Change in bedtime behaviour.
Discussion
Owain, our Pug/French Bulldog cross is a lovely little chap. His usual bedtime routine is, I take him out for a quick wee, bring him back into the house where Mrs.Chips is waiting by his open crate with a treat for him. Usually, he takes the treat from her then trots happily into his crate, we close the door, turn the lights off, close the door to the room and head upstairs to bed. He has done this since he was around 6 months old, he is now 4 years old.
Last week there was a change in his behaviour in that, after taking the treat, he swerved the crate, sat on the sofa (on his blanket) and ate his treat. The cheeky little sod then jumped off the sofa, ran to the bottom of the stairs and rattled the stair gate as if to say, “I’m coming upstairs with you!”
For some of the nights since, we have managed to cajole/trick him into his crate. On the other nights, we have tried everything to get him in the crate but he has refused to go in and appears quite happy to “wait me out,” until I get fed up or too tired after which, he trots upstairs with me as happy as Larry!
Last night we tried a new tack in that, I tried to get him in his crate, waited and finally, left him in the room with the door open and shut the stair gate, effectively leaving him downstairs. We went to bed and I used the Ring camera to keep an eye on him to make sure he was okay. He mooched about for a while, jumped on the sofa and seemed to settle down, so we thought we’d got it sorted.
However, at 5am, there was a little scratch on the bedroom door and there he was! I don’t know how he did it, but he had managed to open the stair gate and had come upstairs to stay with us!
Consequently, we are now getting to the point where we are running out of ideas about what to do next. Ideally, we would like him to go back to his previous behaviour, but we are concerned that something has changed and so that may not be possible. By the same token, we do not want him thinking he can stay in the bedroom with us. Can I make it clear that we do not want to do anything that would cause him any distress, but we would welcome any advice or ideas to encourage him to go back to behaviour which is as close to his original behaviour as possible. Thanks for any and all constructive suggestions.
P.S. We already know we are too soft with him, but as this approach has worked with him for four years, we would be reluctant to change it significantly.
Last week there was a change in his behaviour in that, after taking the treat, he swerved the crate, sat on the sofa (on his blanket) and ate his treat. The cheeky little sod then jumped off the sofa, ran to the bottom of the stairs and rattled the stair gate as if to say, “I’m coming upstairs with you!”
For some of the nights since, we have managed to cajole/trick him into his crate. On the other nights, we have tried everything to get him in the crate but he has refused to go in and appears quite happy to “wait me out,” until I get fed up or too tired after which, he trots upstairs with me as happy as Larry!
Last night we tried a new tack in that, I tried to get him in his crate, waited and finally, left him in the room with the door open and shut the stair gate, effectively leaving him downstairs. We went to bed and I used the Ring camera to keep an eye on him to make sure he was okay. He mooched about for a while, jumped on the sofa and seemed to settle down, so we thought we’d got it sorted.
However, at 5am, there was a little scratch on the bedroom door and there he was! I don’t know how he did it, but he had managed to open the stair gate and had come upstairs to stay with us!
Consequently, we are now getting to the point where we are running out of ideas about what to do next. Ideally, we would like him to go back to his previous behaviour, but we are concerned that something has changed and so that may not be possible. By the same token, we do not want him thinking he can stay in the bedroom with us. Can I make it clear that we do not want to do anything that would cause him any distress, but we would welcome any advice or ideas to encourage him to go back to behaviour which is as close to his original behaviour as possible. Thanks for any and all constructive suggestions.
P.S. We already know we are too soft with him, but as this approach has worked with him for four years, we would be reluctant to change it significantly.
Rufus, whose is 13 now tries his luck every now and then.
His usual bedtime routine is to go out for a wee before we go to bed and then he gets in to his bed and generally stays there for the night, occasionally he will wander upstairs and sleep outside of our bedroom door.
But every once in a while we will hear a little scratch at th door or a whimper, basically wanting attention.
It might happen for 3 or 4 nights in a row but we always respond with a firm, loud ‘NO’ and then he settles himself back down again and eventually goes back to his routine.
His usual bedtime routine is to go out for a wee before we go to bed and then he gets in to his bed and generally stays there for the night, occasionally he will wander upstairs and sleep outside of our bedroom door.
But every once in a while we will hear a little scratch at th door or a whimper, basically wanting attention.
It might happen for 3 or 4 nights in a row but we always respond with a firm, loud ‘NO’ and then he settles himself back down again and eventually goes back to his routine.
When he is out walking and he meets other dogs, they chat and another dog has given him ideas .
We live in a Bungalow, both our dogs make it to our bed fairly frequently, we have just given up on it .
Appreciate you may not want to .
Is the dog alone in the day for long ? If we leave ours in the day for a long time they get very keen on our bed, if we are with them all day less so.
We live in a Bungalow, both our dogs make it to our bed fairly frequently, we have just given up on it .
Appreciate you may not want to .
Is the dog alone in the day for long ? If we leave ours in the day for a long time they get very keen on our bed, if we are with them all day less so.
cliffords said:
When he is out walking and he meets other dogs, they chat and another dog has given him ideas .
We live in a Bungalow, both our dogs make it to our bed fairly frequently, we have just given up on it .
Appreciate you may not want to .
Is the dog alone in the day for long ? If we leave ours in the day for a long time they get very keen on our bed, if we are with them all day less so.
We live in a Bungalow, both our dogs make it to our bed fairly frequently, we have just given up on it .
Appreciate you may not want to .
Is the dog alone in the day for long ? If we leave ours in the day for a long time they get very keen on our bed, if we are with them all day less so.
Most days he is not left on his own at all. On times when we can’t avoid it, he is maybe on his own for 2-3 hours maximum. He doesn’t show any signs of separation anxiety, but it is obvious that he very much enjoys our company. Wherever possible we do take him with us, we book a dog friendly cottage for our summer holidays. Whenever we go away to a B&B which is not dog friendly, he is booked in to a boarding kennel/ doggy daycare place, which he appears to love. He is going there at the end of the month for 3 nights, so we are thinking that this may be a good time to reset his bedtime routine if we haven’t been able to do so before.
Thanks for all responses.
I'm not sure how intelligent/crafty a pug/frenchie cross but any attempt to trick, lure or tempt our lurchers normally results in instant suspicion. They'll also size upon any perceived weakness pretty quickly!
Surely the answer is just to put him in the crate, give him the treat and go to bed. He'll soon learn there's no other option.
Surely the answer is just to put him in the crate, give him the treat and go to bed. He'll soon learn there's no other option.
Gassing Station | All Creatures Great & Small | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff