Our shepsky has been stiff getting up from his naps, so we bought him a couple of orthopedic memory foam dog beds. He likes to sleep with all of his legs stretched out, so we had to get him the XL size of bed!

The thing I am puzzling over is -
he likes to lie across hallways, in the center of the living room, in front of the TV, etc!
I tried putting the dog beds there, but stepping around them all the time has been getting annoying!

So now I want to move the beds into "corners" (out of the traffic flow) but I don't think he will use them then?
I have never seen him laying in corners.
Argh.

Any thoughts?!

PS Here he is in one of his favorite spots...in a hallway near the living room...so you can see why I can't put a dog bed there for him!!

I've given up trying to figure out how to make a dog's sleep more comfortable. We've bought those raised beds, memory foam beds, cheap blankets etc. Sometimes they use them, sometimes I find them sleeping in the dirt in the middle of the yard or on the concrete patio.

Dogs...

LOL
I agree.

Maybe I am just trying too hard to Get.My.Moneys.Worth.

Rumo will happily lay on the beds ... as long as I put them in the middle of the living room floor or in the place where all the hallways connect (his favorite sleeping spots). sigh, Dogs!!

Mine that looks a lot like yours won't use a bed. I swapped to just a comforter that I can just walk across like a rug.

They want to be in the middle of their people, even if they are sleeping so, places you go the most is where they will sleep, preferable where you'd wake them if you tried to leave the area or, where, you'll have to step over them or move them if you want to get to a place you go often throughout the day.

Just put your favorite chair in a corner, right behind the dog bed and, I promise, the dog will be on the bed every time you want to get across it to get in your chair. LOL

Leo doesn't really like beds ether only uses them when his cold other wise its the cool dirt outside or the tile floor in the middle of a walk way, haha.

Jasparr isn't interested in sleeping on beds. He likes to hump them. Doesn't matter that he's fixed. Hasn't grown out of it in 5 years. I've given up having a dog bed for him.

I've tried beds, my two will lay next to it. I put down blankets/comforters and they'll dig themselves a little nest in them. Kohdi likes to lay underneath a bedside bench in the master bedroom, it's quite cozy for him. In the winter, when the temps get much colder, I'd lay a fluffy soft Sherpa blanket down there. Because somehow I didn't think his fluff would be enough to keep him warm He refused to go under there until it was gone. Funny thing is, neither one of them has a problem making a bed on my bed Mishka dug right thru a down comforter once making a nest in my bed, while Kohdi likes to lay on top all of my pillows.

Well, Rumo has officially won!

I put his big dogbed in the corner of the living room all weekend, and he used it ZERO times. (It sure made our living room look nice for 48 hours though, very spacious :-)

So, I gave up.
I put it back in the middle of the living room. He is laying there happily now.

I think the bed does help with his stiffness...he limps a bit less after napping on the bed. (He is also taking joint supplements). Yep, he's not a young guy!

@li_izumi
LOL, Well, you have saved yourself a lot of money! Some of those dogbeds cost a few hundred dollars and look nicer than human sofas...

@Artic_Wind
I think Rumo would like an old comforter that he could dig/nest in! Sometimes he turns around and digs in the carpet before laying down (he gets reprimanded, but forgets sometimes)

And yep, we have seen Rumo go outside on a gray cold winter day, stretch out on the deck, and have a nice snooze. So much for the need for soft warm dog beds...got to keep it in perspective! :-)

bluemoods wrote:

They want to be in the middle of their people, even if they are sleeping

Yup... all three of them under my office chair.  

Shepsky13 wrote:

Well, Rumo has officially won!

I put his big dogbed in the corner of the living room all weekend, and he used it ZERO times. (It sure made our living room look nice for 48 hours though, very spacious :-)

So, I gave up.
I put it back in the middle of the living room. He is laying there happily now.

I think the bed does help with his stiffness...he limps a bit less after napping on the bed. (He is also taking joint supplements). Yep, he's not a young guy!

Was just thinking... what if you moved the bed from the center of the room to the corner over a week or two? Every day move it 6 inches closer to the corner. Maybe he won't notice that it's being moved. lol

@dvflyer
That's quite a crowd under your office chair! I hope you can focus! You are very popular.

Yep, I have heard about the incremental moving of things...crates, dog beds, etc. because dogs are such creatures of habit...I should give it a try! When his bed was in the corner, Rumo kept laying down exactly in the spot where it "used to be". ( But I guess we don't care that much, it's not like we have anybody to impress, since our most frequent visitors are 13 year old kids :-)