• What are peoples views on basenji's in the bed?

    I have 2 pugs and a labrador and they all sleep in/on the bed and always have done. They all get on great, no issues or problems and it saves on my heating bills :p They're quite happy to not sleep in the bed if i dont want them too so i dont have any problems with that..

    But, Tuesday night Maya was upstairs watching a movie in bed with us and i fell asleep. Woke up at 5am with her snuggled up fast asleep on the pillow so i left her there til i got up. She is clean, doesn't pee at night so it wasn't a problem.

    Last night, she obviously decided the bed was more comfortable that HER bed and was sat on the bottom step of my stairs (i have a baby gate to stop them running up the stairs) waiting to go up after she'd had her dinner :rolleyes: So, she slept in the bed again last night.

    She is no trouble at all, snuggles straight down and doesnt move all night. She's quite happy to go into her pen downstairs, but she just prefers sleeping in the bed!

    What do people think of this?? We always tell people, when they have one of our pups, to put their crate/pen in a room that isn't in the bedroom and leave them to settle in that (ie, if they cry, leave them to it) and i did that at first and we had no issues at all. And now, she gets into her bed in her pen and goes straight to sleep when i go to work in the morning 😃 So i cant see that its doing any harm, and she most likely would have ended up in the bed when she was toilet trained (which she seems to be already??? 😕 ) so i guess we've just skipped the few months of training i had with the other dogs… 😃


  • If you don't mind.. then there's no problem right? 😃
    Tillo doesn't sleep in our bed, but next to it, in his own bed. Just a decision we took based on experiences with dogs that started to growl in bed whenever I tried to move.. 🙂


  • Mine has been and always will be in the bed. The future one(s) will be too! I always crated her when we were away, to keep both her and the house safe. IMO, if you're going to have her in the bed at night, just keep up the crate training for when you're away! She sounds like my version of a "typical" B!


  • Medjai has to sleep in my bed, more for me than him. I move around a lot when he's not there, but only he moves when he's in my bed. I have a couple layers of blankets, and he sleeps under the top layer, and move above the blanket if he gets too warm.


  • IMO if you are crating her during the day then I wouldn't crate her at night. She is getting her crate training then and learning to be alone. Mine all sleep in bed. Our recommendation to puppy buyers is for the pup to sleep in a crate next to the bed so you can hear when they need to be taken out in the middle of the night to help with housebreaking. We usually let the pup into bed for the last few hours of the night. My husband is bad though and caves pretty quickly to letting the pup in bed for the whole night.


  • Kananga sleeps on my bed. I put a down comforter in his spot so he has something to keep him warm, although he never likes to be under any layers. He has no issues with me moving him and he wakes up just fine. Although he is obsessed with hitting me in the head with his paws when its time to get up. And I don't mean just playfully, he will literally "dig" into my head with his nails sometimes. Very impatient, but it's not enough to keep him off the bed at night.


  • I don't know how old Maya is, but it sounds like she is ready to be in the bed 🙂 In years past, when we had all the dogs in the bed, we would have the puppy sleep in a crate until we could be sure that she was big enough she wouldn't get squished. We never had any issues with not wanting to be crated later (except with Querk, for different reasons).

    I usually tell people, if everyone involved (humans and dogs) are happy with sleeping in the bed, then there is no problem. IMO, sleeping in the bed doesn't create behavior problems in dogs, but taking them out of the bed if there are behavior problems can help. I don't tolerate dogs snarking in bed…if that happens, they lose bed priviledges. But I can't imagine sleeping with at least one Basenji in bed...they are such excellent heaters!...not so good in the summer though 😉


  • Kona now sleeps in our bed every night. It started as a special treat and then only on weekends and now it is every night. It wasn't her decision, it was my husband's. We just love snuggling with her.


  • Thanks for the replies.

    I was interested to read other people opinions as i was told that you should never, ever let a basenji sleep in the bed :rolleyes: But i want Maya to be treated like all the others, she probably wont even know she is a basenji 😃

    She is only 8 weeks old (will be 9 weeks on saturday i think) so she is very very young, but she doesnt pee or poop all night in her crate (or in the bed, obviously) or during the day. She comes out of the crate/bed and goes straight outside to do that, she's a very clean little dog.

    So far we've had no problems at all, if she's not snuggling right up to me, she's snuggled up to one of the other dogs. She did, once or twice, have a nibble on a pug tail in the night which they weren't impressed with but she has been very good since 😃


  • @Maya:

    Thanks for the replies.

    I was interested to read other people opinions as i was told that you should never, ever let a basenji sleep in the bed :rolleyes: But i want Maya to be treated like all the others, she probably wont even know she is a basenji 😃

    She is only 8 weeks old (will be 9 weeks on saturday i think) so she is very very young, but she doesnt pee or poop all night in her crate (or in the bed, obviously) or during the day. She comes out of the crate/bed and goes straight outside to do that, she's a very clean little dog.

    So far we've had no problems at all, if she's not snuggling right up to me, she's snuggled up to one of the other dogs. She did, once or twice, have a nibble on a pug tail in the night which they weren't impressed with but she has been very good since 😃

    It sounds like you've really got the dream dog!:):D I'm jealous…our puppy years weren't that fabulous!


  • @nala121498:

    It sounds like you've really got the dream dog!:):D I'm jealous…our puppy years weren't that fabulous!

    Well, lets give it a few more weeks before we decide that she's the dream pup :p She could just be trying to make me feel safe, that she is the perfect basenji, then she will suddenly turn into a little devil dog 😃

    but, so far, she is absolutely perfect. No howling, no screaming, no chewing (even when left out!!), no peeing, no pooping, no fighting with the others, no biting of me…. Its a good start 😉


  • Blaze use to always sleep in my bed, but in his geezer years, he sometimes butt seeps. So sadly, he is back in his own bed. I still let him up in the morning for cuddle time, but he quickly learned that he had to be invited onto the bed. A plus side, he is more cuddly during the day now, and loves snuggling on the couch.


  • Hahaha. Dallas started off not chewing. That quickly changed once he began teething. He doesn't really chew anymore but there were several months there right before he turned one where he'd chew on anything & everything he could get his little paws on! I hope, for you & all your belongings sake, that Maya doesn't start doing this too 😉


  • @Maya:

    Well, lets give it a few more weeks before we decide that she's the dream pup :p She could just be trying to make me feel safe, that she is the perfect basenji, then she will suddenly turn into a little devil dog 😃

    but, so far, she is absolutely perfect. No howling, no screaming, no chewing (even when left out!!), no peeing, no pooping, no fighting with the others, no biting of me…. Its a good start 😉

    Fingers crossed that you do, in fact, have the dream pup!;)


  • @Ninabeana26:

    Hahaha. Dallas started off not chewing. That quickly changed once he began teething. He doesn't really chew anymore but there were several months there right before he turned one where he'd chew on anything & everything he could get his little paws on! I hope, for you & all your belongings sake, that Maya doesn't start doing this too 😉

    I've had labrador pups, im used to having everything i own chewed to pieces :p

    She does have a good chew on her toys and the little chew sticks i give her. I've made sure to give her plenty of toys to keep her occupied for the times im not there. But she hasn't chewed her bed or anything. She keeps her crate area immaculate, its exactly how i leave it, except that she takes her favourite toys into her bed with her :rolleyes:


  • @Maya:

    I've had labrador pups, im used to having everything i own chewed to pieces :p

    My mom used to say that exact same thing then she got her basenji. She decided the basenji was worse when he dug a hole in her couch because my dad was feeling under the weather and ignoring him.

    Really her basenji is not normally a bad dog but every so often he catches them off gaurd and does something they didn't expect.


  • Hollie has slept in the bed since the first night she came home from the shelter. We definately don't need the electric blanket in the winter… just her!!


  • Thanks for all your comments, I now feel better about letting Darwin sleep with us!


  • Shango sleeps in the bed with me, he too, keeps me warm. When I add my second B, it'll sleep in the bed too! 😃


  • Mine have always slept with me, even when we had 5. I have a hard time sleeping without any basenjis when I travel.

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