The Mind Of The Dog

In My Humble Opinion
1

OK, Straight Dope Dog Owners, we have another Curious Conundrum for your expert analysis.

The background: jeevwoman, jeevpup, and I all moved into the current jeevhaus in April 2003. When we first moved in, jeevpup slept on the floor of our bedroom. Eventually, we got him a doggie bed, which at first he didn’t quite know what to do with, but eventually figured out. It was kind of funny, actually - he’d fall asleep on the floor while we were still awake, then, after we had gone to sleep, he would wake up and crawl into his doggie bed.

At some point, he began to take to sleeping out in the living room. Which was OK by us, since sometimes, as we explained to him, sometimes, mommy and daddy need some alone time. We moved his bed out there, and he would go out at night and put himself to bed. On weekdays, I usually woke up before him and would find him in his bed. On weekends, he usually would wake us up to tell us he needed to go potty. Eventually, he figured out about when I’d wake up and would come into the bedroom a few minutes before or, if he missed it, when the alarm went off or he heard me go into the bathroom.

Lately, within the last couple of weeks, a new pattern has emerged. After he does his last potty break of the night, usually around 9:30 PM, he puts himself to bed in the living room. Then, about 2 or 3 in the morning, he wakes up and comes into our room. He cries like he has to go potty, which we know is not true. At first, I put him on the bed because we generally don’t mind him there if we’re not using the bed for things other than sleeping. Now, he comes up himself. In any event, once he’s on the bed, he sleeps until one of us wakes up.

We’re kind of curious as to what prompted this change in behavior. It’s not really bothering us (well, not me, anyway - my wife may have a different opinion), but it is, well, weird.

Any thoughts?

2

jeevpup is either bored or insecure, and knows that the whimpering sound he makes gets your attention. My dog kept doing this to me for a while. He’d wake me up in the middle of the night to go outside. I eventually just kept him out there till he got the message that his tactic isn’t paying off the way he wants it anymore.

I’d say keep him in the utility room at night and let him whimper. After about a week, see if he does it anymore.

3

Sounds to me like the pup is being… well… a dog. A pack dog.

My toller likes to “ask for permission” before jumping up on the bed to cuddle with us. So he sits there and squeaks until someone lets him up :wink:

It doesn’t sound like too odd a behavior to me - he wants to pile up with his pack, and you don’t mind him doing so, so he puts himself to bed… sleeps a while, gets up, and wants to snuggle up to the rest of ya.

If you want to change the behavior, then restrict his access to your bedroom - put up a baby gate, etc… but if you don’t mind it… then meh. Moving his bed back to your bedroom may stop him from wishing to go UP onto your bed.

Other than that, if you don’t really mind, there’s no harm :slight_smile:

Elly and the Hounds
Spanky: who likes to sleep on people’s heads
Valen: who always wants pillow space
Zap: who expands to fill the available space but mostly just wants to sprawl and cuddle.

4

Thanks, Elenfair. It doesn’t really bother us too much (or, again, me, but since jeevpup comes to my side of the bed, it’s my space he’s taking). It just seems odd that it would change so suddenly. I’m actually not in favor of denying him access to the room while we’re sleeping, simply because on those days (let’s call them “Saturday” and “Sunday”), when maybe we sleep in a little, I’d prefer that he be able to tell us that he needs to go out.

I suppose we’ll see a new pattern emerge in a couple of weeks when his new canine sister enters the picture. Can’t hardly wait.

5

Elenfair and jeevmon, my Sasha used to ask permission to get on the bed too. We have an old bed that’s high off the floor, and lots of nights she’d start out sleeping under the bed. In the middle of the night, she’d go to one side of the bed and make a little “urrrrr” sound till we’d tell her to come on up.

Her favorite place to sleep was curled up with her back against my fiancé’s chest, in what we called the “nuggle” position.

I sure miss that dog.

We currently have 2 dogs that sleep with us regularly. Ivan sleeps at the foot of the bed, between our feet. Bouncer sleeps between me and Robt. We just chase them off when we need time alone.

6

Any ideas what would cause him to suddenly take up this practice, though? It’s only been in the past month or so and as far as we can tell, there have been no changes to his routine. (Now, when his little sister arrives in a week and they are both in the living room, then we expect changes.)

7

It’s probably nothing more than a desire to be with you. I had a dog that did the same thing after he’d been with us about a year or so. We just let him up on the bed when it was time for us to go to sleep so he didn’t wake us after an hour or two wanting to come up. Life was fine after that.

8

How old is jeevpup? In the first year or two their behavior patterns are constantly evolving. . .my weimaraner pup never barked AT ALL, until 10 months old when he one day (literally) turned into an irrepressible barking machine. With that came his obsessive watchfulness of the front yard through the bay window. Until a month or so ago, he was never very cuddly on the couch. . .he would sit at the opposite end of the couch from me and would move if I crowded his space. In the last month or so, though, he jumps up and lays his head in my lap or squishes his nose into my armpit until I lift my arm to let him under. By gosh, he’s cuddly now!

Young dogs mature and their desires will change accordingly. If jeevpup isn’t so young, though, it could just be that he decided he wanted something new one night (sleeping on your bed), and liked it. Dogs are very, very, VERY pattern-oriented so he might just be “locked in” to doing it in the middle of the night. It worked the first time he did it that way, so he’ll keep doing it that way until something changes the pattern.

9

jeevpup is about four, we think. He’s a pound mutt, so it’s hard to tell.

romansperson, your situation sounds similar, except that, after he has his last potty break, he actively resists coming to our room to sleep. He puts himself to bed out in the living room, but then comes into our room late at night. Even if we put him on the bed before we go to sleep, he jumps off to go to his own bed.

It’s an interesting conundrum. We’re not really interested in changing his behavior, so much as trying to figure out what brought on the change, especially since, as troub notes, dogs are very pattern oriented.

10

It could be something that’s neither more nor less complicated than “he feels like it right now”. CurrentDog goes through phases like this too, where he’ll be EXTREMELY independent, to the point of not staying even in the same room with us, then all of a sudden he’s sleeping in the bed with us again. Then after a while, he’s back to somewhere in between: up on the bed, hops down to “patrol” the house, sleeps on his bed in his room, hops up on the bed after a few hours.
PastDog1 and PastDog2 also both went through these phases.

So…it could be just that he’s decided to “pack” with you for a while.

Oh, and be prepared for him to defend HIS bed-that-he-allows-the-humans-to-sleep-on when JeevPupSister arrives… And good luck.

11

Wanna know who runs our house?

We just got a new king size bed in November. It is much taller than our last bed and our two girls could no longer make it up. Basset Hounds, jeebus love em, are great dogs, but the high jump is not their speciality.
We went out and bought them a small square ottoman that matches the comforter. It sits on my side of the bed, at the foot. This is now their step to get on the bed.

Although, it was $50 well spent. I love my dogs sleeping in the bed with us. :slight_smile:

FWIW, jeevmon, since we discussed it before, I had no issues with new dog and old dog concerning the bed – or really anything, for that matter. They began playing and wrestling within 2 minutes of meeting and have been best friends since.

12

Do you turn down the heat at night? Perhaps jeevpup gets cold after awhile and has figured out that it’s warmer where you are.

13

The heat does switch down a few degrees at night, but has done so for several months during times which were much much colder than what we’ve been experiencing since this behavior started manifesting.

14

At this point, we’re thinking he’s just weird. That explanation covers a lot of what he does, anyway. Why not this, too? :slight_smile:

Having said that, we do love the darn mutt, much to the annoyance of many of our (non-dog owning) friends.