Where does your basenji sleep?


  • Fortunately only three of mine will share our bed the others aren't keen otherwise I don't think there'd be much room for the humans!!


  • Hope does the same as Bowpi.

    Ontop, underneath, between us, sharing pillow, at feet etc 🙂

    she slept with us from day dot we got her at 8wks.


  • I don't care how big the bed is… or if you have 1 or 5.... they take up all the room and you are banished to the edge of the bed...gggg

  • First Basenji's

    Cody sleeps in my bed and under the covers, and he has since the day I brought him home. He was 3.5 years old. When he jumps up on the bed, he will stand by my face and stare down at me with his brow slightly (almost pitifully) wrinkled, waiting for me to hold the blankets up so he can get under them. He also prefers to be completely under the covers. He's a wiggler too.

    He used to sleep curled into the bend of my knees, but now he sleeps curled into my chest or stomach on the side of the bed by the wall and window. You know basenjis and their windows! He always starts out curled into a tight ball, but sometimes, halfway through the night I wake up with him completely sprawled out across the bed, and I'm sleeping on the edge. How does a 26 pound dog take up nearly all of a queen size bed? Even better, why do I let him? LOL! I swear, it's like he's secretly laughing at me. He will lay completely stretched out across the bed, nose not quite to the edge of the bed, back legs stretched completely out with his knees locked, and his sharp little toenails digging into my side, stomach, or back, depending on how I'm sleeping at that point.

    He usually lets me move him around while he's sleeping, and sometimes he doesn't even wake up when I move him. Sometimes, when I try to retake the bed from him by sliding him over, he'll just get up and find another spot on the bed, but I have to be quick about it, because if it was up to him, he'd sleep in the very middle of the bed. Every once in a while he will get growly when I move him, but I've realized that he only does it when he's making those little whiny noises in his sleep (Do dogs dream?).

    Last year, when we were staying with my parents, sometimes I would stay overnight with my grandma (I was one of her primary caregivers before she passed away). On those nights, he would either sleep in my bed while I was gone, or he would sneak into my parents bed with them AND Moe (who is nearly twice Cody's size), which would cause my dad to relinquish his spot on the bed and retreat to the couch. He's not a big fan of Cody's wiggling antics or sharp toenails. Now, the fact that I would come home to him still curled up under the covers on my bed and no one went in there and covered him up proves that he can get under them himself, he's just spoiled now and wants me to hold the blankets up for him so he can circle into the perfect spot. LOL. Little butthead.

    The things we do for our dogs!
    But now I've gotten to the point that I don't think I can sleep without him.


  • Pat is right, doesn't matter how big the bed, you end up clinging to the edge! I used to have 5 basenjis (king sized bed) and now only two, all have always slept with me. I recently downsized to a queen bed and it took a few weeks to feel there was enough room for me and my pack. Eddie turns into a Great Dane when he falls asleep, I think.


  • 35 years of either having them sleep on or in my bed. 😃


  • All 5 of mine sleep in bed with us. My husband started to complain at dog 3 and so I told him we would teach the new ones to sleep in the crate at night. Guess who started sneaking puppy 4 into bed? Not me. We got a King size bed instead. On the plus side, I can actually sleep the few times my husband is out of town without me because I never have an empty bed.


  • @crystalncody:

    back legs stretched completely out with his knees locked, and his sharp little toenails digging into my side, stomach, or back, depending on how I'm sleeping at that point.

    ah! Hope does this as-well. She'll be in the middle of the bed, between me and my partner, with her back against one of us and then she will stretch completly out and lock her legs and then dig her toenails into whoever is on the otherside hahaha. my partner gets annoyed at that and moves her or i move her over to my side so shes against me with her locked legs headin out the side.

    She also does the comes up to us and looks at us until we lift the blanket for her to come under LOL

  • First Basenji's

    Waiting for the blanket portal… how cute.

    Last night Bowpi got under the covers and laid down next to me. My boyfriend was reading a book on the other side of the bed. Bowpi stretched out her front leg and put her paw on his arm, as if to pull him closer or get his attention. Then she started to bite the corner of the book, like she was saying "ExCUSE me, it's time to sleep now."

    That's probably the most demanding thing she's ever done!

    She slept crated when she was with her previous owner. Actually, she was crated most of the day AND night before, which is why I think she was a bit reluctant to sleep with us at first. I know she wasn't allowed on any furniture, and certainly not the bed. Previous owner said she had a doggy bed, but she didn't pass it along because she said she wouldn't use it anyway, preferring the company of other sleeping creatures.

    Yes, this definitely seems to be the case.

    I don't know if Bowpi will ever get to the point where she can share a bed with Bowdu. He's in a bed that's big enough for them both, but like I said, he does NOT share his sleeping space very well. Heh. That's okay. We'll make room.


  • My last 2 Basenjis always slept under the covers but they did not sleep next to each other. One slept up near the top and one at the bottom. If one touched the other there'd be a fight under the covers.


  • @Lysh:

    ah! Hope does this as-well. She'll be in the middle of the bed, between me and my partner, with her back against one of us and then she will stretch completly out and lock her legs and then dig her toenails into whoever is on the otherside hahaha. my partner gets annoyed at that and moves her or i move her over to my side so shes against me with her locked legs headin out the side.

    She also does the comes up to us and looks at us until we lift the blanket for her to come under LOL

    suki, too! ridiculous little creatures, but we must bide by their wishes!


  • Haven't they all got us well trained?!!!


  • LOL if I am near the bed or in it, they ask me to lift the covers. However they can get in most the time without my help. But it does make it easier I guess.


  • Tenji does the same thing, he only sleeps on my bed when he's good…or i'm cold...so it's kind of like a treat i guess. When he does sleep on my bed he sleeps ontop of my blankets but under his own, and he will not sleep unless he's pushed up as close to you as possible...usually he'll put his back to my side and then dig his legs into the blankets and push as hard as he can, which gets annoying. He likes having his head covered, and his favorite sleeping position is with his head jammed into your armpit lol


  • Batman, chiweenie boy, burrows under the covers. He's done that from day one. Nayru was alternating between on the covers against my knees or at the foot of my bed on a pile of sheets on my cedar chest. Just the last few nights she's started getting under the covers. She doesn't stay there but I do love her warm little body against me. 🙂


  • Ellie and Taj have slept fully under the covers with me for years. I too have to provide a blanket portal for their convenience. Before my old man Marco Polo crossed the bridge, he would sleep on the bed part of the night but not under the covers.

    When I was bedridden with a horrid flu for a few days last year, I had a foster B with me who had come from a puppy mill and was not well-socialized at all, but even she joined in the nursing crew. Marco would lay by my left shoulder, the foster would lay down the side of my left leg, Ellie would be pressed against my right side with her head on my shoulder, and Taj was curled by my right hip. They took extraordinarily good care of me.


  • Penny LOVES to sleep with us. She is very impatient so us to get settled and quickly tries to get her spot right in between Patrick and I which is adorable but i usuallu move her to either one side of Patrick or me so we aren;t separated. She will look at us and digg at the covers saying "lift them up so i can get in now" lol I just love when she sleeps and her sweet face. And when she is out she is OUT lol i can lift her up, mover her around and nothing! But man does she snore lol seriously for such a little thing, i sometimes have to adjust he head so she doesn't. I have never had a dog quite to cuddly and i love it and so doe my finace. Nothing better than the love of a basenji 🙂


  • Lola came home as a tiny puppy, having never slept in a bed before. The very first night, we put her in bed with us. She immediately started pecking my shoulder with her nose until I picked up the edge of the blanket for her. She ran straight under the covers & settled right in between my legs in a little ball like this was how she had been sleeping every night for her short life. This is where she always sleeps, under the covers. If it gets warm, she becomes "rigor mortis dog", locking her legs straight out, nails dug into my legs. It it gets hot, she wakes up, rushed to the top of the bed, sticks her head out of the covers, collapses & falls instantly back to sleep.
    Callie came to me at a little over a year. She had slept in a crate at night at her breeder's house, so the first couple of nights were confusing to her. She finally got the idea of sleeping in the bed, and it took her another 2 confusing weeks before she figured out where Lola was dissappearing to. Once she figured out the under the blanket idea, she decided right by my chest was her spot, and has slept there ever since.
    On cool nights, the cat will sleep next to my face on the pillow.
    They have gotten used to me tossing & turning, and it doesn't seem to bother them in the slightest. I'm usually the least comfortable, but I wouldn't have it any other way.


  • @Lenora:

    Mine sleeps curled up behind my knees and when I turn over she does too. Occasionally she stretches out and then we have a problem with sharp toenails where they shouldn't oughta be. I'm trying to picture Lisa Stewart and FIVE basenjis in a king sized bed. Some B's are pokers and pushers (and growlers!) in the middle of the night when the human invades THEIR space!

    ya my tri colored one growls if the red one invades his space and occasionally thinks me or my fiance is the other dog moving and growls. gets so hot in the bed with 2 b's i end up sweating my ass off waking up at 4-5 am and moving to another room and of course the tri male follows me and like someone else said he his fav position is w his head jammed into my armpit!


  • ROFLMAO, here's a thought… when you get up and leave, shut the door. 🙂

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