13
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    On the positive side, if you don't resolve your dog problem, you will save on heating bills in the winter. A bed full of pets is pretty warm.
    – Beo
    Commented Apr 17, 2014 at 3:09

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My girlfriend and I fostered a dog who was insistent on being in the bed with us every night. Something that ended up working for us was to put a couple old shirts in her dog bed (because they smell like us), get her to lay down in it, then cover her with a blanket. Once she settled in we would go to bed. It took a night or two for her to get used to it, but then she was able to sleep through the night on her own. And so were we!

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  • Thank you so much, I think I will try this and see if it works! If it does, I will be most greatful! Did you have the dog in the room with you still, or did you have her in another room?
    – Jonathan
    Commented Apr 16, 2014 at 19:47
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    @Jonathan: We kept her in our bedroom. That way she still got to be near us but she didn't have to be in our bed.
    – Alex A.
    Commented Apr 16, 2014 at 19:49
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Look into crate training. It is a great solution and once crate trained the dogs really like their beds and sleep well. It also gives them a bed that they feel comfortable in away from home. It is important that you learn how to crate train an adult dog before you start though if these dogs have never been crate trained.

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