Something happened that made your dog think the familiar dog bed isn’t good enough anymore, huh? Hmm… what could have happened? Because our dogs can’t talk to us, we need to put our detective hat on to figure this one out.
I have put this kind of hat on more than once so let’s do this together!
If your dog stopped sleeping in the dog bed, consider these options first:
- Have you moved the dog bed to a new place?
- Did you wash the dog bed?
- Are you in a new environment?
- Is your dog too small for the bed?
- Can your dog stretch out nicely in the dog bed?
- Could the change in season play a part? Is it colder or warmer than usual?
- Have there been any changes in your dog’s routines or yours?
- Have there been any changes in your own mood?
- What do you think is better about the new location your dog prefers to sleep?
Why do dogs sleep in the dog bed
Why do we have the urge to get our dogs to sleep in the dog bed? Think about it. Why do we buy dog beds?
We will find a warm and fluffy dog bed and we think our dog will love it. Because we love it! We would happily sleep in that new dog bed if we would be dogs, right?! And it matches the decor as well, perfect!
We are so excited and bring the new dog bed home just to see that our dog prefers the old disgusting bed instead. Okay, something went wrong.
More often we need to train our dogs to sleep in the dog beds. It’s not something a dog will do intuitively. A dog is a pack animal and wants to be close to its favorite humans.
So is it even necessary for our dogs to sleep on the dog bed, specifically? No.
One of my old dogs loved to sleep in the shoe basket where I hid our shoes so that she wouldn’t eat them. Well, she didn’t. She loved to sleep in them instead of the dog bed I have made for her.
No, not disappointed at all. Just hand made with love..! No big deal.
One of my dogs loved the crate when he was a puppy but then just grew over it. He found something more suitable for his needs: our tiny carpet and a chair.
Yeah. Evidence below.
And one of my dogs just sleeps on the cold floor because he has so much fur that he gets hot really quickly.
Sometimes there’s something new and soft thrown on to our floor, like a swing cover when it’s raining, and our dogs will take turns on it. It’s crazy.
Sure there’s our scent in it and everything else from outside. The swing cover is super comfy and that’s why we love it but I didn’t think our dogs would love it even more. Then a few days pass and they’re over it.
How to get your dog to sleep in his dog bed again
If you want to train your dog to sleep in the dog bed again, don’t force it. There’s a reason why your dog isn’t sleeping in there and it’s valid. Your dog might just be too hot to sleep in the dog bed at that time of the year.
Usually because of temperature changes your dog might choose to lie on the cold floor of the bathroom or by the entrance.
The training part is the same as crate training: the bed should never be a place of punishment and always give praise when your dog goes to the bed. You can have ‘treat-times’ for your dog when you only give treats when your dog is on the dog bed.
Your dog will associate the dog bed to something great happening.
Changing an old dog bed to a new one
Years ago I made a decision not to stress over where my dogs sleep. As long as it’s not our bed, they can choose where to sleep. I also stopped making and buying new dog beds, specifically.
When I see a headline saying something like: “This is why your dog needs a dog bed” I think immediately that they just want to sell dog beds. That’s it.
And that’s okay, some dogs prefer dog beds but not all by far.
Yes, dogs need their own place to call their own and they think of that place as their territory. But it doesn’t need to be a dog bed. You are not a bad dog parent if you don’t have the most expensive and fluffiest dog bed in your home, where your dog likes to sleep every now and then.
When it’s really necessary to change something about their favourite sleeping area, I make changes slowly.
If you need to change your dog bed to a new one, try this! In my example I use a carpet because that’s usually what our dogs prefer at the moment.
My to-do list that you can copy:
- Buy a new little carpet for my dogs if they have preferred that arrangement
- Put the new carpet under the old one to gather all the familiar scents my dog loves
- Start to make the old carpet smaller buy folding it but keep it still on top of the new one
- When the old carpet is as small as possible our dog is basically sleeping on top of the new one. Throw the old one away. Finally!
You can put the new dog bed under the old one. One of the scents your dog loves more than anything is your own. So you can try and put something of yours on top of the dog bed as well. And always give praise when your dog goes to that place.
Dogs think their bed is their territory. So you need to make sure the new bed smells even a little bit the same as the old one.
If a dog thinks the smell isn’t the same they may move into areas that smell strongly of their ‘pack’, such as the room you sleep in.
This is why dogs don’t like when we wash their favourite beds and toys. We think they smell wonderful and more importantly they are clean. But our dogs think they are basically ruined.
How could we ruin something so special..?!
Conclusion
There’s many options why your dog doesn’t sleep in the familiar dog bed anymore. I would love to give you just one! More often we need to train our dogs to sleep in the dog beds. It’s not something they will do intuitively.
A dog is a pack animal to it’s bones and wants to be close to us. Sleeping alone in a distant dog bed isn’t really what they want.
To get to the bottom of things, go over the question list from the top and think if any of those would be a reason in your case.
If those are not the case, you can try to wash your dog bed. This would be my final option! But if there’s some kind of smell your dog doesn’t like, a good wash followed by the crate training method above might do the trick. Let me know how it’s going!