When is it alright to sleep with your pet?
Should the puppy be allowed to sleep in your or your child’s bed? By all means, if you want it that way. As long as the pup is sweet, clean and housebroken, no harm will be done to adults or children, except in the rare case of human allergy to dog dander. Taking a puppy with him is one of the best means of persuading a child to go quietly to bed. It is also a great comforter for lonely people, young, old, or middle-aged.
So far as the puppy himself is concerned, he sleeps warm and draft-free, with no danger of chilling when the house heat goes down. If you are afraid of coddling your puppy, remember that some need coddling–if such a term may be used to mean sleeping warmly. A puppy’s energy is limited; it can be used for keeping warm or for growing. So let him grow.
There are drawbacks to letting the puppy sleep with people. Once you start it, you may have to keep it up. The puppy will be quite definite to tell you that. Furthermore, sleeping covered will “soften” him to a certain degree. He should not sleep in a warm bed one night and alone in a cold room the next.
Tags: drawbacks, sleeping with your pet