THey say if you have a dominence issue then do not let the dog sleep with you. I am sure once your training is further along you could retink the issue.
My little one sleeps with me, the 5 mnth old is in a crate and the 5 yr old boxer sets her own routine. She usually like her bed in my office but the couch is a very close second.

Our three dogs all sleep on the floor in our room. Usually they are 6 months or so, old enough to be able to make it through the night reliably, but with this pups issues with crate training he just started out that way and has stayed that way with few problems. Loki starts out the night on the foot of my son's bed which makes my son feel safe and not isolated and Loki is not dominant at all so I let it happen.

I keep the bedroom door closed and a gate across (old house doors dont latch properly) it during the day.
I caught Loki eating a dead something or other on it one day and decided to make it a nightime only zone from now on.

I do sometimes wake up to a pup at my feet,usually very early in the morning, but he stays at my feet and doesnt hesistate to get down off any furniture when told and only gets on the couch when invited.

When my husband is out of town ( a lot more than I like lately) my son sleeps in my bed, and Loki if invited, and usually a cat or two and sometimes the pup too. But I didnt just admit that! and Im surely not saying it out loud where my husband can hear!!!!!

Nico used to always have bed priveledges in my single days, but she is way too big to sleep with more than one person and sadly cant get up on the bed anymore

I should have been clearer with my earlier remarks.

True is sometimes allowed on the bed, sometimes not, but WE decide when that is, not him. He is allowed by invitation only and knows to wait for the command before he jumps up. It is not a given in his mind that he automatically gets on the bed. He has no dominance or aggression issues with us. If he did, he would be on the floor.

I think I may have left the impression that we're sending mixed messages to the dog when, in fact, this is something that we've taught him. Simple OB. He gets it. :wink:

I admit I let my guys on the bed... I was totally anti dog-on-bed before, but a couple weeks ago I was sick with a fever, the house was really cold (old house, no central heat, wall furnaces) and I didn't have the energy to protest. They were so quiet, one curled up on each side of me and kept me nice and toasty (albeit they take up practically the whole bed).

After that it was all over though, lol. Oh, they get off when I tell them "off", and to be honest if I'm not on the bed they don't care to be up there... at least while I'm home, lol. In the morning when I'm getting ready for work, they follow me back and forth from the bathroom to the bedroom like a train. It would be funny if my hallway wasn't so small. When we get back to the bedroom one jumps on the bed looking hopeful, and then when I turn to leave jumps back down again.

Hopefully none of this is a sign of dominance; They don't have any dominance problems that I recognize... am I missing anything from my description?

If following you back and forth is considered dominance then I have THE most dominant dog on the planet and never realized it Sounds like they love their mom and want to be where you are.

The only thing, for me anyway, is being on the bed is my choice, not his. He's not allowed to pop up there whenever he wants to.

yeah... I definitely need to work on that now (only being allowed up when asked).

Sarah- how did you teach them that getting up was by command only? It would have been much better for me to control this from the beginning, but it's still got to be trained regardless now...

Initially, he was doing the same thing as your dog...popping up on his own. And he started doing that after 1 time on the bed.

Everytime he did it on his own we said "No" and led him off the bed and put him in a sit or down. When he was calm and quiet after a few minutes we let him up with an "ok...up". Over and over. He was on the bed a whole lot more when we were training this then he is now.

Honestly, Carolyn, I don't know if this is the correct way to train this but it worked for my dog.

Did I miss something or is following you around all the time a sign of dominance?

I am tethering but now when I untie her (from me, she still has line on) she follows my every foot step. Even if she is busy with a toy or something, she drops it and makes every step I make. If she goes into a different room and I call her, she immediately comes.

Is following you around dominance?

no- no, I'm pretty sure Sarah meant that in a joking manor, Nora. No worries. I would imagine (i'm no authority) that following the "pack leader" around is a good thing. Someone correct me if i'm wrong!

I know I'm a bit late joining this conversation, but I was just about to start another thread when I found this one, so I'll just add to this instead...

I just started letting my 16 month GSD sleep out of his crate last weekend, but he hasn't been doing as well as Kodee!! Here's what I'm doing... does anyone have suggestions?

I put his old bed upstairs with me in the bedroom in a cozy corner (i've tried different locations, he seems to like this one the best). He'll fall asleap very nicely on his bed, but then at about 2am he'll get up and start wandering around and put his head up on the bed to see what I'm doing. Then he starts whining (maybe he has to pee, but I know for a fact that he can hold it MUCH longer than 4 hours!!!). Or he'll hear something and give an alert bark.... VERY unplesant in the middle of the night.

I tell him "bed" or "go lay down" which he does, but only for a minute, them pops back up again. There's only so many times I have the patience to do this at 2:00 in the morning.

He still has access to downstairs as well, which is where his other bed is, and where he spends most of his time during the day. He'll wander down there, wander back upstairs, whine, walk around, lay down, get back up... and so on. When he starts doing this and won't settle back down, I'll take him back downstairs and put him in his crate. There's only so much I can take!

I tried tethering.... he just chews through the leash.

Other than the restlessness, he does great -- no destructive behavior or getting into things he shouldn't.

And to answer everyone's question before you ask it... I give him PLENTY of exercise. He's crated all day, but I play fetch with him in the morning before I leave for work; in the afternoon we'll play fetch, do agility, work on obedience, play the "find it" game, and take walks and/or jogs around the neighborhood. So he usually gets 3-4 "sessions" of mental and physical exercise per day. So I'm certainly not neglecting his mental or physical exercise, but nothing seems to tire him out enough to sleep through the night!!!

This experiment has left me very tired this week. Any suggestions?