# Won't stay in bed at night



## newpuppy21 (Oct 13, 2011)

Gunner just turned 5 months old. He's been sleeping in our bed since we brought him home at 11 weeks (no lectures please). He usually does great. We wait till the house is dark and quiet to bring him up. He usually turns around a few times, gets comfy then curls up next to me and goes to sleep. We don't hear from him till 7:30.or 8 am when he wakes up to go potty. 

This last week has been completely different. Every night he's jumped off the bed multiple times and won't fall asleep. Usually after the 3rd time jumping off I take him downstairs and make him sleep in his crate. He just won't settle down. Last night I really didn't want to put him in the crate so I spent 30-45 min holding onto him so he couldn't jump down, petting him till he finally settled and fell asleep. When he jumps down he just moves around the room sniffing everything. I figure this may be because the only time he's allowed upstairs is to sleep. My daughter has toys everywhere and we also have carpet and we already have the downstairs puppy proofed so we'd like to keep him downstairs only except at night until he's out of the chewing phase. 

I take him outside to potty right before bed so I know it's not that. Sometimes when he hops off the bed, I'll even take him back out to see if he needs to go again though I don't think that's the issue. He's been sleeping 11 pm to 8 am without needing to go since he was 11 weeks. When I take him back downstairs he'll immediately go stand by the gate to the stairs waiting for me to take him back upstairs. So I know he wants to be with us and I feel bad because our other dog sleeps upstairs with us in her own recliner in our room. So I'd hate for him to be the only one downstairs by himself. He does fine when I do put him back in the crate, no whining or barking, he just goes to sleep. He's already in there during the day though for about 4-5 hrs so I don't want him in there at night too. Plus it may be weird but I feel more secure having both dogs with us at night in case of a fire or break in. Moving his crate upstairs is not an option. 

Any thoughts or advice? Could it just be an age thing? Maybe he's really curious about our room? I always wait till he's really sleepy to bring him to bed. I let him sleep the first hour or two in his crate. Generally 9-11 pm or so. That's when we relax upstairs and watch tv in bed. He has never been able to come up till all the lights are off because he could never relax and just lay in bed if the tv or lights were on. I absolutely don't trust him wondering around our room at night while we sleep. Like I said, this just started about a week ago, which is really weird to me.


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## threefsh (Apr 25, 2011)

My parents had this issue with their dogs when there were raccoons prowling the neighborhood. It could be that he hears/smells something outside. Their senses are much more finely attuned than ours.


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## Ozkar (Jul 4, 2011)

Put another dog bed in your room.


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## Vespasia (Apr 19, 2010)

We had the same trouble with Hally last March....turns out raccoons had found their way in the porch roof beside our bedroom....the smell must have driving Hally nuts! Given the time of year, is it possible you have mice or other creatures in the house?


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## newpuppy21 (Oct 13, 2011)

Yikes! Mice! I really hope not. Our lab sleeps soundly in her recliner which is right by the window in our room. She perks her ears up if she hears cars go by outside or if my husband comes up from the gym after I'm in bed. Gunner seems to be going after toys left around, looking in laundry baskets, basically just exploring everything. When he hears something outside or is bothered by something his demeanor is totally different, he growls, perks ears up, does the pointer type stance. I don't want him to have a dog bed on the floor because I absolutely don't trust him while I sleep if he's not next to me at night. He'd be bugging the other dog to play, getting into everything. Also he's not used to carpet and I'm not sure how he'd let me know he needs to potty. My signal now is he licks and paws at me in the morning then hops of the bed headed towards the door. It's just so weird because for months he's seemed to understand our bed and the dark means time to sleep. Maybe he doesn't want to sleep with us anymore? Should I slowly start letting him upstairs during the day so he's not so curious? He's very much into everything still. I'm constantly telling him to drop things he's not supposed to have, off the counters etc. Unless he's in his crate it's always been hard for him to relax but nighttime was always fine until recently.


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## finch (Sep 19, 2011)

Could you get a second crate to keep in the bedroom for night time? Either he could sleep in it all night, or just put him in it when/if he jumps down in the middle of the night.


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## LoveWalter (Jan 3, 2012)

Our Walter does that too! BUT, his crate is in our room so we leave it open for him to go in when he feels the need to jump off the bed  He hops in and falls asleep...


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## jjohnson (Nov 9, 2011)

Gus is 7 months, and sleeps with us, and has gone through phases like this, but it eventually ends. The recent thing he does is get out of bed and run to the kitchen to drink water/eat any leftover kibble, then he comes back and hops into bed! Then there's the switching between under the covers and end of the bed a million times a night, but that's another story...


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## finch (Sep 19, 2011)

Haha @jjohnson - Same story here... Finch sleeps with us and it's under, on top, under, on top, all night long! Her brother and sister (each ~6 years old) sleep on their own beds in a gated area of our room, but she easily jumps over the gate onto our bed, so she gets to sleep with us until we figure out a fix for that. She only jumps down if she gets too hot under there and needs a drink of water, but that doesn't happen too often. Sometimes she does fall off the bed though.. that gives us quite a scare to be woken to in the middle of the night!


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## Linescreamer (Sep 28, 2010)

newpuppy21 said:


> He's been sleeping in our bed since we brought him home at 11 weeks (no lectures please).


That's funny. : He's all yours....good luck. ;D


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## Ozkar (Jul 4, 2011)

Mine sleep in or on my bed, depending on what they feel like. Sometimes they will sleep out on the lounge. But mostly with me. (I'll sometimes go and get them if they are sleeping elsewhere  )

But mine sleep where they are told. If I move, they move. If they move when I am not moving, I kick them out. So, they tend not to move......


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## newpuppy21 (Oct 13, 2011)

Thanks for all the advice guys. He's still not staying in bed at night so he's been in the crate every night recently. I still give him the option every night though for the bed. We'll be moving to a one story in the next few weeks so I think we'll drag his crate into our room at night at the new place and see how that works.


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## KAsDad (Aug 4, 2011)

Kaylee sleeps in a dog bed on the floor next to my side of the bed. The thing is she needs to be covered completly by her blanket. If the blanket comes off she wakes me to put it back on or figures a way to cover herself. If she has a really tiring day she may sleep until 10:00 am after going to bed a 9:00 pm. We literally have to wake her up to go outside. My GSP was the same way.


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