It’s another day, and you make your bed. After you do your regular morning routine, you look around for your pup before you head to work only to find them on your bed! Your bed is all messed up now thanks to your fur baby.
At first, you might wonder how your dog even had the time to get on your bed, but then you also wonder, “Why does my dog mess up my bed?”
There are multiple different reasons why your dog messes up your bed. Some reasons include your dog being anxious or bored. Other reasons are that they are marking their territory or wanting to play. They also just might want to make the bed more comfortable for a quick nap.
These are just a few of the reasons why your dog might mess up your bed. Let’s take a closer look into these reasons along with a couple more to find out why your dog does this!
Reason 1: Your Dog Wants To Play
Dogs have weird ways to show us what they want. Since they can’t use words like humans can to let us know what they want, they use body language instead.
Your dog might mess up your bed because they want to play with you!
Sometimes, our dogs have the “zoomies.” Zoomies are also known as Frenetic Random Activity Periods (FRAPs) which are sudden bursts of energy that could be caused by playtime. When your dog has the zoomies, they may do repetitive actions such as running in circles or spinning.
If your dog has the zoomies on your bed, they will definitely mess it up!
Your dog might also mess up your bed because it is their own way of playing. They might try to grab onto the closest thing near them and use it as a toy for the both of you to play with. Unfortunately, that might be the bed sheets or even a pillow!
If you suspect that your dog is messing up your bed because they want to play, you can try to move them away from the bed with one of their other toys and play a quick game of fetch. If your dog is having the zoomies on your bed, it will most likely pass in a few seconds.
Unfortunately, you will still have to remake your bed either way!
Reason 2: Your Dog Is Anxious
Dogs can be very similar to humans when it comes to how they feel. Like humans, they can also feel anxious and stressed.
Your dog might mess up your bed because they are feeling anxious.
When our dogs feel anxious or stressed, there are certain behaviors that they show in order to comfort themselves. One of those behaviors may just happen to be messing up your bed. Other signs of anxiety in dogs could be laying on top of you or trying to wrap their paws around you.
You might be thinking, “What could cause my dog to feel anxious in my bedroom?”
There are various reasons why your dog might be anxious and mess up your bed. Some might include that they heard a loud noise such as fireworks or traffic, having an animal in the area that they haven’t met before, or having young and energetic kids in the house.
If you suspect that your dog is messing up your bed because they are feeling anxious or stressed, try to find the cause of their feelings. By figuring out what makes them feel that way, you can help your dog remove the stressor from the situation or remove your dog from the stressful environment.
Reason 3: Your Dog Is Making The Bed More Comfortable
While our dogs may sometimes like to sleep in strange places, like on the hard floor near doors, our dogs also love having a comfy place to lay down!
Your dog might unmake your bed to make it comfortable for themself.
Our pups might choose your bed over their own because it’s bigger and sometimes fluffier than theirs. When you make your bed, it removes some of the extra squish that can be found with an unmade bed! Your dog might unmake the bed in order to get that extra fluff by moving it all into a big crumpled mess and then laying on it.
Dogs have strange ways to make their sleeping place more comfortable. Besides messing up your bed, it is not uncommon for your pup to also walk in a couple of circles before plopping themself down.
These are just a few things that can help your dog sleep at night. In a way, it is like their own nighttime routine before their beauty sleep!
You can watch this pup mess up the bed and circle a little bit before laying down for a nap:
Reason 4: Your Dog Is Bored
It is not uncommon for dog owners to call their pups their fur babies. That’s because they can act so much like human kids! While our dogs love to sleep, when they’re awake, they also like to be entertained like humans!
Your dog might mess up your bed because they are bored and want to do something to keep themselves entertained.
Dogs need to exercise both their body and their brain. If they don’t find a way to entertain themselves, they may become stressed. While messing up the bed may not seem like a big deal, some dogs go beyond that when they’re bored. Many chew on furniture or get into things they aren’t supposed to.
If you suspect that your dog messes up your bed because they are bored, there are some things you can do to keep them entertained and tire them out.
Some of the things you can do if you have some playtime with your pup to prevent them from unmaking your bed are to take them for a longer walk than usual or go for a run with them. If you have two dogs, you could go for a run with both of them and get them both tired more efficiently!
Reason 5: Your Dog Is Showing Her Maternal Instincts
Dogs carry their instincts from their ancestors, the wolves, even to this day! Some of those instincts that your pup may have can include the act of following a scent trail or playing with other dogs by wrestling or gently biting.
Your dog might mess up your bed because she is showing her maternal instincts.
If your dog is a female, specifically one that is pregnant, she may be getting ready to have her litter of puppies. Scratching at the bed is natural to pregnant dogs and can be compared to pregnant women having cravings.
Pregnant dogs have the instinct to make a soft, warm, and comfortable place to have and take care of their little puppies. They will often use scratching motions to make that nest. Unfortunately, your pup might use these scratching motions and mess up your bed.
If your dog is pregnant, contacting a veterinarian and doing detailed research can help you be more prepared, especially if this is your dog’s first litter. Like human babies, puppies are not easy to take care of.
It’s not uncommon to find your dog carrying her little babies to your bed after giving birth to them since they can be softer and larger than their own. Check out this video of a mom trying to move her babies into her owner’s bed:
Reason 6: Your Dog Does It Out Of Habit
Dogs are more similar to humans than we think. They can have habits just like we do.
Your dog might mess up your bed because it is a habit for them.
You may be thinking, “How is my dog messing up my bed a habit?” It may be that they did it once before and repeated that until they couldn’t lay on the bed unless they messed it up. Just as mentioned before, dogs also circle around on their bed before sleeping to make it more comfortable. However, other dogs do the same thing except they might do it every time they’re about to lay down. It might not actually make it more comfortable, those dogs might just happen to do it out of habit.
While our dogs are similar to us in the way that they have habits, but their habits may seem strange to us. Many dog habits might not even have anything to do with beds or sleeping. Some of these habits may include licking you obsessively, jumping on you while walking, and even humping after meals.
Reason 7: Your Dog Is Feeling Curious
Not only are our dogs similar to human babies because they like to play and not be bored, but they are also very curious at times!
Your dog might mess up or unmake your bed because they are feeling curious about something.
Dogs have an amazing sense of smell. They can smell up to 40 times better than humans do. Sometimes we place things on the bed and our dogs can smell the objects’ scents even after we remove the object.
When our dogs smell something new, they’re curious about what it is and where it is or even where it’s from. You might notice that your pup would spend a little bit more time than usual sniffing the object or the area it was on. To get a better whiff of it, your dog might move the bed sheets and pillows around, messing your bed up.
If your pup loves to sniff around your bed and mess it up, they might benefit from having a snuffle mat which is usually recommended for breeds that like to dig but your messy bed dog may like it too! You can also hide some treats in crumpled towels or blankets. It gives them an area to use their nose and sniff out some tasty treats!
Reason 8: Your Dog Is Marking Their Territory
When thinking about ways for dogs to mark their territory, people often think about them peeing. However, there are other ways dogs mark their territory.
Your dog might mess up or unmake your bed because they are marking their territory.
One of the ways dogs can also mark their territory is by scratching or making kicking motions. This might happen to be on your bed as your dog is trying to let others know that your bed is actually their bed!
The kicking motions do not only happen indoors. You might notice your dog or other people’s dogs kicking after they poop or pee when on walks. This is just a way for your dog to say, “Hey! This is my spot!”
Watch this adorable pup kick up some grass after pottying:
Reason 9: You’re Encouraging The Behavior
Our dogs often look to us to get signs of whether or not we approve of their behavior. Without us knowing, we can cause our dogs to do things we don’t want them to do.
Your dog might mess up the bed because you’re encouraging the behavior.
Positive reinforcement is the method of giving a reward after a certain behavior. The most common example is dog training. When training a dog to sit, you would say the command to sit and then give a treat right after they sit. Sitting is the behavior and the treat is the reward in this scenario.
The reward does not always have to be a physical object. It can also be a reaction such as laughing or an action such as petting your dog. The first few times your dog messes up your bed might be funny to those watching so we laugh or talk to our dogs. However, your dog might think that you’re impressed by them unmaking your bed so they will do it again for the same reward.
If you think you’re encouraging the behavior, you can try not to make the behavior a huge deal. Having no reaction might tell your dog that you don’t really care for them messing up your bed. If you can catch your dog before they do it, you can also try to redirect their attention somewhere else and give them the idea that you’ll give them attention when they aren’t messing up the bed.
Is The Behavior Something To Worry About?
Messing up your bed is generally not a health-related behavior to worry about unless your dog has the possibility of being pregnant and you were not planning to have puppies. If you suspect that your dog is messing up your bed because they are anxious, removing them or the stressor from the situation can help your dog become less stressed and more comfortable.
However, we don’t always want an unmade bed. If you’re worried that your dog will unmake your bed every time you fix it and you seem to have tried everything, contacting a professional dog trainer can help you and your dog stop the behavior.
Final Thoughts
You might find yourself thinking, “Why does my dog mess up my bed?” Understanding the reasons for your dog’s behaviors can help strengthen your relationship with each other. Since our dogs cannot speak and tell us why they mess up our beds or do other things, they use body language to let us know what they want and need.
Communication is the best way to build a better bond between any two creatures and can lead to a happy life together.
