# Sleeping Arrangements



## Mischa (Feb 17, 2010)

Hi Everyone,

Just curious about the sleeping arrangements everyone has for the vizslas. Lately, when we're just about getting comfy in bed, Mischa will start whining in her crate out in the living room.

I've thought about moving the crate into the bedroom but I always remember that our breeder said to keep her out of the bedroom to mitigate any potential separation anxiety.

I know the options aren't always the same, for example some people occasionally let their V sleep with them in the bed maybe on the weekends so if you could answer where they sleep for most of the time that would be great please.

Thanks!
Janice


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## BamBam (Feb 14, 2010)

mine embrassingly sleeps in the bed with me, under the covers and everything :-[
I couldn't help but give in when he was a little puppy, we got him in the winter and it was so lovely cuddling up to a little warm vizsla pup at night! Now its summer if he gets too hot he will get off the bed of his own accord and lay on the carpet by the bed.

It hasn't ever caused us any problems with separation anxiety, Wiley can be left while we go out uncrated, and will just sleep on his dog bed, which he sleeps on in the day, no whining, or destroying of things!


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## kockazat (Jul 22, 2010)

Under the covers on my side of the bed, unless my wife catches me sneaking her in. Then she has to sleep on her dog bed on the floor beside us. (the V, not my wife)


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## jp (Nov 24, 2009)

I was thinking of doing the exact same poll!

Penny slept well in a crate in the living room until 18 months and then she started having panic attacks at night. The vet thought it was separation anxiety, probably due to my wife being pregnant. We had a horrible month or so of her and me not sleeping and trying different arrangements. We finally gave in to letting her sleep in our room on her dog bed, which worked well for a few weeks but then led to her insisting on being on our bed. She would even be uncharacteristically aggressive about it. Another month of bad sleep. Our new vet suggested using a plastic crate (vs the wire one we had) in the room, but with the door off. This has created a den for her and now a month into the latest experiment it's working pretty well. She still tries to climb in the bed at the beginning of the night and at least once in the middle of the night. But she is usually accepting when we put her back down.


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## Pineapple Princess (Nov 20, 2009)

Hobie sleeps in our bed with us. Great for the sex life, let me tell you. ;D

But I don't see that it's caused any separation anxiety.


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## Crazy Kian (Aug 10, 2009)

Lately Kian has been sleeping in our bed the odd night. 90% of the time he is in his crate in our room. 
One night it was too hot in bed with him in there so I asked him (about 6 times) to go to his crate. About 4 minutes later he started to whine and groan like an old man. Then he let out the ultimate sigh as if to say, "FINE, I'll sleep in here tonight!"
I can see him winning the battle of the sleeping arrangements. Some nights I don't mind him in there and others I just want it to be a bed for humans.
If my girlfriend had her way, I would be in the crate :


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## Vespasia (Apr 19, 2010)

Our arrangements have recently changed and I'd love your thoughts as to why this could be happening!

Hally started sleeping in the bedroom 6-7 months ago (Prior to that she was in her crate). At first she was only allowed to sleep in her dog bed beside the bed but OF COURSE as time went on, she was allowed on our bed too. Usually the routine was that she could come on the bed and cuddle with me when I went to sleep and when Ryan (my fiance) came to bed an hour or two later, he would take her out for a pee and then she'd go to her own bed for the rest of the night. We were just starting to let her stay on the bed all night with us (she still got her final pee)

The issue has been over the past two months or so, at least once a week, Ryan would come into the bedroom to take her outside and notice that she had peed on our bed in her sleep. This happened at least half a dozen times before we finally had to decide that Hally is not allowed on the bed anymore.

I've heard of dogs having some incontinence in their sleep before, but usually older dogs not a puppy. Some people have told me it could be a health thing or that this is a side effect of spaying your pup at 6-7 months. I've also heard that this could be behavioral - her way of "claiming" the bed because she isn't always allowed to stay and it is always Ryan's side she pees on (of course I'm on my side, so she can't pee there). We've also been told she may be too comfortable to get up, but I don't think a dog wants to lie in her own pee. All that said, we have not noticed her peeing on her dog bed or her crate during the day. It only seems to be our bed and usually in the middle of the night

What do you guys think????


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## Mischa (Feb 17, 2010)

kockazat said:


> Under the covers on my side of the bed, unless my wife catches me sneaking her in. Then she has to sleep on her dog bed on the floor beside us. (the V, not my wife)


Lol.

Vespasia, the only thing I can think of is she might have a urinary tract infection. Mischa has had two. She was house broken fairly quickly, but we didn't know this because we kept having accidents in her crate, in the living room, etc. A quick visit to the vet and about $100 later we had antibiotics and a UTI free/relieved vizsla puppy. UTIs are more common in females because their urethra is very short, which in turn, has a smaller space to fill up with bacteria, and quickly. (For those who would protest and prefer to go natural, I give her carrots, cranberries, lots of water etc. to clean her her system daily, but at that point her UTI was so bad, only antibiotics could have helped her).

As for the other theories, like being too comfy to get up, claiming the bed, etc. I've heard all of these before too, but when you actually think about them logically, I agree, they don't make much sense. I've never heard of a dog having that kind of side effect from spaying at 6-7 months though - can anyone confirm this?


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## Mercutio (Jan 18, 2010)

I feel awful! The only person (so far) to answer "in a dog bed NOT in the bedroom" :-\ (his bed is in the kitchen and I like having a dog with a big woof at the back door)

Mind you, the cat sleeps in the bed with us (my side as she sleeps claws out and the other half does not like being woken up in the middle of the night by needles in the bottom of his foot) and for a small cat takes up ALOT of room - I don't think the humans would fit if Merc was also in there.......

At least now I don't feel bad about letting him on the couch for cuddles in the evening. Some of my friends have a strict 'no dogs on the furniture' policy and look at me oddly when i mention him lying on my lap


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## lovemyava (Mar 19, 2010)

Our Ava sleeps in her kennel in the spare bedroom next to ours. Some nights we let her fall asleep on our bedroom but she takes up too much room to stay for long, plus she likes to go under the covers then over, then under, and everytime she steps on my head or my husbands  Every once in awhile she wakes up whining but if we ignore her she goes back to sleep.


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## sarahaf (Aug 17, 2009)

Yeah, I'm very softhearted, but I was the only one in our household who even for an instant argued against Rosie as a new pup being in the human bed. So, she sleeps in the human bed, under the covers. And yes, we get growled at if we move her when she's comfortable Other than that, and the elbows digging into you when she wants to lie on top of you, and the fact that she's a furnace, it's kind of nice.

I have to laugh when I remember a conversation I had with the breeder on the phone the day we brought Rosie home. I thought the breeder would want to know that she had settled right in and wasn't crying at all, but I mentioned the phrase "on the couch." On the furniture was a dog no-no in the breeder's world. But the couch was just the beginning...


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## sarahaf (Aug 17, 2009)

I have to laugh about Ava--Rosie does the "over then under" thing with the covers; in her "over" phase, she winds up folding the covers halfway down the bed and pinning them there with the weight of her body. So she's comfortable, we're too cold.


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## lovemyava (Mar 19, 2010)

Our Ava folds down the covers too, we let her sleep with us last night since she was in the kennel longer than normal since we were helping a family member move, by about 4 am she had all the covers piled under her


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## Brodie (Feb 13, 2010)

Brodie has always slept in a wire crate in our bedroom since we brought him home at 8 weeks. We would end up taking him out 3 times throughout the night until about 3-4 months, but generally around 5 am, we would take him outside to do his business, then let him sleep in our bed.

Now that he is a year, he _still_ wakes us up at 5 am, but gets to come snuggle under the blankets until our alarm goes off an hour later 

In summer, when we have company on our boat, he sleeps up on the dinette/bed with us which is about the size of a twin bed :-\ Otherwise he's on his bed by the v-berth


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## scooby (Mar 23, 2009)

I'm with Mercutio Scooby is down stairs in his crate (only in there till we can get alarm system sorted then he will have free run of down stairs) I can think of nothing worse than having Scooby in bed with me. Husband snores enough without the dog joining in  !!!


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## Mercutio (Jan 18, 2010)

Thanks Scooby - I feel less mean now


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## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

The girls each have their own crate, One in the kitchen ( Tika), one in the living room( Gunnr). They never get in the bed.


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