griffinej5
Posted : 4/22/2006 9:01:13 PM
Millie sleeps in her own bed at the foot of my parents' bed most of the time. Sometimes she'll drag her bed between my mom's side of the bed and the dresser, and other times she drags her bed out into the middle of the room and just sleeps on the floor at the foot of the bed. During the day if she's in the living room she'll sleep on one of the chairs, but it took her a while to realize she was allowed to do this, because she would get off anytime someone came in the room. Now she will stay there if someone comes in, but she will still get off if told to.
Max sleeps in my bed at night. When we first got him, he started out in his crate. Then after I spent a night sleeping in my sister's room with his crate in the room, I found out he slept later if he was with me. He still stayed in his crate by himself for a while after that, at first he was upstairs in the hallway, then he moved into the living room. He'd start out in his crate at night, then when he got up in the morning, if I wasn't ready to get up, we'd go back to sleep on the couch, or if I didn't want to get up early to begin with, we'd just start out on the couch. Eventually because he got accused of being the one who barks all day (but it is Millie, not him) his crate got moved into the basement, which is where my room is. He last a few nights sleeping in his crate, but he was waking up ridiculously early and whining. I couldn't outlast him, especially not on the days when I had to get up early and leave to get to my classes at 6:30 in the morning. So, I just started having him sleep in my room. I actually made him sleep in my bed, because at the time my room was such a mess, and I didn't want him on wandering around the floor finding stuff to munch on. It's also ridiculously small, so if I got him his own bed, I wouldn't be able to walk around without bumping in to it. He sort of gets an invitation to come up, in that I open the door, and/or the baby gate, and tell him we're going to bed. Then he usually follows me in and hops in bed with me. He gets up as soon as I get up, or as soon as he realizes I have gotten up and left him. The rest of the time he sleeps one of the chairs. He has a choice between the rocker, and whichever of the dish chairs aren't being used at the time. If I shut my laptop, he most of the time he will automatically jump up, because he's realized that it usually means I am getting up and going somewhere. It's not exactly the same off command other people would use, but it's very effective.