I've seen many people who have built a "step" out of wood. It slips over the outside corner edge of the dinette seat back - creating a larger platform to step onto (versus the small edge of the dinette and a soft cushion). When not needed, it pulls up off the dinette back and can be placed on the bed.
My clipper has a shelf at the ceiling to store linens, etc. When I need to get out of the cabover, I can grab hold of that while I stretch my leg down to the dinette back. Makes it very easy to get out of the bed. For the dogs, I got a large plastic dog step (5 steps) - I pull out the couch bed and place the step on that so the dogs can go up and down the steps. The dogs love the overhead bunk.
