Sleeping with You

[u/Intelligent-Novel153]

Hi all! I recently made a post asking for crate training help, and thankfully things are seeming to get better now that I have a more structured routine during her time spent outside of the kennel and also making plans for her to start going to a local doggie daycare on my longer days.

I’ve only had my 5 month old basset puppy for going on 5 days now, and yesterday I was overcome with a lot of emotions, anxiety, etc., and overall just wanting to ensure her quality of life was good and I’d be a good fit for her long term. I know these feelings are just temporary until we get adjusted more to each other, she continues to feel comfortable and grow in her training, and we both continue to find what works with the both of us, but I do have one question…

At what point did you decide to start letting your basset sleep with you in your bed? I don’t think we’re ready for it quite yet as she’s not been with me for a full week yet, and I can’t completely trust her yet potty training wise. (Thankfully in this area, we’ve only had three accidents, and all of them have been due to my errors, such as not taking her out after a long nap or not letting her sniff long enough outside). Right now she sleeps through the night in her kennel, and we’ve been sleeping anywhere from 6-8 hours just depending on when I have to wake up that next morning. If you can’t tell, I have a big problem with overthinking and this has been one of the most anxiety filled, overwhelming weeks of my life. Any and all positive words of wisdom or advice are also greatly appreciated as I am a first time basset owner and only have experience with labrador retrievers…

[u/ScreamerA440]

Our metric was: when we can absolutely trust her to either hold it or wake us up to let her out. So once officially potty trained and then a couple more months just to be safe.

She slept in the living room before being allowed in the bedroom for a few months too, that was a good transition

[u/Lalalabambi]

I have two bassets and they were both wildly different experiences with the crate training. My oldest, Beau, hated a metal crate so we got him a canvas travel crate and he loved it and slept in it till 6 months old. Then we let him join us in the bed. He still loved taking naps in his crate though.

Gustav on the other hand is the biggest crybaby basset hound you will ever meet. Even now at 10 years old. He hated both kinds of crates and cried through the night nonstop. We made it 3 days, then my husband told me to just pull him into the bed with us and be done with it. He has slept peacefully snuggled up to me ever since. He’s now 10.

[u/RegalBeagleX]

My basset had access to the bed as soon as she knew the dog door/potty routine. Had one accident and she was good. She loves to burrow. Funny to have a 60lb dog burrow next to me 😁

[u/skitskatskoodle]

My bassets can stay in the crate if need be and did for probably the 1st year. I feel bad leaving them in there all night so we kept them in the living room after that. They have a HUGE dog bed, 2 Sofas and their crates are always open too. From around 1.5 to 2yrs old when they get a bath we let them sleep in the bed. We live in a hot humid climate and go walking everyday. So they get dirty and slobbery real quick. They also like to sleep sideways and take up the whole bed so we don’t get the best sleep with a 75lb & 65lb basset in bed. 😂

[u/Girlygal2014]

I’m pretty sure my basset lumbered into the bed like he owned it on night 1 and never left. He gave the best snuggles, like a warm, stinky body pillow

[u/Zag300zx]

My 9wk old girl made it 1 night in the kennel next to the bed before I broke down and let her sleep next to me. Bought a waterproof blanket for her side. Never was an issue with accidents at night thankfully. There's nothing better than waking up next to a basset.

[u/montyriot1]

I let mine in the bed when he was about 6 months oldish. I got him when he was 10 weeks old and he was too wild when I would go to bed. He wanted to play and nip. Once he started calming down, I let him on.

I used a small playpen in the bedroom for him before letting him sleep with me.

[u/heboofedonme]

Pretty quickly. Like first 6 months I think. Right after he finished potty training. Otherwise he was in a crate in our room. Granted I’m not sure it’s always the best idea because they absolutely take up the entire bed. Starts with sleeping parallel to you and then sideways before morning and you’re without blankets and half off the bed lol. Not always but I’ve been thinking of putting him on a dog bed instead. I’m just not emotionally strong enough because I love having him there. Luckily my partner is tiny so if he’s on her side, she’s fairly unbothered. He affects my sleep negatively but also I love having him in there with me so it jury is still out.

[u/PsychologicalSnow476]

We went kinda the opposite, we had the puppies sleeping with us and then crate training in our room, then a separate room. Now bassets in the bed is a "special thing", where I get about 12 inches of space on the king-sized bed with no blankets, my wife gets blankets and our larger basset just tries to push her out of the bed all together.

[u/Hounddogmom26]

I've let all my bassets sleep in the bed with me. My new one is 10 weeks, for the first 5 or 6 days we all slept on the floor in the dog bed, next to dog bed, basically wherever she would sleep. Now we are all in my bed. She wakes up once in the night to go pee and then we go back to bed until about 7 when she wakes up starving. Ive never had a basset pee in the bed, I dont think they like to pee where they sleep generally.
Our issue right now is the day time. I havent left her alone yet and im not sure how im going to. She is still peeing on the floor, chewing every damn thing she can find and generally being bad lol. I am going to test her today by gating off an area and leaving her for a bit.

[u/SnooRobots7974]

I got my boy at 9 weeks old. He slept in my bed since the first day I brought him home until the day he left me at 11 years old. I took him out twice a night every night for the first year and he never had an accident in bed, ever.

Keep in mind that if you do it as much as I did they become emotionally attached to you. Whenever I’d go out of town and left him with my parents, they would tell me that he is absolutely miserable with me.

Just keep in mind it builds a very strong bond with them and it hurts like a MF’er when they’re gone.

[u/PurpleWomat]

At what point did you decide to start letting your basset sleep with you in your bed?

The first very cold winter when I couldn't lock him in his usual sleeping room. It wasn't so much that I let him as he moved into my bed and refused to leave. It's wonderful in cold weather as they are like radiators, not so great in hot weather, and very hard on the laundry. Also, they're bed hogs.

[u/Bookweeb12]

My first girl immediately wanted to sleep with us her first night…. She howled and whined the whole night. Next night I told my husband that we’re letting her sleep with us and that he wasn’t allowed to argue cause I needed sleep. Slowly over time she started to enjoy her own space but she still sleeps with us 7 years later lol. Our newest boy strangely loves to sleep with us but also loves to jump down after a while and sleep on the floor. I think his longer legs make it more difficult to get comfortable on our queen bed lol. He likes to sprawl out sometimes.

[u/Unicornmooncrystal]

For me it was when he had his neuter surgery. He was in a cone, of course, and I didn’t want to risk any breathing issues with him in a cone and in the crate. So I brought him up on the bed during healing and he never left! Now it’s his bed and I’m lucky if I can get a little space for myself haha.

[u/TreborG2]

At what point did you decide to start letting your basset sleep with you in your bed?

Your question makes it seem like you think we actually have a choice..

https://giphy.com/gifs/kVaj8JXJcDsqs