[doodleheaven]

Good morning everyone. Bailey is growing quickly. He is 25 lbs at 14 1/2 weeks!!

The night we got Bailey we had nowhere to put him so we quickly put up my kid's old playpen for him to sleep in. Well, like the true baby of the family that he is, that is where he has stayed. We have a crate but our house is 2 storey's so it is on the main floor near the kitchen.

My question is what to do with him now? He can get through the night without needing to relieve himself. But I tend to take him out one time during the night just in case. Helps me sleep better. As he gets bigger it is harder to lift him out of the playpen and I'm just getting tired of having it set up. I want to leave the crate on the main floor for when we go out but I want him to sleep with us in our bedroom.

Would you just put him at the foot of your bed on a pillow and hope for the best? I'm terrified he will wander at night and do his business or chew on things. I've purchased him one of those lovely cedar pillows from Costco and hope to put that at the foot of the bed on the floor. Is he too young for this? Any other suggestions?

 

[Lora]

Hi there! I know that a lot of folks on this forum have tethered their puppies to the bed or the night stand to make sure they don't wander at night. This is a good way for you to get Baily acclimated to sleeping upstairs with you!

 

[doodleheaven]

Thank you. Yes, I was thinking of that too. I might have to try it and hope he doesn't tangle himself up!

 

[KGarro]

Uma has slept in our bedroom since day one (she was 12 weeks). I set up her bed and pillow next to me on the floor so that I could reach down and pet her and she could get my attention easily.

We never had any problems. I would wake up, however, every once and a while with 2 big brown eyes burning a whole through me.

And, of course, she jumps in the bed in the middle of the night, but that's your decision how you want to handle that. She's fine when I kick her off, but it's rare lately.

 

[gracielou]

He is old enough to take him out of the playpen you can either go with a crate of do like Lora suggested and tether him at night. I would go with a crate for now and as he gets older let him come and go from it as he pleases. Mine sleep partway through the night in their crates and on the bathroom floor or on the carpet in the hallway off our bedroom we have laminate floor in the bedroom so they lay there some to.

 

[annieG]

We use a baby gate to make sure Tanner doesn't go wandering during the night. I don't think he would bother anything but our cat moves about and I think he would follow the cat and keep us awake.
He has access to our bedroom and the bathroom. He has a bed in the corner of the bedroom so he can either sleep on our bed or on his bed. :wink:

 

[lmtoth2]

We have to sleep w/our bedroom door closed. We tried it open and Dex/Kirby went to wrestle at 3 am :shock:

Does Bailey give you a signal (sound, etc) when he needs to go out? As far as the chewing, could you try an x-pen in your room? Or maybe just leave him a lot of chew toys (we do this for Kirby so he has something to do if he wakes up bored)? I definitely remember Leslie tethering Chou to her bed when she was young so maybe she will give you some more information on that

 

[Jac]

We have slept with many puppies! And I have never had a problem with them leaving the bed...they love it there!

 

[Guest]

Maya sleeps in bed with me. When its bedtime we go out one final time and then I gather a few toys (mostly non squeaky) and take them to the bedroom. If she gets up she has something to do other than jump on me and wake me. She has been up in my room since she was about 4 months old.

 

[MaxandMe]

Max from day 1 has always slept at the end of our bed as he stayed put and was not a chewer or wanderer like Peanut.
peanut had 2 crates, one in our bedroom for night time and one downstairs with Max's for when we went to work. She didn't start sleeping with us till she hit 11mos and stopped eating socks and panties during the night :roll:

Beau sleeps in his crate at night as he is like TIGGER bouncing all over us at night....he's almost 5mos and will sleep with us later one OR when i am ready for 3 doodles in one bed :shock:

 

[BAD]

Lily,

I'm in the same boat. Abbey is doing great while in the kitchen, one of her pens, or her crate. But I know if I gave her the run of the house she would have accidents. It will be a while before we give her free reign of the house.

She is 14 weeks, so I wonder if there is a magic age when you would know your pup was housebroken!

 

[annabelles mom]

Annabelle has slept on the bed since she was about 3 months old - she Hated her crate and the whining, howling wasn't worth it. I just closed BR door, only thing she did was chew on one corner of the box spring.

Once she got to about 6 months, she was allowed to roam the BR, hall, kitchen/dr with her doggie door to outside in case she needed to go potty this has worked great for us. Only time she gets her doggie door closed off is if it's pouring rain or she has decided she needs to bark at the tree next door at 3am :shock:

before Annabelle we had 2 chocolate labs, 75 pounds and 95 pounds, they slept on the bed with us

 

[MaxandMe]

Lily,

I'm in the same boat. Abbey is doing great while in the kitchen, one of her pens, or her crate. But I know if I gave her the run of the house she would have accidents. It will be a while before we give her free reign of the house.

She is 14 weeks, so I wonder if there is a magic age when you would know your pup was housebroken!

Ususally if your puppy can go at least one month you are on your way to having a housebroken puppy, however every dog is different some train immediately others take a long time ( like peanut) hahahaa

 

[tykesmom]

Tyke has also slept on the foot of my bed since she was about 3 months old. She does not like to jump off of the bed (she is a bit hesitant about stairs too), so having her on the bed with me is almost as secure as having her in a crate. She has never tried to wander or jump off the bed at night. I am probably lucky in that, because normally Tyke is into EVERYTHING during the day! If she does have to go outside in the middle of the night (very rare now), she will bark to wake me up, just like she did when she was in her crate.

 

[doodleheaven]

Thank you for all the great advice guys!! So, last night I decided to put his new cedar pillow beside my bed. He plopped right down on it. I knew he would like the cedar bed because he has this bush outside in the yard with the same smell that he goes nuts over. He has flattened this bush right out and lays and rolls in it all the time. All his backyard toys are gathered there. He's a bit like a cat with catnip with that bush. Anyways, I leashed him to my end table and he settled right in. No movement until 4am when my son woke me up cause he didn't feel good. Took care of him, let Bailey out for a pee since I was up, and back to sleep he went. Worked out perfectly. My feeling is that he would have stayed right there even without a leash so I may try that in a few weeks. The transition was easy and I can finally put that playpen away for good!!

 

[doodleheaven]

Oh, Barbara, I just wanted to say it's good to know I'm not alone in what I am going through with housebreaking! Bailey is 14 weeks old also. We were at the vets last week for shots and a checkup. She said almost every dog owner comes in at this time and has the same frustrations you and I do. Seems like you are just getting somewhere with the training and then there is another accident. Bailey is starting to show me when he needs to go out (by either going to the stairs leading to the door or sometimes even ringing a bell). So I think we are finally getting somewhere. Then out of the blue, RIGHT in front of me, he will just have a pee!! I'm kinda glad it's right in front of me so at least I can correct him in the moment. But still....

So my vet said that the reason we get frustrated at this point is because the dog has reached a 'teenager' phase and is just testing us a bit. She says to go back to basics and be strict with the training as you were in the very very beginning and within about 2 weeks usually they will really progress and many, if not most, dogs will be completelely housebroken. So to me it sounds like the 4 month mark might be the magic number....but I'm not holding my breath and definitely won't have high expectations. But it does give me some hope!

 

[Sheila]

Don't go by us, but Pixie is almost 5 months and will still go in the house. If I get her outside and give her the command, she will go, but she doesn't yet understand that she's supposed to ask to go out, rather than pee and poop indoors. Luckily, she's great in almost every other respect, so I'm not TOO frustrated...yet.