Issue Date: July 13, 2008

Let sleeping dogs lie in your bed?

It's quite common these days.

By Monica Collins

"Rover, roll over" has taken on new meaning in pup culture as we jostle with canines for the pillows and duvets.

The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association says 42% of dog owners sleep with their canines. And the percentage is higher anecdotally.

When Brandie Ahlgren, the founder and editor of Seattle-based "CityDog Magazine," put the question to readers, "70% answered 'yes,' " says Ahlgren, who has a boxer and a Schnoodle. She sleeps with both -- except on certain tender occasions when she bans them from the bedroom and "they whine outside the door." Ahlgren calls her dogs "entitled" but not "aggressive," which isa crucial distinction when deciding whether to allow your dog to share the bed.

"Some dogs don't want to take over the bed. Some dogs do, and those are dogs you probably don't want in the bed because you might lose a foot if you moved in the middle of the night," says Amy Marder, a Boston veterinarian and certified animal behaviorist. She says dogs need to share our snoozing presence. "Dogs are social animals, and they want to be with the family."

When I got my West Highland white terrier nearly 10 years ago, I boasted I would never allow him to sleep with me. That lasted just a couple of months, until a snowy night when I craved woofer warmth. Shorty surely understood his status had forever changed when I invited him onto the bed, a place he has remained, even though I met a wonderful man in the meantime.

In "Ask Dog Lady" (askdoglady.com), the syndicated advice column I write, many of the questions revolve around bed manners.

For people in new relationships, a dog in the bed can throw an emotional body block. The dog, after all, was there first. Unless the owner directs the animal to sack out elsewhere, a newcomer can feel unhinged. The dog becomes the elephant in the room. Partners must tread sensitively.

Some doting owners remain reluctant to ban Bowser. In fact, Marder had a case in which a wife claimed she needed the dog as a sleep aid while the dog growled at her husband when he tried to enter the marital bed. "I improved the relationship between the dog and the husband," Marder says. "We did that through food."

Even without sprinkling liver chunks in the sheets, there are health concerns, notably sleep disturbance and allergies. In Great Britain, the land of 6.5 million dogs, the government's former chief veterinary officer, Fred Landeg, spoke of more dire consequences. Landeg claims sleeping with dogs can expose humans to "new and emerging diseases." Landeg proclaimed: "As a veterinary surgeon, I would never advise people to keep dogs in their bedroom." Many Britons took this news lying down -- with their dogs. One reader wrote on "The Times" of London's website, "it's remarkable how the human race has lasted this long. It won't be global warming that finishes us off; it'll be Fluffy, the 2-year-old miniature poodle!"