A couple of nights ago I was lying in bed reading, Delilah was stretched out across my feet and Sampson was stretched out between Hubby and me.
I shut the light off, lifted Delilah’s head so I could shift my feet and rolled over onto my side, sticking my face into Sampson’s. We lay there like that for a few minutes, our chests moving in perfect sync as we inhaled, exhaled, inhaled, exhaled, each taking what we needed from the other.
Ok, so it was really me getting what I needed, Sampson could have cared less.
All of a sudden with no warning Sampson blew out his breath and rolled over onto his back, legs up in the air. I obliged him by reaching over and rubbing his belly.
As I did, I had a thought about how very different my dogs truly are from each other, even in sleep.
Delilah has rarely spent the night anywhere else besides our bed. When she first joined our pack I fought a nightly battle with her. I would wake up and she would be on the bed and I would get up and drag her off.
All. Night. Long.
Eventually I gave up and gave in, it was just plain easier.
For all her issues, Delilah is a very quiet and still sleeper. She normally curls up on either my or Hubby’s feet and that is generally where she remains all night. If she gets up to shift position, it’s not noticeable at all.
This big, pushy, won’t take no for an answer, I demand you pay attention to me, bull in a China shop dog, is very dainty, quiet and feminine when she sleeps.
Sampson on the other hand is a very restless sleeper, he changes positions frequently, not just rolling over but getting up, turning around and most of the time he simply flomps down. If your body part happens to be in the way, well he just lies on it. When Sampson moves we generally know it.
There are two dog beds in our room, one at the foot and one on my side of the bed. The one at the foot is one of those really big, over-sized beds. The one on my side has seen better days, it’s getting low on fluff and probably should be replaced.
Sampson now will sleep in our bed only in the cooler weather, and by that I mean winter. Even with the cooler weather we are having now, it gets too warm for him. Don’t get me wrong he always starts out on the bed but sometime within the first couple hours, after tossing and turning, he will get up and go sleep on one of the beds on the floor.
Even with him off the bed, Delilah still remains curled up in a ball or stretched out across the foot of the bed. She rarely if ever ventures further.
It’s almost like they switch personalities when they sleep.
Do you notice anything about your dog’s sleeping patterns as opposed to their every day personality? Do you have a peaceful sleeper or a restless sleeper?
That’s so funny that your dogs switch roles at night. 🙂
Toby is a restless sleeper, but it falls right in line with his personality. He is restless in general, hardly ever settles in the house, the yard. And when he does fall asleep, he even runs in his sleep.
Meadow and Leah sleep like bricks as long as there are no thunderstorms or fireworks, or racoons chattering in the yard.
Isn’t that funny! Sampson runs a lot in his sleep too, but his sleeping patterns are so different from his ‘awake’ personality.
If the windows are open or she hears a noise, she’s right up at it, but to look at her sleep you’d never know she was such a high strung dog.
Bricks huh? Are they all in your room with you or do they sleep somewhere else?
They’re all in our bedroom. Leah and Toby are in their own beds, and Meadow is crated (but she gets a bed in there too). We tried weaning her out of it twice. Once she started picking on Toby, stealing his bed, pushing him out, even barking at him. Really weird. Then, the next time we tried, a firework went off and she tried to cram herself behind the bed and nearly got stuck. I had to drag her out in the middle of the night so she wouldn’t hurt herself, and so for the time being, she’s in the crate. 🙂
Maybe Delilah wears herself out during the day, and has no choice but to crash….and Sampson is getting rid of that excess energy that he keeps in check all day long!!
What a fun post, Jodi! Webster likes to sprawl out and changes positions frequently throughout the night – he’s on a large dog beg next to me at night. Luckily, he has no interest in sleeping in our bed because he would take up so much space and make us crazy with moving around all night. Daisy, on the other hand, curls up into the tiniest ball at night and sleeps very soundly. She is allowed in our bed on the weekend – even though she doesn’t take up a lot of space, she has a habit of picking a spot very close to either me or my husband (she takes turns with who she is going to cuddle with). I don’t mind her being close, but she heats up like an oven, so this only works on cooler nights! Funny thing is, when she sleeps in her dog bed, she is up early and wakes me up in the morning (sometimes too early), but when she sleeps in our bed, I have to wake her up!
It sounds like Delilah knows how hard she has worked for her position and doesn’t want to blow it.
My dogs have their own positions on the bed, but it’s the cat when she gets into the bedroom and walks over our sleeping bodies that is totally annoying.
Your house sounds kind of like our house. Only Mom’s got FIVE dogs and no husband. Maybe there’s a correlation there….?
😉
XOXO
HERO
I have said SO many times that Sampson and Delilah sound like Candy and Ginger. Although, lately Candy has taken to either sleeping on the couch or the doggy bed at the foot of our bed. Ginger moves around all night. She’ll sleep between me and Don or at my feet with her head on my feet or out on the couch. BUT the one thing you can bet on is that if either Don or I get up in the middle of the night, by the time we get back to the bed, Ginger is laying in our spot WITH her head on the pillow and she does NOT like being moved. Don will humor her . . . not me. I have actually laid on her challenging her for my spot . . . I have to constantly remind her WHO is the alpha female in this house. 😀 Gotta love the dogs and each of their personalities!!!!! 😀
I never sleep on the bed – I would get far too hot. I prefer the hall floor.
It is funny that their personalities are different waking and sleeping. It is a wonder with all of that going on at night that you get any sleep. 🙂 We let kitty sleep on the bed, but some nights she walks around all night. She then gets “excused”: from the bedroom. 🙂
Hi Y’all,
Stoppin’ to say “hello” and hope you and yours are having a Happy Mother’s Day!
Hope y’all have a wonderful week!!
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog
Queenie is jealous. Her momma won’t let her sleep on the bed. But when she’s on a trip, Q knows she gets to share the bed with me. So when Patty’s home she never gets on the bed but when she’s gone, Q is usually on the bed waiting for me at bedtime. She’s pretty quiet and doesn’t bother me during the night but unfortunately, she likes to get up pretty early in the morning.
That’s a cute story Jodie. Our silly dogs sleep with us in our bed. Honey used to sleep in her soft comfy dog bed on the floor until recently now that she is big enough [8 months!] to jump up on the bed on her own. She’s a pest! In our bed! They both start out on Mike’s side but eventually Molly ends up on my feet and Honey… is everywhere! I roll over in my sleep and just barely stop myself from crushing her! I wake up to find her on her back, all 4 paws spread eagle, having inched herself under my hand for a belly rub! She’s a real scamp, lol!
We have all kinds of sleepers in our house–But mostly they stay put at night and I think it’s because they’re afraid of losing their spots! 🙂