When you no longer want your cavalier to sleep in your bed..

Hello,

We've recently adopted a 4 year old cavalier named Sadie(see posts in health/diet board and intro board for details). She's doing very well and bonding quite nicely with us. Her behavior has been just about perfect and we've completely fallen for her. We've never let our dogs sleep in our bed in the past (Sadie is the only dog in our house at this point in time) and had no intention of ever doing so...and the other dogs were ok with that (a Lhasa, a Golden, and an Airdale). But not Sadie, she insists on sleeping in our bed. She's not really needy in any other way, so we've reluctantly allowed her to sleep in our bed and sit on the bed when we're watching TV, talking on the phone, etc. However, my wife is slightly allergic to the dog and says that she doesn't like sleeping on the same sheets where the dog sheds, etc. While I don't mind having the dog in bed, I see her point.

The bottom line: how do we gently break Sadie of this habit (which we have accepted, if not encouraged)?

Thanks!

I have been in this same position too.
I am slightly allergic too and had Phoebe in the room with me and had to take the tough decision to move her out. I put her into the kitchen downstairs and it was a nightmare.....however I then left her outside my bedroom and let her sleep on the landing. There were a few whines for a while but she has settled perfectly. I still miss her in my bed though!!
Why don't you put some of your clothes on the ground and she will feel closer to you that way?
Good luck,
Brid

Are you wanting to remove her from the room totally or just remove her from the bed?

Mine sleep in a bed on the floor in the same room but are welcome to come on the bed, however my Shelties do not come on the bed and being firm from the start pays huge rewards...once you start do not give in, be firm but kind and she will soon understand that your bed isn't hers.

Just quietly remove her from the bed and place her in her own perhaps at the end of the bed...so everytime she comes up just remove her with no big fuss etc. You could say something gentle like "Sadies bed" when you place her in it and leave it at that.

You must work through what could be a difficult time but don't back down or you will make it harder for both of you and Sadie. Sadie lives with you and you set the guidelines not her!!!

Once she stays in her bed use gentle praise like "Good Bed Sadie"

Once she masters this you will find it handy when visiting etc, take her bed and she has her own safe place to rest and she keeps of friends/family furniture.

Be patient, gentle and firm. Gd luck!

Alison, Wilts, U.K.

that sounds hard. but i know that dogs can learn just about anything, and you can teach her not to get on the bed. you'll just need to give her lots of snuggles on other furniture and in her own bed. :flwr: i hope experienced people here can give you some good ideas, like brid's suggestion of putting some of your own clothes with your scent on them in her bed, and you can get a bag of rice and heat it in the microwave and it stays warm for a long time, i got one at the ASPCA store when zack was a puppy and left it with him in his crate at night.

in my living room i have a large chair, a tan love seat, and a dark blue sofa. Zack is not allowed to get on the dark blue sofa. He can get on anything else. he learned it pretty quickly just from being corrected each time he got on it or started to get on it. but after about 5 months of obeying the rule, he got quite sick where he could barely walk around, i'm guessing he may have been dizzy or faint or very weak, whatever it was, it lasted three days (the worst of it) and he suddenly insisted on laying on the blue sofa. at first i gently corrected him, but he acted like he had never learned the rule, and i didn't have the heart to enforce it because he was so sick and he was so determined to lay on the blue couch. i would go to work and come home and he would be on the couch. he would stay on it all day and night. after he started feeling better, i enforced the rule again, and he doesn't get on the blue couch anymore, it's been three months since then. there are never any white hairs on that couch.

good luck! that sounds like a heart challenge

I had a shep/pit mix that we dealt with a similar situation. We taught her to "go to your spot" which was a bed for her. She learned to go and lie down on her bed (later a pile of blankets, or whatever was handy to make a bed) and remain there. She could play with toys or chew something, but had to be in her spot. When it was time for sleep (she could be on the bed otherwise) we would tell her to go to her spot and she did and we gave her a chewy at night and she learned pretty quickly to sleep on her own bed.

There was however, that one time that she slithered up onto the bed and wrapped herself completely around my head. My partner was the first to discover this while I slept the night away. What a dog!

Re: When you no longer want your cavalier to sleep in your b

SadieScoots said:

Hello,

The bottom line: how do we gently break Sadie of this habit (which we have accepted, if not encouraged)?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

How would you handle a demotion? It is very difficult to reduce a dogs priviledges. Sometimes you can make a deal-- we did this with our tri-- she is in the room, but in a crate.

Our little Cav had a bed in each of our rooms, so he could wander from room to room if he so wanted.

Demotions

My Tri color, Wesley, is going through some major demotions. My fiancee and I just bought a new house and the only place he has ever known is the complete lap of luxury with my future parents-in-law (where we lived when we got him). He (and my other dogs) were the bosses of the house there and no matter how much I requested rules to be enforced, the dogs got their way (not from me of course but from grandpa). They are now unfortunatly accustom from getting fed under table :yuk: , sleeping in the bed, and climbing on the back of the couch.
Now that we are in our own house (Praise the LORD), the youngings now have to follow the rules of mommy's domain. It has been a week now and there is definite improvement in their behaviors. You just have to be consistent and firm. The boys sleep in a crate at night, they must lay in their bed while we eat and no jumping on mommy's brand new expensive couch!!!! Of course they need frequent reminders and Wesley is very good at sneaking with those sad big brown eyes. He starts by putting his head in my lap...then a paw..then slowly another paw. Before I know it the dog is in my lap and on the couch. DRAT! lol. then its back to square one.

I'm trying to get my dogs off the bed, my papillon is up & down all night . so I get no sleep & my boy has developed a manly odour which I would rather not sleepin thankyou ( He of course thinks its fantastic :roll: )

After many attempts last night I found a solution , lavendar oil sprinkled on the edges of my bed :badgrin: My boy got up for a few minutes then decided he couldnt take it anymore & went to sleep in the cupboard

My papillon stayed down until about 5am when she eventually got the courage to quickly run past the smell & squash herself on the pillow as far away from it as she could .

Ok the house & everything in it now stinks of lavendar but I got the best night sleep for a while

:lol: so dogs don't like lavendar?
i live in an apartment, it's a two story apartment with the bedrooms upstairs. Fortunately i have no adjacent neighbors, i'm on a corner, surrounded by halls and the outdoors. The one exception is my bedroom, which is directly under another tenant's bedroom. When i first got Zack, i tried keeping him in a crate in the bedroom but his whimpering put an immediate end to that because i know my neighbor upstairs is easily arroused by any noise i make, and i'm determined to be the best dog neighbor ever, i don't want any problems. So down went Zack's crate into the kitchen, far away from anyone else's apartment, he never whimpered and cried for long, but any at all would be unacceptable next to a bedroom at night. Gradually Zack transitioned from the crate to the Xpen to the gated kitchen and now has the run of the whole downstairs during the night. i have a gate to the upstairs which i close only at night. I got that gate because i used to worry he would get into the cat poop in the cat box upstairs but knock on wood he's never done that yet so during the day i leave the gate open, including while i'm not home. Otherwise, if i close the gate, i have to confine fluffy the cat to the upstairs all day.

I had this romantic idea that when zack was old enough, i would love to have him sleep on my bed at night, but as i get more into imagining the reality of it, i think i will just keep the arrangement we have now, with him staying downstairs at night. He doesn't seem to mind. I tried him out having him stay in my room during the day with me if i wanted to take a nap or just hang out on my bed, i liked having him in the bed. But then, a couple of times, all of a sudden there was this loud "WOOF! ARF!" shattering the peaceful silence, when he heard some noise outside and got up on his feet, ready to run out of the room and protect our abode, except he can't run out because i keep my bedroom door closed because i've never wanted fluffy the cat on my bed or pillow because i imagine she has catbox dust in her fur, and that grosses me out. So, i realized Zack could quite likely bark at night, even if it was just one or two barks, that would be too much, and now i have cancelled my plan to have him sleep with me. but i feel kind of sad about it. but when i hear stories like yours, i know it's the right decision--it's already hard enough to get enough sleep.