My boy Cooper (exactly 24 months) has always slept in the Family Room which is at the other end of the house from my bedroom. I sleep with my door open so I know he can hear me....probably snoring!!, or getting ready for bed, etc. Because so many of you have your pups sleeping either in your bedroom or on/in your bed I just wonder if I am missing out on his company during the night. I've had him in my bedroom maybe a couple of times through the night because I had company staying over and he would not settle down. But he is very restless (in bedroom), moving around, licking himself, licking me, jumping on bed, jumping off bed....you get the picture. Do you think it would be good for both of us if he did sleep in my bedroom? or do you think I should leave well enough alone? He seems quite happy to sleep on HIS sofa in HIS room. Actually, he kicks me out of the room when he wants to go to bed to sleep! He "speaks" to me in a very insistent way!!! Actually, quite funny.....I swear he is talking to me....Thanks for any advice......
If you both seem happy with things as they are, there is no reason to change it. I also don't believe this thing about always having to have a dog in your bedroom once you start. My dog is fine if I leave him in his pen rather than letting him sleep with us. Sure, if your dog sleeps on your bed for years and years and you never ask him to sleep alone, like anything you don't ask your dog to do on a regular basis, he might struggle. So just don't do that. Try having Cooper with you for a night, then ask him to sleep in the family room. See if that's ok, and what you both like best.
I say do what makes you happy. I like the idea of having my dogs cuddled up with me, but the reality is very different. To be fair, Willow is a breeze - she curls up at the end of the bed, but Shadow is a complete nightmare, has to be shoved up right against you or, better, on you, and he wriggles so much! So we have cuddles on the sofa - I often fall asleep on the sofa with them! - but the bedroom is where I go to escape the pointy elbows
He's obviously happy where he is, so I'd leave things as they are. My dogs don't sleep on the bed or in the bedroom come to that, they have their own beds in the kitchen beside the rayburn. The only time they're allowed to sleep with us is if one is ill or if there is a thunderstorm or fireworks.
My pup who is nine months old has never been upstairs, he loves his crates and takes himself to bed about 7.30pm to 8pm and there's no budging him. Sadly he's not a cuddly boy either, he'll lay by me on the floor when I'm on the floor but not for long. He prefers his own space to sprawl out in, I'm the same though when it comes to sleeping. Also I have a single bed so not a lot of room for a lab
Juno sleeps in the kitchen and always has with no problems. If she's unwell, like last night, we leave the door open so we can see her but for after surgery etc I sleep downstairs on the sofa with her beside me on the floor.
Sounds like the arrangement you have works just fine He sounds like he's happy with his sofa. I have my dog on my bed which like but there are downsides to it....less space for the humans, hot doggie making you hotter in summer, somehow the humans always ending up with a doll-sized portion of the bedcovers..... I usually sleep best when Obi decides to sleep on his own bed for the night, which is on the floor of our bedroom.
I'd keep your current set up if I were you. We allowed Ella on our bed and found that she's a massive wriggler and often ends up across us or pushing one of us out if bed. Also, when it's warm she spends a lot of the night swapping between the bed and the hallway floor but she's also know to go and sleep in the lounge instead. We only started letting Ella sleep in our room when we had our baby as we didn't want her to feel left out. Last week we decided that when the baby moves out of our room, Ella is no longer sleeping in our room either. Then she got ringworm so she's back in the laundry and doesn't seem to be too upset about it.
Thanks to all of you. You are right....why rock the boat.....this arrangement works fine and both of us are happy! Again.....thank you!
I'm a very light sleeper so could never sleep with a dog in the bed. But, often - when dogs get very old - they begin to be more clingy and need to be close to their humans. So then I put their bed by my bed. Otherwise it's downstairs! .
