Pets Within Your Bed

Share

Pets within your Bed

Pets within your Bed

Scientists in California claimed that letting pets into the bed increases the probabilities of contracting the a lot more than 100 illnesses that are known to be transmitted from domestic pets to humans.

Serious diseases which is usually caught from animals consist of chagas illness, which can trigger life-threatening heart and digestive process disorders, and cat-scratch illness, which can also come from being licked by infected felines, and can trigger lethal damage to the liver, kidney or spleen.

Not long ago a nine-year-old boy in Arizona caught the plague mainly because he slept with his flea-infested cat, based on the report published within the US Centre for Disease Manage and Prevention journal "Emerging Infectious Diseases."

Bruno Chomel, a professor in the University of California school of veterinary medicine, and who co-authored the study, stated: "In several nations, pets have come to be substitutes for childbearing and child care, from time to time leading to excessive pet care.

"There are private spots inside the household, and I think our pets need to not go beyond subsequent for the bed. Having a stuffed animal within your bed is fine, not a true one."
"We needed to raise the attention of persons, as sleeping having a pet is becoming fairly common, and you'll find risks related to it, even if it can be not really frequent," he added.

Inside a latest study as much as 62 per cent of cat owners stated their pets slept either on or in their beds.

"Pets sleep among us, below the covers, with his head on the pillow," Endrick says. "He believed he was human."

Who's Sleeping With Their Pets?

Sleeping with pets is not unusual in this country. In line with a latest survey of pet owners by the American Pet Items Association, virtually half of dogs sleep in their owner's beds. The survey found that 62% of tiny dogs, 41% of medium-sized dogs and 32% of huge dogs sleep with their owners.

The survey also found that 62% of cats sleep with their adult owners, and yet another 13% of cats sleep with kids.

Is It Wholesome to Sleep with Pets?

So is it healthy to have your dog sleeping inside your bed? Derek Damin of Kentuckiana Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in Louisville, Ky., says people who suffer from pet allergies or asthma should not sleep with their dog or cat or even allow them in the bedroom.

"Use a HEPA filter and maintain them out of the bedroom to give your nose a few hours a day to recover," Damin says.

But Damin says most pet lovers won't kick Fido out of bed, even if they discover their pets are causing allergy problems. For those people he recommends allergy shots to build up a tolerance to the pet dander that causes allergic reactions.

"But if you're not allergic, there's really no big issue with having a dog in the bed," says Damin, who for years shared his bed with his miniature dachshund. "It's fine as long as it doesn't disturb your sleep."

Snoring, Kicking, Cover-Hogging Pets

Which brings up a different problem with sharing your bed with a pet - they can disturb your sleep. A study released by the Mayo Clinic Sleep Disorders Center found that about half the patients in the study had a dog or cat, and 53% of those pet owners said their pets disturbed their sleep in some way nightly.

"I've had patients that I've spent visit after visit going over their insomnia problems, trying to figure out what's happening, then I find out they have a dog that's scratching all night,"

Vandy recommends that people who have difficulty sleeping consider keeping pets out from the bedroom.

Can Pets Help Sleep?

But for people with no problem falling or staying asleep, Vandy says it's fine to allow a dog or cat in the bed.

"There are all kinds of medical benefits to having a pet," says vandy, who sleeps with her 45-pound dog. "And some people might feel safer or calmer with a dog in their bed."

Candace Hunziker of Kennesaw, Ga, says that's exactly why she sleeps with her Labrador retriever mix, P.

"She sleeps against me and she has very rhythmic breathing and it just puts me out," Hunziker says. "I have insomnia, my whole family does, and we all sleep with dogs. She puts me to sleep better than an Ambien."

What About Sex?

And then there's the whole matter of intimacy, having a pet in the bed. Can it interfere with your sex life? That depends, say Elizabeth and Charles Schmitz, love and marriage experts who wrote "Golden Anniversaries: The Seven Secrets of Successful Marriage."

"Many, many of our successful couples have pets and many sleep with them," Elizabeth Schmitz says.

But how they deal with the issue of intimacy varies, she says.

"Some put them outside the bedroom because they don't want them to watch," she says. "Some give them a treat to distract them. Some don't mind if the pet stays on the bed."

Charles Schmitz says the biggest issue is how both people feel about the pet being there.

"If one person is fine with the dog, but the other isn't, then you've got a problem," he says. "You absolutely have to talk about it and make sure both people are comfortable with the situation."

And it's also important that pets don't physically come amongst a couple at night, they say.

"The snuggling and the holding and the touching is critical," Elizabeth Schmitz says. "It's one from the seven secrets of a successful marriage. It's more important than sex."

Getting a Cat Out of Your Bed

And even when people finally make the hard decision to eject their pet from the bed, most find it's not an easy task.

Ingrid Johnson, a veterinary technician and consultant on feline behavior at a clinic in Marietta, Ga., says she advises clients to never let their cat in their bedroom if they don't want to sleep with the cat. She says for cats it's all or nothing, so the door must always be open to them, or never open to them.

"If you suddenly shut a cat out from the bedroom, they can get very frustrated and start displaying destructive behavior," Johnson says. "Cats don't react well if you take away territory."

But if a cat that sleeps with its owner must suddenly be banned, Johnson recommends giving the cat something else to do at night. Try giving kitty foraging toys to play with that feed her kibble, or put a cat condo by a window having a light outside.

"All the moths and bugs flying around the light right outside that window is like reality TV for cats," she says.

Getting a Dog Out of Your Bed

Internationally known dog trainer Victoria Stilwell says if your dog has no behavioral problems then it's OK to let him sleep in your bed. In fact, from the dog's standpoint, it's a compliment.

"Dogs only sleep with people or dogs they trust," says Stilwell, star with the TV show "It's Me or the Dog."

But, she says, aggressive or dominant dogs should not be allowed on beds. And if pets become a problem, they have to get off the bed.

That was the case with a couple that Stillwell worked with who slept with three giant, male mastiffs. One with the dogs started lunging at their toddler when she approached the bed, so Stilwell bought three extra huge dog beds and taught the dogs to get off the bed on command.

"Make it a game to get off the bed, using lots of praise and petting," Stilwell says. "They get no attention on the bed. Only on the floor."

After a while, when the dogs were ordered off the bed, they got down, although Stilwell says it was at least two weeks prior to the dogs didn't attempt to get back on the bed.

"You're going to have a few sleepless nights," she says, "but you've got to stick with it."

"We finally got a water bottle and squirted him when he tried to get into bed with us," Ingrid says. "It was a 3-month process to get them to sleep in their own beds, but we're worthless unless we get 8 hours sleep, so we had to get this below control. Now we all get a good night's sleep.