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Yes, I sleep with dogs

By Catherine Toth Fox • October 20, 2011 • The Dog Dish

I was talking with a girlfriend of mine and, in conversation, mentioned my dogs sleep in my bed.

Yes, with me.

“They sleep with you?” she asked with a hint of disgust.

“Yeah, why, is that weird?”

“Uh……..”

That was enough for me to figure out just how she felt about it.

Until Sunny — who I got two years ago — I never slept with dogs. Or guinea pigs. Or our pet turtle. Animals had separate living quarters — and those were usually somewhere outside.

My parents never let animals — aside from fish — in the house. Even when I got a little, shy Papillon, the poor guy had to stay outside.

When I first got Sunny, I got a bed, too. Just for her. But it didn’t take long before this little four-month-old puppy was curled up next to my legs in bed — my bed — that everything changed.

Now I can’t imagine my dogs sleeping anywhere else.

I wondered if this was weird. Reality TV diva Kim Kardashian can’t sleep with pooches in her sheets. But is she the norm?

According to a recent survey of pet owners by the American Pet Products Association, nearly half of dogs sleep in their owner’s beds. The survey found that 62 percent of small dogs, 41 percent of medium-sized dogs and 32 percent of large dogs sleep with their owners. (Even majority of cats sleep with their adult owners.)

So it’s normal — but is it healthy?

Not if you have pet allergies or asthma. And pets can “bring a wide range of zoonotic pathogens into our environment,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Still, I can’t kick my furry friends out of my bed.

Can you?

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Catherine Toth Fox

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10 Comments

  • Reply hawaiiobsessed October 20, 2011 at 1:13 pm

    Ugh! Before I had kids my dog was my kid. He slept in my bed ( in between my husband and me). Then we got two dogs and that was too many in the bed but they had their own special beds and toys etc. After I had a kid and she started crawling around on the floor those nasty dogs had been scooching their butts across ( can you feel the change coming?) and they played with her toys and she put their gross toys in her mouth, shudder. The first step was they were out of the house and only came in to sleep in their cages at night. After too many nights of getting up to let them out at all hours ( when you are already getting up with kids, getting up with dogs too is the straw that broke this camel’s back!) the dogs are all banished from the house now and forever!! It is funny because the dogs used to be the most important things to me, now if one of the dogs gets in I am ” AAGH!!! What is that DOG doing IN the house?!?!” :>)

  • Reply turkfontaine October 20, 2011 at 1:28 pm

    nah, sleeping with dogs has a long history, especially in cold climates. the kings and queens of Europe routinely piled big hunting dogs on their beds to keep them warm. where do you think the term ‘three dog night’ came from

  • Reply MaxMaxMax October 20, 2011 at 1:55 pm

    Our two dogs sleep in bed with us also. Nothing weird about it!!! In fact, Cesar Milan said it promotes a stronger bond with the owners. Also, in the wild dogs sleep with their pack, which in domestic situation is the family… so it is also healthier for them from a psychological standpoint as they are still sleeping with their pack!

    WE are the normal ones Cat… not the ones who find it unthinkable to sleep with their pets…

  • Reply MaxMaxMax October 20, 2011 at 1:59 pm

    …and Cat, when is Kim Kardashian EVER the norm, hahahaha!

  • Reply Bumper October 20, 2011 at 8:15 pm

    I worked long and hard to keep kids out of our beds, so no, no dogs allowed. We did cave and allow our outdoor-only dog inside soon after we got him. Maybe pre-babies I would’ve felt differently, but now everything is compared to them — and as much as we love our dog, he can’t have more privileges than the human children.

  • Reply Cody Zamboni October 20, 2011 at 8:24 pm

    sleeping with animals?
    animals sleeping with you in the same bed?
    I fail to see the upside
    looking at it from a different perspective…..
    my cat Max has his own basket, it’s fairly big, and if I tried I could fit inside and sleep
    would I ever do that?
    no way, no day
    and I don’t think 99% of pet owners would either
    so I can’t fathom why it’s okay the other way ???

  • Reply jaydee October 21, 2011 at 3:14 am

    My dogs? They always stayed outside. The cat? She has a mind of her own and sleeps anywhere. The wife allows her to sleep in our bed. I was upset at first but I’ve grown accustomed to her there; besides, she will only stay there for a few minutes then hop off and sleep elsewhere. I am a little “obsessive” about the cat hair though…. I run the tape roller all over my side of the blankets and sheets before I jump into bed. Just the thought of cat hair going into my sinuses grosses me out. Hah!

  • Reply M October 21, 2011 at 6:43 am

    Hello Cat,
    We have a large dog and a cat. The dog stays outside and the cat stays inside. Our cat sleeps between my wife and I.

  • Reply David Jackson October 21, 2011 at 8:19 am

    Hey, my dog and my son both sleep in my bad. it is king size so I rarely know they are there. My son when he feels like it and the dog even when I don’t feel like it. What the attraction is I do not know.

    I actually think it is healthy. My son is very well adjusted and the dog is OK… except for stealing the mice my cat kills and bringing them in the house. Maybe I need a dog whisperer 🙂

  • Reply Matt M. October 21, 2011 at 9:51 am

    My Bichon sleeps in bed between my S.O. and I. She has her own blanket between out pillows to sleep on. Sometimes she snuggles up against me, which I like. The only bad about having her in bed is when she wakes up in the middle of the night to scratch.

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About Me

About Me
Born and raised on O‘ahu, Hawaiʻi, Catherine Toth Fox has been chronicling her adventures in her blog, The Cat Dish, for more than a decade. She worked as a newspaper reporter in Hawai‘i for 10 years and continues to freelance—in between teaching journalism, hitting the surf and eating everything in sight—for national and local print and online publications. She’s currently the editor of HAWAIʻI Magazine.

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