Yoshi finally figuring out that the dog bed is for HIM to lay on
Rather than a bed for his toys. He still keeps putting his Christmas present bear in the bed though the second he's done playing with it, it rolls off or I move it off the bed. I had to put his binkie on the bed so he'd know he was supposed to lay down on it.
I took these from about halfway down the staircase so I could sneak up on him snoozing with his squeaky goose...
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When I got the bed I wasn't sure he'd want to use it, so I got it with the understanding that if he decided he didn't want to use it that I'd still like to use it myself just as a comfy thing to flop on the floor on to watch tv. Even before I covered it with his binkie so he'd know it was meant for him to lay on, somehow he knew that it was meant to be for him... and he wasn't keen on me being on it. He was offended that I should have the nerve to lay in his new bed sort of the same way that he gets offended if I have to confiscate one of his toys to sew up a hole he chewed in it or when I have to gather them up and put them in the washer. I think that may be because I moved his binkie out of the way to put his new bed there, so he just seemed to know that it was meant to be his even though he didn't seem to know quite what it was meant to be his FOR.
It's actually the largest sized bed that PetSmart had, but he still barely fits on it. And it is nice and soft and squishy. I also just noticed a few days ago that it has a zipper on one end so that you can take off the material on the outside and put it in the washer.
I would never have thought to get any of my Akitas a bed since Yoshi is the only one of the three that even used the binkie. Neither Kato nor Boo wanted anything to do with laying on even bare carpeting. Boo liked his crate with the hard plastic floor, and Kato liked either the kitchen floor, the bathroom floor right in front of the toilet (Yoshi also likes the floor in front of the potty for napping) or the plastic chair mat that's meant to be used on the floor in front of a desk that I pinched from one of my old office jobs since for some reason they were throwing out like 5 of them for no noticeable reason that I put right in front of the apartment door with the idea of keeping that part of the carpet cleaner. This is Kato in his usual place in front of the door on the plastic chair mat so he wouldn't have to lay on carpeting or didn't feel like walking all the way to the bathroom to snooze in front of the toilet...
This is my favorite one of him - "helping" me make the bed (though he's in the living room since that's where he dragged the sheet. He loved the make the bed game...
I really regret not having a camera when I had Kato. The few photos I have of him I had to take with one of those throw away cameras from the drug store.
Anywho, since Yoshi was the only one of the three that actually liked his binkie to use as a bed (and a place to store and "guard" his toys while he slept), when I saw the beds at PetSmart and they were 50% off ( I love a bargain!) I thought what the hell, if he doesn't want to use I still would myself.
Akitas generally aren't cuddlers with the exception of Boo who loved to cuddle, but only on his terms when he wanted to cuddle which was usually just at bed time or when he came in the bed to wake me up by delicately sitting on my head. Kato never wanted to cuddle (he was far too dignified for such "nonsense"
so I was really pleased to discover when I got Boo that he loved cuddling though only when he decided to cuddle with me rather than the other way around. Yoshi is more like Kato in that though he has no dignity whatsoever he's really not into cuddling though he's similar to Boo in wanting to do his version of cuddling (which is more like pet, tickle and play) than it really could be considered cuddling at bed time and when he wants to wake me up.
Ha! I just stopped to let Yoshi inside from the yard just before that last paragraph ad he went straight to his bed and curled up on it without even putting any toys in it first! I think if his Christmas present bear was in the bed though he wouldn't kick him out. I think since he got both the bed and the bear at the same time for Christmas he believes that he has to share the bed with the bear especially since whenever the bear isn't in the bed he goes to get it and puts it there himself. This is the first time he's ever layed on his bed free of the bear and other toys without putting the bear in first or gathering up some other toys to "guard" them while he's napping. He's weird about his toys... he either feels like he needs to guard them or that they need to guard something of his, like when he's done eating his dinner he surrounds the empty bowl with toys to guard his food bowl while he's elsewhere. Either that or he's pre-arranging his toys around the bowl that he uses as missiles to nail me with when I go downstairs to where I hide his chow bag to put his dinner in his bowl. I think I wrote another OP about how he likes to bomb me with his toys when I go down to the basement to fill his dinner bowl with his chow.