This weekend we began a very trying, but also a very necessary change – we’re trying to get our puppy used to sleeping in her own cage instead of sleeping in the bed with us.
And I’ll be the first to admit that we were probably just being lazy by letting her sleep with us to begin with – I think after a full day of chasing the anxious puppy around and seeing how clingy and hyper she can be, we realized that the only way we were ever going to get any sleep was by just caving in and keeping her with us all night, too. Which is fine if you don’t mind being reminded at 4am that she thinks she might want to pee or being reminded at 8am that IT’S TIME FOR HER TO GET UP AND START ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL DAY!!!
Also, not for nothing but it kind of made, shall I say, intimacy between a loving husband and wife pretty much impossible, so that wasn’t exactly working for us, either!
So Friday night was her first night sleeping alone and she didn’t like it one bit. She probably barked for a solid 30 minutes, upon which my theory is that her brain eventually just shut off motor control to her larynx so that even it could finally get some rest.
Saturday night – still unhappy, but maybe 15 minutes of barking, and even that was only after she finished the treat that we had given her and saw through our ruse that we weren’t technically even in the room anymore.
Sunday night – 5 minutes, at best
And finally, tonight?! Jackpot – maybe a few stray barks as I turned off the lights and closed the bedroom door, but by the time I’d gotten ready for bed she was quiet. She still wasn’t exactly crazy about getting in her cage and even snuck back out one time while I was trying to gather up her toys for her, but at least I have my own bed back now and boy, has it been nice to not wake up to something chewing on my ear at the stroke of 8:00am every morning!
