“Help, my dog bites when I move in bed, what can I do to stop this behavior? ” This is not an uncommon issue, countless dog owners deal with this problem and aren’t sure on how to solve it. This behavior of course can turn to be potentially dangerous, because of the risk of injury at a time where dog owners are in a vulnerable position. Dogs, on the other hand, may be simply reacting out of instinct without much thinking involved. If your dog bites when you move in bed, you don’t need to take drastic measures such as banishing your dog from the bedroom for the rest of his life. You can find a compromise that can make both of you happy.
Help, My Dog Bites When I Move in Bed
Let face it: beds are comfy places where we feel safe, secure and there are not many other places on earth that allow such amenities. Beds also allow restorative sleep, and we’re talking here about the real stuff: that deep REM sleep, during which our bodies and minds undergo the most renewal.
Dogs just like us, enjoy beds. Indeed, according to statistics provided by the American Pet Products Association, nearly half of dogs sleep in their owners’ beds. Among dogs that sleep with their owners, 62 percent are small dogs, 41 percent are medium, and 32 percent are large.
Should dogs be allowed on beds? Generally, this shouldn’t be a problem, but as with anything in life, there are a few exceptions: dogs who tend to resource guard the bed, dogs who resource guard a particular person who is sleeping in the bed or simply dogs who act aggressively when on the bed.
If your dog bites when you move in bed, it’s important that you remove the privilege of sharing the bed with you. Not only for the purpose of safety (you can get seriously injured), but also to prevent your dog from repeatedly rehearsing the troublesome behavior.
This doesn’t mean you will have to totally remove your dog from the bedroom. You can find a great compromise by teaching your dog to sleep on a comfy dog bed on the floor next your bed or in a crate or playpen layered with soft blankets.
Why Does My Dog Bite When I Move in Bed?
There is a popular saying that says “let sleeping dogs lie.” Although this saying is ancient and has been around for hundreds of years, it still holds true and it’s wise to follow this advice.
It may start with a growl. A dog’s growl may sound just like a person grumbling, but it needs to be taken seriously. It’s a warning that may signal an impending bite. It’s the dog saying “please stop what you are doing.”
Growling escalates into a bite when the dog realizes his warning not working. Because as a normal person you need to move in bed, the dog feels a need to go to plan B (“what part of my message aren’t you getting, stop moving!”) which may progress to air snapping for a while or the dog may just move on straight to a bite.
Now, not all dogs give a warning before biting. If you have punished your dog for growling every time you move, you may have disabled this important form of communication. Punishing a dog for growling is like removing the ticking noise from a bomb: the dog will eventually start biting without warning. This is a bad situation.
It’s not very clear why dogs may not like when somebody moves in bed. Spared from the gift of voice, we can only make assumptions. The most obvious is that, simply, the dog wants to sleep and doesn’t want to be disturbed. There may be chances that, with the owner under the covers dog’s do not realize it’s the owner moving and they simply attack anything that moves.
[adinserter block=”2″]Also, if woken up from a deep sleep or startled when getting ready to nap, dogs might not be aware of what they are doing. It might just be instinctive behavior. And then, medical problems need to be considered, some dogs may suffer from sleep disorders or neurological disorders. Dogs who are becoming deaf or blind may sometimes startle easily and react before analyzing what is happening.
Stress also plays a role. Changes such as getting a newly adopted dog, being in unfamiliar surroundings, changes in the household, physical ailments may all make a dog more jumpy. Steven R. Lindsay in the quote below taken from the Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training, Procedures and Protocols has a possible theory for stress causing a dog to be reactive while disturbed in resting areas.
“During periods of increased social and environmental stress the dog’s sleep may be agitated and susceptible to reactive adjustments in response to be awakened. The aversive and emotional arousal and reactive behavior evoked at such times might facilitate conditioned social and place associations that may increase the dog’s reactivity in the future when disturbed while in such resting places.”~Steven Lindsay
Stopping a Dog From Biting When Moving in Bed
Help, my dog bites when I move in bed, what can I do to stop this behavior? Stopping a dog from biting when moving in bed is important.
A very first step should be seeing the vet to determine whether the dog may have a medical issue going on. If so, it would be fundamental having this treated. If no medical disorder is found, then, the next step is preventing future happenings.
There is one easy solution to stopping a dog from biting an owner in bed: revoking a dog’s bed-sleeping privileges. This is for both safety and to prevent rehearsal of the troublesome behavior. Revoking a dog’s bed sleeping privileges though doesn’t mean sending Rover to the dog house. A great compromise can be be found such as having the dog sleep in a crate besides the bed or training the dog to sleep on his own mat in the bedroom.
It may take some time to train a dog to sleep in a crate if the dog isn’t used to that but it is worth it in the long run. A crate can also come handy in many situations such as car travel or to keep the dog away while mopping the floor. It also keeps dogs safe when home alone. It’s important to make sleeping in the crate extra rewarding by making these areas soft and comfy and giving rewards when lounging there.
Training a dog to sleep on a mat takes time (and the dog in the meanwhile would likely repeatedly keep on jumping on the bed), and therefore, it would be necessary to confine the dog in another room or in a crate for the time being. Alternatively, it may be possible to block off access to the bed in someway during the training period.
If your dog is biting in bed when you are moving and in other circumstances he’s a lovely, obedient dog, then providing an alternate sleeping area should help solve the problem. Caution is always needed though when these dogs need to be awakened. Call their name rather than touch them.
If your dog though is on edge, stressed or aggressive in other aspects of his life, it’s important to tackle these issues with the help of a behavior professional using force-free, humane behavior modification.