Sleeping In Bedroom

[Paisleymomma27]

I am back again lots of questions have come up with this new pup and so appreciative of the forums advice.

 

At what point is a good time to have our greyhound sleeping on the floor in our bedroom and out of the crate?? She settles very nicely at night on this mat in the bedroom and looks quite content. Then when its time for her to go back in crate, shes very reluctant but ends up going in without too much resistance.

 

We have a Yorkie that sleeps in the bedroom either in the closet (he likes sleeping under my husbands hanging work shirts) or in our bed.

 

Im obviously hesitant because while we would be sleeping, the dogs would be unsupervised in the bedroom and Id be worried about the Yorkie disturbing the greyhounds sleep and a worst case scenario would be someone getting hurt.

 

Our goal is to have the greyhound sleep in the bedroom. Ive read online that dogs like sleeping with their pack and Paisley is very naturally coming to the room at night to settle down for bed.

 

Weve had her 3 weeks. Im thinking 2-3 months?? Any thoughts?

[MaryJane]

When I used to foster greyhounds, I would take them into the bedroom at night and block off their bed to make sure that there were no incidents of them getting up and moving around or someone stepping on the dog accidentally. Usually within a few days I could remove the barriers.

[BatterseaBrindl]

Understandable concerns!

Is your bedroom big enough to hold a crate? Or an X-pen around the greys bed? Or an x-pen blocking the closet?

[Paisleymomma27]

Yes we have room! My husband and I are talking about reconfiguring a corner of the bedroom for her so that our dogs can be safe but she can be cozy in the bedroom. We have a gate that we can section off.

 

Thank you for the ideas

[greysmom]

If your two dogs are together during the day without difficulties, and your greyhound hasn't shown any sleep startle or space issues, I would think that you would be OK to let her sleep in your room uncrated. Unless your yorkie is walking around a lot during the night disturbing everyone's sleep, there shouldn't be any issues.

 

Get her a nice comfy bed, and see if she needs a blanket or pajamas to keep her warm. I like the bedroom to be much cooler than the rest of the house for sleeping and it might be too cool for some dogs.

[Paisleymomma27]

She hasnt had any sleep startle thus far because I did read that can be a possibility with the greys. And her and my Yorkie are doing better than I even anticipated.

They even bed swap in the evening. Its quite adorable.

 

Thank you!

[Rakete]

I slightly disagree to what greysmom said. If sleep startle and space agression on the larger dogs side is ruled out there shoulf always be a look on the first dogs behaviour like: has the little one shown any sign of jealousy so far?

 

Bedroom and or sleeping near the owner is a big ressource for some dogs. So the "older" may be granted more rights at the beginning and might be superviced for a while.

 

Not every small dog might react like my own tiny brat - sleeping with the humans is her absolute top reward and she reacts recourceguarding towards the big boys. I let them sleep unsuperviced together for like a month now (befor Little One was crated during the night or I slept between the dogs on the floor, gave her her favourite reward but also corrected if she did not tolerate the new large guy next to me. Only Little One is alowed to sleep in our bed on special occassions, if I ever would change my mind and share the bed with all of the dogs I'd better be carefull as some sort of fight might break out. Little One would start it.)

 

If the get along great so far during the day, sleep together, tolerate each other next to you on the couch etc. I would give it a try. A superviced try.

 

Did they ever roam through your bedroom together? Do you spend time there during the day? I would try that first. Be there together with them while you are awake and see how the interact. Try this for a while, different times, different settings, play with them on the ground or whatever, take a (fake)nap while they are with you, read a book in the bedroom, let them do their thing but be there.

Edited January 4, 2019 by Rakete

[kudzu]

All dogs & situations are different. We have all dogs sleeping on the floor in our room & there's usually a couple cats on our bed. New dogs are crated in our room at night. On a few occasions I've used x-pens but that problematic. I tend to forget it's there & walk into it in the middle of the night, sometimes sustaining injuries. I'm such a klutz.

 

In my experience, 2-3 months of that arrangement is usually about right. (There have been exceptions thought.) After than, all the dogs have settled in and the cats have asserted dominance over the newbies. Some dogs are so comfortable sleeping in their crates that they get stressed when you remove it. For them we'll set the crate up again but leave the door open. After a while we take the crate away again & soon the dog is fine. And the bedroom seems so much larger.

[sobesmom]

We always had the crate for fosters in our bedroom, in the open closet (that's where it fit best) but the whole front was out into the room so they weren't isolated. Used it only at night, for as long as seemed prudent, and then open door. Some fosters chose to sleep in the crate, door open, some just floopped on the floor. Of course, do what works, but I'm personally a big fan of dogs in the bedroom when it works.

[GingersMom]

My grey would not come into bed at first. He slept on the side of the bed on his own bed for the first few months. He then migrated to the walk in closet, we set him up blankets and pillows, it's like his "safe haven" for when its raining. He just recently started getting in the bed. We just bought a king sized bed and have 2 smaller dogs in the bed with us as well. He will sleep in the closet for about 2-3 nights out of the week, and then come in bed the rest of the nights. I just let him get comfortable and do his own thing when we first adopted him.

[AlaskaLady]

When I first got Rider "Greyhound" and was unsure of how he would do around Tuttle "Cat" I kept his muzzle on at night while they were both in the room "on the bed". The muzzle allowed him to drink water but he wouldn't be able to do any harm to Tuttle or eat anything unsupervised. Rider doesn't like his crate and honestly he has a fear of being in it so in any new situation we use the muzzle for his safety and any new potential friends he may be staying with or meeting.