I don't know what to do.
I have not allowed any of my dogs to sleep on my bed, or get on my furniture since I was a teenager, and the family doberman slept with me. I understand that with some it's a dominance thing.. dogs on the floor, people in the bed. My cats have always slept with me. I don't have a problem with animals in the bed... but I have larger dogs - usually 50 pounds or so, and they take up a lot of space! For what it is worth, I am divorced - it's just me and the cat in a Queen size bed.
A few months ago, I adopted a new puppy. She's half Border Collie and half Lab. She will soon be 11 months old, and she weighs just about 50 pounds. I am training her to be a mobility service dog for me, as I have a lot of nerve pain issues. One of the things that is hard for me, is that I need to sleep on my right side because of how my pain is. That means, that in winter, when I use covers, I must use my weak, bad left arm, to manipulate the covers. When I thought of getting a new dog and training it for a service dog, one of the things I thought of was training the dog to pull up and pull down the covers for me. What I didn't think of was that this would involve the dog BEING ON THE BED with me.
Josie has done very well with her house training. A month or so ago, I stopped having her be in the crate at night, and am baby gating the hallway, so that she has about half the house at night. She has done super. Well... in the morning, she has taken to leaping up on the bed for a snuggle and lovies before we get up. I admit.... I have not made her get down. So far, she has not tried to sleep on the bed, or be up there at any other time.
Other than the hair in the bed problem... and the dominance thing... are there any other issues to consider before I either put a stop to this or go ahead and let her on the bed. I don't think dominace is going to be an issue... from all the training we are doing, I think she is pretty clear that I am her leader. And, I suppose when I do teach her about pulling up and down the covers, she could be taught to do it with a "paws up" position where her hind feet stay on the floor, or only jump on the bed when she needs to, then down again. But, seems it would be a lot more handy if she were sleeping on the bed.
She does seem to have the soft coat of the Border Collie, it's not at all oily, though it is shorter... so I am not worried about her ruining anything. I don't have expensive bedding anyway.
What do you all think?
