Should Pets Sleep on Furniture?

Pet owners love their animals and often treat them like family members. Some pets are strictly indoor pets and their owners enjoy cuddling with them. The furry and fluffy animals are enjoyable companions, but should they be let on the furniture and bed? Many pet trainers and owners do not think they should.

Teaching Bad Manners

While many want their pets to be a part of the home and family, allowing him or her to climb on furniture and into the bed is teaching bad manners. Pets, especially dogs, are pack animals that understand ranking and manners. If a dog believes he can go where he wants and climb on whatever his owner climbs on, then he will start to see himself as a peer or leader of the pack. The more the dog believes he is in charge, the less likely he will be to submit to commands and trust his owner to lead.

Ruining the Furniture
Pets have fur, dandruff and claws that will ruin furniture. The claws can mark up a brand new couch, chair or mattress company, leaving it rough and damaged. A mattress company will encourage pet owners to purchase pet beds and keep their animals off the mattress.

Pet owners might even want to take an additional step and buy a mattress cover to keep allergens out of their new mattress, such as pet dandruff and any pesky insects that might be brought in from the yard.

Disturbing Sleep

Owners themselves will get better sleep when their animals are not in the beds with them. While animals are loving and calming creatures much of the time, owners often cannot relax deeply enough to get the best sleep when their pets are in the bed. A fear of rolling onto a pet often proves too much for many owners and keeps them in a light sleep state all night.

Sleeping With Children
Recent research has found that children who live in a home with pets are less likely to have allergies or get sick as easily, due to a healthy exposure at a young age to allergens and germs. However, pets actually sleeping in the bed poses the same problems for children as it does for adults. Pets that sleep in the bed may believe they are above the child in pack hierarchy, creating a sense of authority and obstinance in the pet that could prove dangerous to the child if the animal later feels provoked, irritated, or ignored.

Preparing for the Big Move to a Big Bed

When a child is ready to move into their next bed and out of the crib, the parent is often left scrambling. While some beds are prepared to convert into smaller, toddler beds, they are not always free; the next child may need the crib and the toddler might get ousted to a larger bed. Parents who are ready to make this move typically follow these steps.

Choosing the Right Time

There isn’t a set time to move a child into a larger bed and determining the right time is often dependent on the family circumstance. Most families make the switch after the ages of 18 months and before the age of four. Little ones tend to be more prepared for the transition (and staying in bed) closer to the age of three, but some become too active for the crib before that point. If a child is moving out of the crib because of a new baby, parents need to give several weeks of adjustment time before the new baby takes over so the toddler doesn’t feel tossed aside.

Moving Familiars

Most parents find it helps to remove as many new things as possible when making such a big change. The crib, for example, can be moved into a new bedroom long before the change, easing the oddness of leaving the nursery. The bed can still contain favorite blankets or stuffed animals to feel comfortable. For some children, it even helps to use the same sheet from the crib (not a freshly cleaned one) and keep the smell consistent for the first few days.

Picking Out the Bed
Kids, even at such a young age, are often more excited to see a change if they are part of the process. Taking a toddler to the mattress company to choose their new bed can help boost the excitement for the big change. Some parents choose to move their toddlers to a toddler bed that uses a crib-size mattress and comes with built-in rails, while some choose to move the small child to a twin-size bed with added guard rails.

Staying in the Room

Many small children find their new bed offers a freedom they want to take advantage of: leaving the room. Parents are often hard-pressed to figure out how to keep their small children in bed at first. Some parents go back to the crib for a while if their children aren’t quite ready, while others choose to camp out or quietly place their child back in bed over and over until the message sinks in that leaving the room isn’t okay.