Where Does Your Greyhound Sleep?

[Guest FastDogsOwnMe]

All the dogs are either in my room in my bed, or on dog beds on the floor (their choice) and I have two that lately WANT to be in their crates. They just so happen to be intact female and intact male, so this is good, makes separation during the bitch's cycles easy as pie.

[greysandmollie]

I have had four boys at different times....3 always slept in the bedroom beside the bed on dog beds. I have only had one that never wanted to come to the bedroom.

[Guest momto3hounds]

My girls sleep in my bedroom and want to be near us

One sleeps on our bed with us the other sleeps on her dog bed. Sometimes she sleeps with us as well but only for a half and hour . She gets too hot!

Our boy prefers to sleep in the living room and love to sleep on the sofa all night

When there is s storm at night, then he likes to sleep in our room.

Edited March 3, 2011 by momto3hounds

[maryz]

Sherri sleeps on her bed in our room. The cats are on the bed with us.

[Hubcitypam]

Lots and lots of doggies have passed thru my house -- I think the record for one night sleeping arrangements was my two and 8 fresh off the farm dogs. They can sleep wherever they wish and almost everyone has preferred a dog bed next to my bed.

[Jenbo]

Myka starts out on her dog bed in the bedroom but ends up usually (unless it's really cold) across the foot of my bed, part of her touching me and part of her touching DBF.

[Guest Ashleigh]

Hank sleeps on top of me in bed...he can never be away from me. He'll even wait and whine outside the bathroom door when I'm in there. He's fine when I'm at work though...go figure!

[Guest katethegreyt]

Well I live in a 680 sq ft loft, so I bet my bedroom has yours beat = ) And I often share the bed/loft with a 6'4" fiance, haha. I actually would love for our girl to sleep with me when the fiance isn't around, but she is quite particular about my shifting, so she usually prefers her own bed. Sometimes she'll stick around, but often times not. I used to have her bed off of the corner of the foot of my bed. Then she had a couple of nighttime potty incidents, so I scooched her bed right in between mine my nightstand and the wall (originally thought it would be temporary) so that I could keep her leash on her and on my arm in case she thought she might want to go take a sprinkle on the rug - sounds weird, but I'm a light sleeper and she's a heavy sleeper, so it worked pretty well as an alert system = )

 

Anyway, she has maybe a 3x4 space wedged between the bed the wall and the nightstand, and she really likes it - it's like her little nook. Every night around bedtime, she goes and sleeps there and will often sleep there even when we are around, though she also likes "her" chair and other bed in the living room (or our bed when we aren't on it, of course).

 

I really like her being close because she'll usually work up the energy to stick her nose in my face if she really needs something, granted, she's generally passed out cold at least as long as I am. So yes, it's a bit of a squeeze with the 75 pound dog, the 6'4" fiance and me in a tiny loft, but I like her to be close and I'm the one who put her there, after all, haha.

 

I guess I can't really relate to your plight because I like mine to be close. If you only have one, is it a big deal? I find mine to be super easy to step around. Just get him a smaller soft spot for the bedroom (mine was like $35 on Amazon). However, if you really don't want him in there, and if he's not whining and carrying on if you close the door, maybe just keep the door closed and let him sort it out. He'll likely gravitate towards the softest spot eventually.

[Guest Sunset123]

Arrisa used to sleep outside of our room, but close-by (with our door open). Now she sleeps in a dogbed on our bedroom floor with the door closed. I'm more comfortable with her being close. There have been times when she's gotten an upset stomach at night and if she wasn't in with me to tell me she needed to go out, there would have been accidents.

[DesiRayMom]

I have 2 boys....they both sleep in bed with me. I don't think I could sleep if they weren't.

[shawna]

Max, Tractor, and Mojo take turns in the bed. But they all start out on the floor. Tractor hops up, then gets down at midnight, when Mojo and Max hop up. Sometimes when it is really cold, all 3 of them sleep in the bed with us. But, they all have dogs beds in the bedroom with us, so I can hear them.

[Jackandgrey]

My three sleep on beds in my bedroom. Occasionally Jessie gets on my bed. The boys, never!

[Guest HHHounds]

Three dog beds in our bedroom, three snoozing hounds!

[Guest tysmom]

My Two have there beds in our bed room and sleep there at night.

[greytpups]

Our pups sleep in our bedroom, their choice and my preference. I'm a light sleeper so I can hear them if they need anything. But more importantly, if we needed to evacuate our home in an emergency and we needed to do it quickly, I know exactly where they are and if we can get ourselves out safely, we can get them out as well. Both of us are capable of carrying them which also helps.

[Guest awvase]

We have a fair sized bedroom, not large by any standards. But 2 of our 3 sleep on dog beds beside each other, and are fine. Our 2 1/2 year old pup sleep in a kennel beside the bed, but when I go to work in the morning she moves onto the bed with my wife.

[Guest Jubilee251]

Our two sleep in our bedroom when it's lights out - they each have a dog bed at the foot of the bed. It has nothing to do with them thinking they are the pack leader; they just don't want to be alone. During the day, they are usually snoozing in whatever part of the house we are in.

[Guest giantsfan]

Ours sleep in any of the rooms on the 1st floor. Our bedrooms are upstairs, but they have always been fine sleeping on their own. We don't block the stairs up and the only time there's even an attempt to come up is when one of them is scared during thunderstorms.

[Guest NJgrey]

At night she's on a dog bed in our bedroom with the door closed. We don't want her getting into anything while we're sleeping. She'd love to be in bed with us, and if we had a king size we might, but we both value sleep too much to let the horse up with us all night long.

 

And I would join others in cautioning against thinking too much along the "pack leader" lines. Not everything with a dog is a battle of wills to be won. Greys have never been alone before coming off the track, they can bond quickly with their owners and 999 times in 1000 they just don't want to be alone - and that's all there is to it.

 

Put a dog bed next to yours and he'll be happy as a clam. Who knows, he may even get tired of the small space and leave the room on his own as he settles in.

[Guest manawatugal]

Well after reading all your replies we have decided that the best place for Stanley is beside our bed, and that's where he has been for the last two nights, very happily. We love to wake up to him and he is very quiet during the night. Going back to the pack leader thing, he doesn't seem to want to try and assert himself very much at all and is very obliging but having never been a dog owner before (well not since a kid) I was a bit concerned about that and did lots of reading. My husband and I are both big softies anyway and as he seems to instinctively know what to do so I don't think we will have many problems there. I don't think he will ever not be interested in small animals that move though and we won't be able to let him off leash in a public place until such time we know he will come back to us. We have a fantastic river walk here that you can let dogs off but I wouldn't trust him yet or I would use his muzzle.

And yes I understand that he is not used to being alone and we are happy with that. They are not a smelly breed at all and don't moult like some dogs but then he is brushed regularly which he seem to really enjoy. Everything is a learning curve for us in owning a greyhound and a bit different to other breeds. I have quite a few friends with dogs but they tend to be labs or small terriers. Can't believe we've only had him for one week, it seems like we've had him for ages!

Edited March 4, 2011 by manawatugal

[Guest jenznaz]

Blimey! thanks guys and such quick and varied replies but then I suppose being on the other side of the world brings in replies quicker than expected. Hubby actually doesn't mind Stanley sleeping in our room so maybe I will make a space for him to snuggle down in. He has a huge dog beanbag bed that the greyhound adoption people sell and he wouldn't go on it until today (it was a bit slippery and unstable underfoot) so I got a big secondhand duvet to put on top and he has been on it twice already I think because he now feels secure on it. That's very portable so maybe that is the way to go. I really don't want him on the bed though, there definitely wouldn't be enough room for all of us and we need undisturbed sleep. When I was growing up I could never get our black lab to stay on my bed for more than 2 mins. Actually Stanley doesn't know how to jump up, he can't get in the back of my car without me giving him a helping shove up the bum and he's so heavy. He had difficulty going up a big step today too which was quite funny to watch. I have to remember where he has come from only having lived in a domestic situation with his fosterer even though his trainer/owner kept him for a while after he stopped racing 5 months ago. I suspect he stayed in the kennels with the other dogs maybe?

You all sound such devoted owners aswell and I am really enjoying reading everything about them. Didn't know anything about these dogs until 8 months or so ago when I started researching. www.greyhoundsaspets.org.nz (GAP) charity that started here in 2006 have until now adopted out 600 to people in NZ. My region (Palmerston North/Manawatu) is apparently quite slow for adoptions so as soon as his promotional vest arrives I will be out and about informing people of what wonderful pets they make. I've already had many favourable comments from passersby.

 

Congrats on your new pup! They *are* very different from other breeds - and that's why I love them so!!

 

I'm adding in my vote for, "sleeps on his own bed, right next to mine". When I stop watching tele and get ready for bed, he knows to get up from his living room bed and go into his bedroom bed. I like his little snorty noises while he sleeps (but not when he wakes me up early!)

[Guest JarBear]

One sleeps in the bed with me and the other two in their beds on the bedroom floor. The little dog sleeps in her crate in the bedroom so she won't get stepped on if someone gets up. The one who sleeps with me is the only one that has a desire to sleep on the bed. I can't get one of them up there at all and the other one will sometimes hop up in the morning for a snuggle. I don't close the door because the room is quite small and I'm claustrophobic but I do use a baby gate so everyone stays in and I can hear if anyone gets grinchy.

[Figma]

Our Grey has two beds, one in our bedroom and one in the family room. He sleeps on either of these and stays on his bed in our room during the night, always has and never gets up on the bed, won't even get up if I try to call him up.

 

However, if we aren't here, he jumps on our bed. He thinks I don't know but I always hear a *thump* as I'm coming down the hall to the bedroom. Surprise!! He is on his bed or the floor but there is always evidence someone has been in *my* bed.

[Guest knowimagination]

We have a dog bed for Rush that is right next to our bed where she sleeps every night. If we would let her she would probably sleep in bed with us, but we only have a queen sized bed so just not enough space for two humans a grey and a staffie

[fliggie]

On a dog bed, on the floor next to me. He is only allowed on the bed if my DH and I are lying there reading or napping during non-night hours, and he seems to be very aware of this as he rarely jumps up at night.