I am just curious as to how many of you let your lab sleep with you in your room? Or in another room entirely? Or on another floor (basement, first floor of a two storey)? My first lab Daisy used to sleep with my daughter, first in a crate as a puppy and then when she got old enough on my daughter's bed. But in her later years she woke my daughter up a lot, so Daisy was moved to her own bedroom next to us.... I'm trying to decide what sleeping arrangements is best for all concerned with our new puppy - my husband is a very light sleeper and a dog moving around in a metal crate can make some noise! He used to get woken up by Daisy a lot and she wasn't in a crate....she just moved around a lot and used to scratch from allergies etc. For the first while, I plan to sleep in the basement with the puppy because its quiet and cozy and won't disturb the rest of the house when we get up for the midnight pee business. Once the pup is past the housebreaking stage, I would like to move back to my own bedroom! Would I be a totally mean person to leave her crated in the basement? It is a fully finished basement and we are in a bungalow so we are one level above her not two.
I think it's fine to leave her crated in the basement, many dogs will sleep in crates in separate rooms from their owners. My pup slept in the kitchen in her crate until she was about 6 months and then she was de-crated and had the run of downstairs. Now she starts off asleep on the sofa in the lounge and wakes in the morning and goes to her bed in the kitchen!
Our pup is now 6 months old and she sleeps in a dog bed in the kitchen/dining room, she was initially in a crate in the same room.
Our Lab puppy, 9 year old Shih Tzu, 7 year old Yorkie all sleep in crates in the living room. They have done so their whole lives.
Ours is currently in a crate in our bedroom. We are thinking about decrating at night (is this a terrible idea at 7-8 months?) with the bedroom door shut. We are also looking at buying a king bed. The two things are definitely unrelated... As an aside, he does wake me up rattling around in the crate and now that its warmer and light earlier he wants to get out of the crate early. I'm staying strong and letting him wait for my alarm!
Ours have always slept in the bedroom with us. Crated when they were pups and then free run once they were house broken. Cooper sleeps on the bed, which is a bit of a mistake, but we will probably get a king sized bed to accommodate her. When we board them while we are on vacation, they sleep in a dog house connected to a run and seem to get along fine with that arrangement, but they are happy to come home.
Hi Chewies mum, Isla has always slept in her crate in our room and we are also trying to decide if it's too soon to leave her crate for open, she's just 8 months. I'm just worried she'll try and get up on our bed and wake us up to"play".
Our first step will probably be telling him to go "in your crate" but leaving the door ajar and hoping that he sleeps in there for most of the night. Phone chargers etc will obviously need to be hidden. He usually wakes up around 5 and quietly fidgets and chews his toys so I imagine he will end up on our bed then. I sometimes regret letting him sleep in our bedroom, but he is my first dog so I do want him to be close- if that makes any sense at all.
We let our last lab sleep in our bedroom for 13 years and had no problems at all, she was sooo good. Isla is a different matter altogether, lol. We will be doing the same as you, after puppy proofing anywhere she could get and hoping she won't land on our bed in the early hours!
Our lab is 19 months old now, she sleeps in a crate in the kitchen/dining/living area. We are all upstairs at night. It’s her little den and she settled in it. I always put a nighttime biscuit in there at bedtime. Do what fits your lifestyle and I think the dog will adapt.
Anywhere he wants except the couches and the bedrooms. Usually on his mat in the living room or his other mat under the Heat Pump. He used to sleep in his cage and still does from time to time. I think it’s bascially temperature driven decisions.
Our 17 week old lab slept in the corner of our room on his bed since the first day we got him at 8 weeks. He started off in the corner of our room on his bed with a dog gate surrounding him so he couldn't get out. As he got a little older, he would be able to get out of his fenced area we created (it was just two pieces of a gate that connected to form the whole one) and get out on his own when he needed to go to the bathroom or wanted to wake up. Since he was already staying in his bed the whole night anyway, we decided to not use the fence thing anymore and now he stays in his bed with out the gate pretty much the whole night until we wakes up, which is typically 5:30-5:45ish. Sometimes he will get up a little earlier and lay somewhere else in the room or chew his bone in his bed until 5:30-5:45 and we are ok with this too, as long as he isn't doing anything wrong. He still gets up a bit earlier than we would like by about 15-30 minutes but that's also because we are going to bed earlier than we used to. But we are ok with it. It gives us more time to spend with him before we leave him for work. The reason keeping him in our bedroom has worked out so smoothly is because he was never a whiner/barker during the night (thank God). Also, his chewing on things has gotten so much better since his early puppy days, so we haven't had to worry about him chewing stuff in the bedroom lately. I like having him in the bedroom with us. It's hilarious seeing him trot to his bed and plopping down when we tell him to go to bed and it's really hilarious when we wake up and his tail is wagging all the way outside to go pee.
It is lovely isn't it? Chewie is always so infectiously happy in the morning that even my OH who is really not a morning person is happy to see him at 6am!
