I've reached the point of so much sleep deprivation from our boy moving around all night that I'm keen to make him sleep in the kitchen. But he is such a social boy, follows me around when I move around the house day or night. And when he wants to go to sleep and we're not yet ready, he starts to whimper while looking up the stairs towards our bedroom, kind of begging us to get to sleep already with him. So I can't imagine how we will manage making him sleep by himself in the kitchen (which is a very cool room). Our bedroom is very hot, too hot for him to be comfortable, so he is in and out all night, onto the balcony, back inside, out, in, out, in, and often crashing against my side of the bed to sleep, which wakes me up with a jolt. He does have his own bed, but the canvas is noisy when his paws brush against it, which also wakes me up (he seems to scratch a lot at night, due to the heat I think). I'm going a little crazy being woken up all night. I did try ear plugs, but some noises do come through, and it was rather alarming hearing these weird noises without all the other background sounds -- so I took the ear plugs out. My husband is also feeling the effects of being woken up all night, so he's also keen to get our boy out of the bedroom. But how? I'm dreading the barking and crying to join us. And I know I will feel awful cos he's been sleeping with us for almost three years. Has anyone had a similar experience? Any advice will be greatly appreciated. (Although I'm not sure I will have the guts to carry it out!!!)
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom My two old dogs always slept with me - until OH came into my life. He really didn't want to share the bed with two big labradors. I was expecting all kinds of ructions, but I just left them on the couch in the living room - would you believe they didn't make a peep? Curled up perfectly happily and just slept there all night. Maybe you just need to try it, see how it works out. You won't know until you've tried.
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom My dear Boogie used to sleep on the bed with me, 'till he got old and a little 'leaky' :-[ He made the transition with no difficulties, 'tho I felt awful. I've always had my dogs sleep downstairs since then - no problems at all. Since I had the kids I've been a very light sleeper, so couldn't manage to sleep with them upstairs now even if I wanted to. Get a really comfy bed for him (Wolfy beds are great) and a vet bed on the floor, so he has a choice of surfaces - he'll be just fine
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom Give it a go you never know he might prefer it but if he whines the only way it will work is by ignoring him a bit like when you first bring a puppy home. I'm guessing from your post though you will find that hard. :-\ If it doesn't work what about getting him a fabric bed/mattress, like faux fur, that won't make as much noise and putting it by the balcony window where it's cooler. Then train him to sleep on it. That might help if you feel too mean making him stay in the kitchen. Good luck.
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom hi i have milly whowas 6months when i got her she is the same follows around house all day and we do manage to leave her for a couple of hours if we both need to go out together but most of the time one of us goes out at a time we were worried about her joints getting damaged before she was 1 so tried to get her to sleep downstairs nothing worked she howled if we ignored her so now she sleeps in our bedroom i dont mind as i have chronic insomnia but my husband notices her fidgeting a lot i dont think i want to try her downstairs again
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom Thank you everyone for your responses! I guess the only way to find out if it will work is to try it out!! We had him sleep in our bedroom from the day we got him because all the puppy-rearing tips I read then suggested it was best to keep the pup in the bedroom to relieve the anxiety of having been separated from his litter and mom and to ensure that he is well house-trained. Well, we scored full marks on both those points. But now we have this new problem, which I would never have predicted, ie being woken up through the night. We only have Snowie, an only dog. So I think it might be more difficult than if we were relegating two or more dogs to the kitchen -- at least then they'd have each other for company. Incidentally, we leave him alone when we go out and he is absolutely fine with that, never had a problem. We do make sure he has had a walk before we go out and then he is left inside the house, usually lying on his "downstairs" bed watching us leave. But when we are home, then he wants to be wherever we are. I shall keep you posted on our sleeping developments!
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom yes do let us know how you get on milly sounds very similar to your dog milly will now go in a different room on her own and often gets in her crate in the kitchen when we are in living room daytime i leave the crate open but dont think she would sleep downstairs when she is in season she needs to go out every 2hours so its easier to have her in our room
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom Mine are on their own, even 'tho there are two. Guide dog pups have to sleep alone to get them used to it, so mine each sleep in a different room. They are fine
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom Good luck - let us know how you get on I brought a ceiling fan for our bedroom because it got too hot in our bedroom during the summer - spoilt pup :
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom I would just go cold turkey and do it, and see how it goes. You might find he will be absolutely fine and as equally glad of the rest as you will be! If there is a problem and he doesn't cope then all is not lost! Has he ever been crate trained? If so this will help immensely with this transition - it will be just like moving a puppy out of your bedroom. For the first night or so you have the crate by your bed and then over the course of the next week or two you gradually move it further away from you. So a couple of nights across the room, a couple of nights outside your bedroom, then down the hall, down the stairs etc until you eventually end up where you want him eg. the kitchen or lounge etc.
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom I mentioned to my husband last night that Snowie must sleep in the kitchen, but are we willing to put up with the moans to join us? He looked at me with shock: You don't mean you'd limit his access to our bedroom? You can't do that! Our downstairs is open plan, only the bedrooms upstairs have doors. So we'd have to put a barricade on the stairs to stop him coming upstairs. And we wouldn't close our bedroom door because we need access to our bathroom and also it would get too hot. So last night I put Snowie's favourite sleeping blanket in our coldest room downstairs, the "utility" room (our house is very small so no rooms are far away from anywhere) but he paid no attention to it and came upstairs with us. And woke me up every hour, not intentionally waking me up, but I woke up to his moving around or scratching himself (as I said, he scratches more at night in our bedroom, due to the heat I think). I was besides myself with exhaustion this morning. I told him he has to sleep in the kitchen tonight, and the expression on his face made it appear he really understood (haha!). He was not crate trained and I would not confine him to a crate at this stage just because he gets so hot and needs to move to a cooler spot to cool down. Things I have tried: I slept all night with the aircon on 16 C when my husband was away two nights ago and I was so dehydrated in the morning that I really don't want to do that again. Snowie was also dehydrated and woke me up when I heard him drinking water in the bathroom in the middle of the night, so I did not get a good night's sleep in any case. Not to mention that my husband would not put up with 16 C! I also slept in our utility room with Snowie when my husband was away and I had forgotten how AMAZING it is to wake up feeling refreshed! I had so much energy that I even ran home at the end of our morning walk; usually I can barely drag my feet early in the morning. The utility room has a cold concrete floor and even though Snowie did move around, I don't think he moved as much, and he also didn't make much noise on the smooth floor. When he moves around/scratches himself on our carpeted floors upstairs, somehow I hear him more. I told my husband that perhaps I should move downstairs to the utility room and he and Snowie can sleep upstairs! My husband doesn't wake up as much as I do -- I wake up to every little sound and movement. Anyway, let's see what this evening brings. Thank you again for the tips and support. Will keep you posted!
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom How about trying his bed downstairs + a stair gate? The ones made for babies do the job well.
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom Massive fan of stair gates here! Our dogs are in the kitchen behind gates. Or you can get a pen if your house is uber open plan
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom Update: we bought a desk fan and put it on the floor where Snowie sleeps in his cool spot. And, hallelujah! First night was bliss: he slept in front of the fan and didn't wake us up. But the second night wasn't so lucky and he woke us up once to open the balcony door so that he could go out and sleep on the balcony (if it's windy we keep the door closed otherwise the curtains billow). Last night we didn't switch on the fan cos the night air was cool and still, just left the balcony door open, and we all slept well -- I only woke up this morning when it got light, unheard of! We usually put a bar stool over a step to stop Snowie going upstairs. We did have baby gates but got irritated when they fell out of position and had to be put back (very finicky but the width of the space is not a normal width), and they didn't look very nice (we have a very small house so there are no "out of the way" places in our house, all is on display). But we are still experimenting with ways to keep upstairs cool. Seems like the fan is a big win, and he doesn't mind it all -- puts his nose right up to it (thankfully has that safety cage around the blades!). Interestingly -- and who knows what is connected and what causes what -- the vet prescribed a probiotic cos he'd had diarrhea and had vomited three nights in a row. I took him to the vet on Monday morning. And since he's been on the probiotic (it's now Wednesday), I think he's been sleeping better. Blood tests and a faecel test all came back normal, no worms, liver and kidney all fine. Maybe he just needed his gut sorted out?
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom So glad things are looking up for you all
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom well how are you getting on as milly is such a fidget and keeps us awake we decided to try her sleeping downstairs again she has a crate in our kitchen with the door left open and she goes in if she wants to so we put her in one night and shut the door which is what we do if we go out i am really happy to say she has not made a sound three nights now and still ok she is now 18 months so maybe out of the puppy stage ha ha heres hoping
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom You're lucky to have crate trained Molly. Wish we'd done the same with Snowie. Oh well, we now have to deal with what we have. He's still fidgeting and waking me up with his scratching and licking in the night. As I mentioned previously, he's been checked out by the vet and he's in great health. Just that he gets hot and itchy at night, and the scratching and licking and then the constant moving around wakes me up. And of course I feel sorry for him when he's scratching so much, so I inevitably get up and see if I can help him. Usually just a wet cloth to wipe over the itchy area which instantly relaxes him and he goes to sleep. And now I've discovered coconut oil. I tried it on my own hair cos it needed a good conditioning (works wonders I must add!). I also massaged it into my scalp, and, lo and behold, my scalp, which is also usually itchy, now feels wonderful. So I've decided to try it on Snowie's skin. I tried it last night, and tonight have again rubbed coconut oil into his itchy parts. Let's see if it makes things better so that we can all sleep well tonight!!
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom i noticed recently milly was licking her feet and legs and found a scab on the side of her face which the vet thinks is dermatitis and she has got antibiotics which do seem to have helped a lot
Re: Need help getting a 3-year-old Lab to sleep alone after sleeping in the bedroom I do hope Molly's skin clears up. I used the coconut oil on Snowie and it is working very well, he is definitely scratching and licking much less on the itchy parts. But still keeping me awake at night! Next week we all go on holiday, Snowie included -- renting a house at the beach, tons of sea swimming and exercise, and nights are very chilly. Last year we did the same and we all slept amazingly well and he did not scratch there. So I am looking forward to a whole week of SLEEP!!!
