Training My Dog To Not Ask To Come Upon The Bed During The Night

[clayton.lee]

I have a 13 month old Cocker Spaniel x Poodle.

He is a great little dog - cute as a button and very smart - it is me holding back his training - not him!

He is a clicker trained, and I have given him the basics - sit/drop/stay/shake/leave it/come, and he is very good with all of those.

So, onto the controversial bit.

When we first got Dougal, I was insisting that he was not going to be allowed up on the bed in any circumstances. He is a full time inside dog, and I crate trained him when he was young.

Over time, I have done a lot of reading and thinking, and my wife and I decided that he could be a "Sometimes" bed dog - he knows to ask permission before he gets up on the bed, and we would only have him on the bed before we went to sleep and in the morning when we were waking up.

He learnt very quickly to sit and wait to be asked before he comes up on the bed.

This degraded over time to him spending way too much time in the bed while we were sleeping, and us being generally disturbed and annoyed by him during the night.

I would like to avoid making this a discussion of the pros and cons of letting a dog on the bed - I am happy that we are not experiencing any behavioural or dominance problems with him.

The problem now is that we are trying to move back to a world where he only comes up before lights out, or in the morning after 7am or so.

We have no problem kicking him out of bed at night - he trots off and goes to sleep on his matt, but then he comes back at round 3am or 4am to ask to come up on the bed.

He will come up beside the bed and sit very loudly, and maybe wine a little. Sometimes he will pop a paw up on the bed to make sure we can see how well he is sitting.

From the time that he decides that he wants to come up, he will come back every 20-30 minutes to ask.

I don't want to give up having him in the bed - my wife starts work an hour earlier than me, and I love to have him up in the morning with me after she has gone. My wife loves to have him up snuggled in her legs when she is reading a book before bed.

So we want to be able to have him up, but we are tired of him coming and asking to come up all through the night.

So how do we train him to not ask anymore? I was thinking maybe much the same way that I taught him to "leave it" - ie let him sit and beg to come up as long as he wants, and then only ask him once he stops begging and walks away.

Or maybe train him that he doesn't get invited up until he goes and lays on his matt.

I don't want to go trial and error with things that aren't going to work though - I have already done enough to confuse him about when he can and can't go in the bed - so I am hoping to find a solid suggestion that I can go with confidently.

I look forward to any suggestions!

Clayton

[SkySoaringMagpie]

You and your wife have specific criteria for "dog on the bed" that I think you need to manage yourselves rather than trying to train into the dog. A dog that is never allowed on the bed and a dog that is always allowed on the bed if he meets certain criteria know the rules of racing with the bed, your guy doesn't imo because it's dependent on the time of day and what you and your wife want to do.

If this were me I would baby gate the bedroom. I would ignore whining at the gate. Wife puts dog away when she is ready to sleep and rewards dog for sleeping in the place she puts him. You go and get dog when you would like doggie company. Or arrange with your wife that she allows him in to the room when she leaves for work. That way it isn't up to the dog to know when to ask and when not to ask.

[clayton.lee]

You and your wife have specific criteria for "dog on the bed" that I think you need to manage yourselves rather than trying to train into the dog. A dog that is never allowed on the bed and a dog that is always allowed on the bed if he meets certain criteria know the rules of racing with the bed, your guy doesn't imo because it's dependent on the time of day and what you and your wife want to do.

If this were me I would baby gate the bedroom. I would ignore whining at the gate. Wife puts dog away when she is ready to sleep and rewards dog for sleeping in the place she puts him. You go and get dog when you would like doggie company. Or arrange with your wife that she allows him in to the room when she leaves for work. That way it isn't up to the dog to know when to ask and when not to ask.

That was my very first suggestion to my wife - lets just put him out of the bedroom and shut the bedroom door.

She has currently ruled that one out. Maybe we need to revisit.

[The Spotted Devil]

What about locking him in his crate in the bedroom over night?

[Erny]

NEVER let him up on the bed when HE asks. IF you're going to have him on your bed from time to time, make it by invitation only ..... not by HIS suggestion.

Ignore his 'requests' and if necessary (if he persists to the point of not being able to ignore him, or he pushes beyond the point of 'asking' and attempts to get up) gruffly tell him to go to his (own) bed/mat.

Teach him that if he 'asks' the answer will ALWAYS be "no". At the moment, he's only doing what he's been taught. IE That if he asks, you will let him. You need to clarify your message.

ETA: For the short term at least, I'd be not inviting him up at all. Let him get used to the fact that it is more likely to NOT occur, rather than have him anticipating that there's a good chance it will.

Edited June 4, 2009 by Erny

[luvsdogs]

I have always resisted having the dogs on the bed. At night my dogs are locked in 'their' room. Not to say that Tilba never gets on the bed, but its only for a few seconds when she runs in to say hello to oh some mornings as he's a shift worker & sleeps late.

Edited June 4, 2009 by luvsdogs

[SkySoaringMagpie]

She has currently ruled that one out. Maybe we need to revisit.

Has she said why she has ruled that out?

[Kavik]

I agree with Anita - I would simply not allow the dog in the bedroom over night. When you want to allow the dog on the bed, you can let him in the room.

[Odin-Genie]

I allow my dogs on the bed on weekends early in the morning, or during the day when I'm reading. But at night, they know they have to go and sleep on their own bed in the lower level of the house. The bedroom door stays closed. Works well for me.

[fainty_girl]

A couple of days ago I put a stop to Tilly sleeping on my bed, and she has coped fine. During the day if I was in my room then she would rest on my bed, and in the night she would sleep on her own bed on the floor. She started doing the odd soft growl/grumble if Jessie came in my room to say hello, so I definitely wanted to put a stop to that behaviour.

Yes she still tries to jump on my bed, but I tell her "aaah" and "get down" and she does as she's told. Just a moment ago she walked into my room, stayed on the ground and rested her head on my bed (as if she was thinking about getting up there), but she decided not to and then just walked out of my room.

I think you just need to choose a rule and be consistent...you either want the dog on your bed, or you don't. Your dog will understand, and won't hold a grudge.

[poodlefan]

If he is crate trained I think you've solved the issue.

Return him to sleeping in his crate, in your bedroom at night.

[Tatelina]

He will come up beside the bed and sit very loudly, and maybe wine a little. Sometimes he will pop a paw up on the bed to make sure we can see how well he is sitting.

Naww...sounds so cute!

Sorry I don't have any advice...just wanted to comment that it sounds like you're lucky that he sounds like he's well behaved!

Good luck!

[Toolz]

my dog sleeps in my room but in the corner on his blankets..

he has his area and he knows he isnt allowed in the bedroom during the day and that his being allowed in my room is by invitation only..

maybe you need to start with that.. make it so that he isnt allowed in your room at all unless it is on your invitation.. then work from there..

good luck..

[frufru]

Erny made a key observation - You had trained your dog that if he asked he could get on the bed - the retraining means that he only gets on the bed when you "ask" - ignore his begging - wear ear plugs if you have to and if he is really painful do as others have suggested and use his crate and even put it outside the bedroom if you have to. I retrained my male dog in a couple of days not to beg to get on the bed and he now sleeps in his comfy bed on the floor ALL night. Bliss!!

[Guest Willow]

I've sort of skim read this, so apologies if this has already been mentioned

We have trained our dogs to "go to the bed" (any blanket on the floor) on cue. What we do now is at the times we want the dogs in the bedroom, we put the blanket on the floor in there and tell them they can use it. If we don't want them in there, we don't put the blanket down & they don't come in. They sometimes "ask" by sitting in the doorway, but get told "go to your bed please" and off they trot to find where it is (in the loungeroom usually).

We were never going to have them in the bedroom, but one of the boys is thunder phobic, and settles if he can sleep on the floor next to the bed, so we taught him this so that he wouldn't take liberties & bring himself in whenevr he wanted.

You could extend this to having the blanket on the bed, so the blanket becomes the "target" rather than the bed itself, that way you could have the blanket wherever you wanted it, and it becomes a cue that they may lie there, in the spot the target (blanket) is.

Perhaps when your wife leaves for work, she could pick up the blanket & put it in the room, to give him the cue that now he may go in there???

Edited June 18, 2009 by Willow

[Toolz]

I've sort of skim read this, so apologies if this has already been mentioned

We have trained our dogs to "go to the bed" (any blanket on the floor) on cue. What we do now is at the times we want the dogs in the bedroom, we put the blanket on the floor in there and tell them they can use it. If we don't want them in there, we don't put the blanket down & they don't come in. They sometimes "ask" by sitting in the doorway, but get told "go to your bed please" and off they trot to find where it is (in the loungeroom usually).

We were never going to have them in the bedroom, but one of the boys is thunder phobic, and settles if he can sleep on the floor next to the bed, so we taught him this so that he wouldn't take liberties & bring himself in whenevr he wanted.

You could extend this to having the blanket on the bed, so the blanket becomes the "target" rather than the bed itself, that way you could have the blanket wherever you wanted it, and it becomes a cue that they may lie there, in the spot the target (blanket) is.

Perhaps when your wife leaves for work, she could pick up the blanket & put it in the room, to give him the cue that now he may go in there???

thats a good idea.. using a 'target'