Dogs In the Bedroom - Advice

Skillie

Hi guys was wondering if anyone could add any input to help us with something. Heres some background info, we recently moved into our new home which we were building for the past 2 years. Charlie (14month old Newf) and Molly (5 year old Golden retriever) love it there but we've gotten them into a habbit of sleeping in our bedroom and now we are trying to get them out of it! In their old home charlie slept in the kitchen on his own and molly anywhere from the living room to the landing to a bedroom.

Our own fault but this developed due to the fact that over the past 6 months we started sleeping there at the weekends, the house was pretty much a construction site but we had the master bedroom in a liveable state (barely) fit enough to spend a night a week there as a novelty etc. So when we stayed there in the beginning the bedrrom was the only room fit for us and them to sleep in, it wasn't their normal home either so they needed to adjust. Over the coming months the house developed and improved and is now a home but all the while molly and charlie have been sleeping in the bedroom as this was the hub of the development. They love it there now and it is their home and we are all living there fulltime.

However; as nice as it is to have them all cute and comfy near us we'd like to keep the bedroom just for us in the long run. I realise it is all our own doing and we've given them every reason to want to stay and they love being near us etc but was looking for ideas to phase it out. They don't sleep on the bed or anything just on the rugs.

In the past week we've started going up to bed without waking them up when they are asleep in the living room. They sleep away on their own then wake up and head up stairs by about 2 to 3am. Its very adorable and cute that they wanna be with us at bed time and we don't mind them being there but just think its better if they have their own sleeping area, it’s a big house after all!! Molly seems to be the culprit in that Charlie will stay where Molly stays as she is his point of reference. So she wakes up heads for the hills and he follows, we don't want to lock them in any rooms etc or force the situation upon them so are we handling it correctly by just not disturbing them at our bed time and allowing them to come up if they want? Then hoping that eventually they will loose interest in the idea of having to be in the master bedroom? We don't give them good or bad attention when they come up stairs just pretend to be asleep. We are willing to let them carry on this way as long as they are happy and settling in the new home but as mentioned its not our ideal choice. Any advice appreciated and I'd like to hear from those other folk who started out with good intentions and ended up like us or worse!!

Sigma Force

I rekon if you keep doing what you're doing they will eventually settle in to their new places and sometimes dogs get fed up with sleeping on the bed and pop in for a while and then they get sqooshed or uncomfortable or too hot and they move off into another room.

Not sure what the easiest thing to do is perhaps closing your door and letting them sleep on the landing. Or perhaps placing some dog beds on the floor at the end of your bed. It's a tricky one because dogs love their comfort.

Skillie

oh they don't sleep on the bed just on the rug at the end of the bed. if we locked the door they will bark no doubt i'd rather just phase it out and hopefully as they get more comfortable with their surroundings they'll be happier on their own at night. They have no more comfort in the bedroom than they do in the living room etc they just like being near us

Whispered

Could you maybe do it as advised to parents when their child gets out of bed. Get up, don't say anything and gently lead the dog back to the place you want them to sleep in. Keep doing it until the dog gets sick of walking up and down the stairs. If they are getting what they want by coming up during the night then they have no reason to stop.

Skillie

helena.ryan wrote: »

Could you maybe do it as advised to parents when their child gets out of bed. Get up, don't say anything and gently lead the dog back to the place you want them to sleep in. Keep doing it until the dog gets sick of walking up and down the stairs. If they are getting what they want by coming up during the night then they have no reason to stop.

true but having trained this into them ourselves by months of having them there it will be a bit confusing for them. i know some would just lock them in the utility and be done with it etc but we are way too soft, the ideal is that they will just rather stay where they are in the living room as its just as comfy

Whispered

I don't mean be rough with them or anything but I do see what you mean. Could you phase it out bit by bit by allowing them into your room until a certain time, then bringing them downstairs for the last few hours of sleep, slowly extending the last few hours until you have it in such a way that they come for their goodnight cuddles and then go to their own bed?

Skillie

helena.ryan wrote: »

I don't mean be rough with them or anything but I do see what you mean. Could you phase it out bit by bit by allowing them into your room until a certain time, then bringing them downstairs for the last few hours of sleep, slowly extending the last few hours until you have it in such a way that they come for their goodnight cuddles and then go to their own bed?

ah no hassle we're big saps for the dogs but we know they are dogs and that and are not complete cuckoos or anything. just we gave them the habbit knowingly we don't mind it but would just prefer to keep the furr out of the bedroom!! the way it is now they are only coming up for the last 3/4 hours of the night. my hope is after a while once they are more comfortable with the new house being homely all over and not just the bedroom which they are most used to; that they will just not bother coming up at all.

dee o gee

If you gave them comfy new beds downstairs they might decide they are comfier than the rug on the floor upstairs?? Try closing your bedroom door for the night, you never know they might surprise you, and not bark or make a fuss at all!!

Skillie

dee o gee wrote: »

If you gave them comfy new beds downstairs they might decide they are comfier than the rug on the floor upstairs?? Try closing your bedroom door for the night, you never know they might surprise you, and not bark or make a fuss at all!!

unfortunately the newfy won't sleep on any beds we've gotten him as he gets too hot so he just sleeps on tiles, wooden floors or the rug at the most. will try the comfy bed on the golden though as she is the ring leader anyway!!

Molberts

if they like the rug, maybe gradually edge it towards the door over a few nights, then out to the landing?

boomerang

My auntie had this dilemma when she became pregnant. Her two dogs always slept in the bedroom or on the landing (with the bedroom door open). She didn't want them sleeping in the bedroom anymore once baby arrived.

She bit the bullet one night and left them downstairs in the kitchen, where their day-beds are, with a soft light on and the radio down low. Guess what? They didn't mind whatsoever! They didn't bark, they didn't scratch the door, in fact they settled straightaway as if they'd been sleeping downstairs all their lives!

So why not try it? Sometimes we under-estimate our dogs ability to be independent of us, because we feel so strongly bonded to them!

My own dog has slept on my bed at night since she was a puppy but she has no problem sleeping out in her bed in the living room instead. (I leave the doors open and she can pop out to her own bed during the night if she wants.) It's just that I love her sleeping on the bed with me!

Skillie

Molberts wrote: »

if they like the rug, maybe gradually edge it towards the door over a few nights, then out to the landing?

took the rug and put it in teh walk in wardrobe and he still lay by the end of the bed!!

boomerang wrote: »

Sometimes we under-estimate our dogs ability to be independent of us, because we feel so strongly bonded to them!

My own dog has slept on my bed at night since she was a puppy but she has no problem sleeping out in her bed in the living room instead. (I leave the doors open and she can pop out to her own bed during the night if she wants.) It's just that I love her sleeping on the bed with me!

I actually like them there in lots of ways but would ideally prefer they slept in their own space, they were fine with it before moving to the new house and i'm sure they will be fine with it again.

Might continue with the sleeping dogs lie technique for now, if they are asleep when we are hitting the hay we'll leave them where they are and if they pop up during the night so be it. in time if this does not work we'll revert to more drastic steps