E316- The Hidden Risk of Letting Your Dog on the Furniture

0:00 [SPEAKER_00]: If you allow your dog to sleep in your bed, it will absolutely ruin your relationship with your dog and hear a swi. [SPEAKER_00]: Now I'm Tom Davis. [SPEAKER_00]: I've been professionally working with dogs for over a decade. [SPEAKER_00]: If you're listening to my podcast, welcome back to the podcast.

0:21 [SPEAKER_00]: And if you're watching this on YouTube, make sure you subscribe to my second channel because if you don't, you will miss the next episode, which can change your relationship with your dog forever. [SPEAKER_00]: So the thing about sleeping with your dog and your bed. [SPEAKER_00]: I talk about this in a bunch of different ways, but the most important way is just the facts and the truth.

0:40 [SPEAKER_00]: And [SPEAKER_00]: If you allow your dog to sleep in your bed, it really comes down to a couple of things, whether or not it's a big deal or not. [SPEAKER_00]: And the problem is is when you ask your dog to get down, that's where the real problem starts to happen. [SPEAKER_00]: Many people don't have the best relationship with their dog to be honest.

0:58 [SPEAKER_00]: And I know that that may sting a little bit and some people may be like, well, Tom, um, [SPEAKER_00]: Frick you, man. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, here's the reality is when your dog gets up on the actual bed, right, or any furniture. [SPEAKER_00]: Really furniture is the whole name of the game here.

1:14 [SPEAKER_00]: And again, I know I've talked about this before, but it's really important to kind of put out here and the in the ethos in real time and make sure you understand that when your dog gets on an elevated structure, right, rather it's an ottoman, a couch of bed. [SPEAKER_00]: whatever the heck it is they're up there so there's two kind of splits in the road right here the first one is is a lot of people who say well I try to get my dog down and then they just do one of these and they start kind of jumping around and they start grabbing your arms and grabbing your [SPEAKER_00]: your hands and they start being reactive and they start trying to bite your hand a lot of times it's not malicious but it's also not it's not fun either right you literally try to get your dog down they say make me you grab their collar you grab their scruff and then they try to fight you and then now it's this whole thing and so that creates tension that creates headache that creates frustration that creates everything right like that's annoying right so

2:13 [SPEAKER_00]: Again, the best relationship with your dog and you don't need to be a dog trainer to have a good relationship with your dog. [SPEAKER_00]: You just need clarity. [SPEAKER_00]: So when you say, hey, get off the dog music. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay. [SPEAKER_00]: I'll get off. [SPEAKER_00]: Now my dogs could get on my bed.

2:26 [SPEAKER_00]: If so, I've had obviously dogs my entire life, but some of you may remember my St. Bernard Thompson and we would let him on our bed, my wife and I, but he would only stay on our bed for like five minutes, 10 minutes at the max, just because he got too hot. [SPEAKER_00]: My dog Lakota, my Dutch Shepherd, all the dogs that I've had in the past, all these dogs can get on the bed, but They just never, it's just never a thing like I've never had a dog that like they have their own dog bed, and that's their own thing So anyway, so there's one part of the road that causes a lot of problems The other fork in the road with letting your dogs up on the furniture outside of the year whole relationship being

3:07 [SPEAKER_00]: probably not good and not clear is other dog fighting, right? [SPEAKER_00]: So this is where you kind of have this hierarchy thing, like physical hierarchy where the dog is actually physically above the other dog. [SPEAKER_00]: It also can create bits of resource guarding, which I've seen before.

3:25 [SPEAKER_00]: So I guess there's like three little crutches that [SPEAKER_00]: Button your dog up in furniture can create and a lot of times it's it's not fun and it just creates problems and the juice really isn't worth the squeeze because I guess there's really four things right because then you let me let me back up I digress so let's talk about the one I just talk about with resource guarding and having fights with their dog so if you have other multiple dogs in the house.

3:48 [SPEAKER_00]: more than one. [SPEAKER_00]: So two or more, you could start to create tension. [SPEAKER_00]: So let's say for an example, one dog gets up on the couch or the bed, and then the other dog comes walking by now. [SPEAKER_00]: There's potential tension. [SPEAKER_00]: Now you might say, well, Tom, my dog's love each other.

4:02 [SPEAKER_00]: They get along. [SPEAKER_00]: Then you don't have to worry about that. [SPEAKER_00]: But you probably have to worry about the first thing. [SPEAKER_00]: And so there is that issue right so a lot of people who have multiple dogs in the house that are starting to have fights I always ask that question like are they allowed up on furniture and like yeah I'm like well, that's an advantage point.

4:17 [SPEAKER_00]: That's basically like nan and a boo-boo type of thing like you can't Allow one dog to do something because then when the other dog tries to do it There's gonna be a fight no get down. [SPEAKER_00]: This is mine right and so that that creates an issue that creates tension [SPEAKER_00]: All right, so kind of all comes down to the first thing of well, when you come over and you say get down the dog goes yep got it heard said They're down, but a lot of people unfortunately don't have that relationship with their dog So then the third thing is that resource guarding so then you have the resource guarding of you as [SPEAKER_00]: The person right and it doesn't have to be another dog.

4:52 [SPEAKER_00]: I've seen this happen many actually we've had podcasts before About people having issues getting back in their own bed that somebody wakes up in the middle of the night to go pee They come back and they're freaking dog is growing at him because they're how to look against their wife or [SPEAKER_00]: I've even had dogs bite people in the dead of the night because of this too.

5:13 [SPEAKER_00]: So it creates a lot of that problem too because the dog either is startled or the dog doesn't know it's you or again the dog has resource guarding issues, right? [SPEAKER_00]: So there's multiple layers of the resource guarding in itself as well where [SPEAKER_00]: You literally try to get into bed at night and your dog says get away from me and they start growling Guess is my bed or this is my human There's an issue.

5:35 [SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of like this and then again that is a very unhealthy relationship guys I don't I don't care who you are what you do I am telling you right now from the bottom of my heart. [SPEAKER_00]: I have dedicated my entire life to understanding dogs and if your dog is resource-guarding you as a person and [SPEAKER_00]: Outside of you having a disability or you being a young kid or you being harassed or worse like I'm just saying if your husband tries to crawl into bed with you and your dog tries to bite them or grow them or vice versa that's an issue.

6:08 [SPEAKER_00]: These things happen all the time and this is another reason why we don't let dogs get comfortable in furniture unless you have a really good and clear relationship with your dog which [SPEAKER_00]: So, it's important for you to know some of these things. [SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, I think the third, and I think most, I think the most, generally, understanding one, or the most applicable one, to literally everybody is just obviously the hair, the dirt, the fleas, the bugs, et cetera.

6:40 [SPEAKER_00]: That's really not too much of a thing, because if you're a dog person, like me, you really don't care about that, I personally don't. [SPEAKER_00]: But that is a thing too for some people. [SPEAKER_00]: They don't like that. [SPEAKER_00]: But, I mean, if you live in New York City, [SPEAKER_00]: I, to be honest, actually, if I lived in New York City, I would care about that.

6:53 [SPEAKER_00]: If I lived in New York City, I absolutely would not let my dogs on any furniture, because that's disgusting. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you might say, well, Tom, it's like walking anywhere, really. [SPEAKER_00]: Not really. [SPEAKER_00]: I've been in New York City many, many, many times. [SPEAKER_00]: I've done many TV shows there, and it is not the same at all.

7:09 [SPEAKER_00]: It is feces and urine and homeless people and vomit and oh, no, no, it's not the same at all as walking in Suburbia Somewhere out of the city. [SPEAKER_00]: It's not the same anyway, but that would be that would that's where I would draw the line Let me know if you draw the line there, but [SPEAKER_00]: Allow your dogs up on the furniture.

7:28 [SPEAKER_00]: Again, isn't a big deal. [SPEAKER_00]: If you have a good healthy clean relationship with your dog, it can create and definitely does create a lot of issues with dogs because of the reasons I've already said. [SPEAKER_00]: You have the relationship issue, you tell them to get off and they play value and they run around your bed and they basically punk you and they say no.

7:48 [SPEAKER_00]: The second issue is they have resource guarding and it potentially starts to cause conflict with other dogs in the house because of the physical hierarchy. [SPEAKER_00]: And then the third thing that we talked about is, again, like your dog protecting air quotes protecting you against your partner or significant other or even your kids.

8:06 [SPEAKER_00]: excuse me, which become an issue. [SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes dogs, excuse me, well, even resource guard, the bed, they're on or something like that. [SPEAKER_00]: So I just tell people, he always asked me that, there's this folk lore of, well, is it okay if my dog gets up in the furniture or some people will say like, oh, I let my dog open the furniture, I know that's bad.

8:22 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, it's not really bad, it's not inherently bad. [SPEAKER_00]: at all. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just the issue comes up because most people don't have a good relationship, a good clear relationship with their dog. [SPEAKER_00]: And that's reality. [SPEAKER_00]: And so anyway, so that's the whole thing about, should you let your dogs on the better not?

8:41 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's my answer. [SPEAKER_00]: And I've just all of everything. [SPEAKER_00]: I guess that makes sense. [SPEAKER_00]: Everything that I do with dogs, [SPEAKER_00]: for the most part, and I'll state it if it's not, is backed on evidence of actual boots on the ground working with dogs.

9:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Like that's the beauty of working in the dog industry for as long as I have every single day, not as a hobby, but as a full-time full-fledged engulfed into every single facet of dog, and [SPEAKER_00]: I have so much experience and knowledge and evidence from my career that I can tell you, I've seen this that I'm talking about over and over and over and over again.

9:25 [SPEAKER_00]: It's even better my podcast a bunch of different times as well. [SPEAKER_00]: You guys can hear that and that's the benefit of the podcast as you guys can hear it. [SPEAKER_00]: First 10 from a dog owner, just like you, who's trying to figure out life with their dog. [SPEAKER_00]: Guys, if you haven't subscribed to my second channel, make sure you do that so you don't miss anything and make sure you guys hit that follow button on Instagram at Tom Davis and no bad dogs And make sure you follow us right here on on the podcast platform and which you're listening to this Thank you guys so much for watching.

9:54 [SPEAKER_00]: I will talk to you in the next one peace