Should you leave your dog downstairs at night?
The simple answer is yes, you really should. New puppies are so adorable but remember when fully grown it will not be so convenient to have them sleeping in your room and heaven forbid on your bed.
So no matter how heart breaking it might seem to you, you simply MUST train your dog to sleep downstairs.
If your dog currently sleeps upstairs/in your room, then this article will show you how to get transition your dog into sleeping downstairs.
Ive spoken to several experts about this subject, including top breeders, veterinarians and animal behaviourists. Based on their views and my own experience Ive written this article.
Lets start with puppies first and then well move onto older dogs.
When you first bring a new puppy home, it can be super exciting. You’ll want to do your best to make the transition to their new home as easy and stress free as possible.
When you’ve introduced him to the family and shown him around, the thorny question of what to do at night soon crops up.
Should you let your pup sleep in your room? Is it cruel to leave them alone at night? How do you start training your dog to sleep downstairs? It’s enough to make anyone’s head spin.
When it comes to drinking water at night see this article to find out more about drinking a lot of water at night
Luckily, you’ve come to the right place as my family have been involved in dog breeding, showing and training for almost 60 years.
Later, we’ll go through how to start training your dog to sleep downstairs at night. First, though, let’s address the question of whether you should leave your dog to sleep downstairs at all.
Training an older dog to sleep downstairs
Training an older dog to sleep downstairs instead of sleeping with you can be a challenge, especially if he’s been sleeping there for years.
Breaking old habits in dogs is difficult but can be done with consistent training, patience, and positive reinforcement.
Sudden change can be hard on your older dog, that’s why it’s recommended that you accompany him through it by sleeping the first night downstairs with him.
You also want to use the leash to take your dog to his new bed downstairs to show that it’s serious, the leash has that formal aspect to it and gives you control.
You want to spend a few minutes instructing your dog to go to his bed every night using a command word.
Verbal praise and treats to reward good progress are a great way to condition your dog into the new sleeping arrangement.
Tough love is needed when the dog is trying to go back upstairs to sleep with you, if you let go once you’ll have a training regression.
More likely to be scared by lights and sounds.
Dogs are our protectors! However, there are times when they need protection too.
Most loud and bright lights like fireworks and thunderstorms scare them a lot because they can hear and see many more than we can. So they tend to get frightened, leading to increased heartbeat and blood pressure.
How To Stop Puppy Crying At Night
The very first few nights with a new puppy can be a daunting experience for both the puppy and you as a new owner wanting to do the very best for your dog and to give them an emotionally and physically secure start.
From the puppy’s perspective, leaving the litter and coming into a strange environment can be a traumatic experience, but over the coming days and nights a puppy will quickly adjust to its new surroundings in the knowledge that all its needs are being met in the new home, such as food, warmth, play and the bond that is being created with the new family.
The essence of the video I have created on this subject looks at ways in which we can create a positive environment for the puppy to sleep at night and for the owner to get a good night’s rest in readiness to do the puppy routine all over again the following day. It’s fair to say that many of the calls or emails I receive from new puppy owners are for this particular problem (a puppy that isn’t sleeping well at night) and that with a few tweaks it can usually be resolved over a period of time.
So to elaborate a little, we have a puppy that is with you throughout the day and naturally will want to keep you in its sights and to watch the comings and goings, and then at night the puppy is placed in the crate and has to cope with alone, whilst in darkness. Your puppy may have a different idea as to what should happen at night!
A puppy can be surprisingly noisy in these first few nights and can quickly lead to the owner becoming sleep deprived. This, in turn, can lead to desperation and the owner may inevitably find that the pup will quickly settle as soon as it is in the bedroom with the owner, or another common response from desperate owners is to go downstairs and to sleep alongside the puppy on the sofa or camp bed. Whilst I accept that this is placating the puppy and that the pup can sleep and so can the owner, this is not addressing the issue, which is getting the puppy to learn to sleep alone in a dark, quiet room. Tackling this issue now when the puppy is more open to new experiences, will be a great deal easier than addressing it later.