Hello all,

My husband and I have a king size bed. We used to snuggle near the center together. All that came to an end when Carolina arrived. The first night we carried the plastic XL crate upstairs to the bedroom. She whinned and turned circles in the crate every hour. No one got any sleep. The next night we brought up the Xlarge round dog bed. She didn't go for it and jumped up on the bed. She slept alright that night, but right in the middle of us. But at least she slept sound thru the night and we all got some sleep.

Now, fast forward, she's been with us over a week. She's still in bed with us, but about every 2 hours she gets up, spins around a few times, digs to re-arange the comforter, and then settles back down. I'm not getting any good sleep. I am a light sleeper, and wake up each time she moves. I would do the same thing if she was in a crate in the bedroom. Plus my husband and I have not had much snuggle time. We have tried changing the sleeping order, and putting me in the middle with Carolina on my right and my husband on the left, but that didn't work out either. She still gets up and spins, digs and repositions.

What are your sleeping arrangements? How do I get Carolina interested in the big round dog bed? It is a big round quilted courdery pad from a papasan chair. It was used by my old dog previously? Will that turn Carolina off to using it? Can I scent it to attract her interest?

I guess I should add that Carolina is so far a velcro dog. She wants to be close all the time and that's super. I just wish I could get her to the foot of the bed, instead of parallel to the humans, and to not spin and dig. Alternately, for her to sleep on the dog bed on the floor in the bedroom would be the greatest!!

Any suggestions? I need some good quality sleep after more than a week without it.

Angela

Carolina has established the order, so you'll have to be persistant in training her where she may sleep. It might help to get a soft, cushy comforter (doesn't have to be expensive; mine are about $15 each) and fold it on top of the dog bed. It will be softer; plus, she can rearrange it to suit her and nest in it. Most greyhounds like to nest - digging and arranging bedding to suit themselves.

I can't give much advice, I sleep with my four dogs in a queen size bed. Diesel always sleeps under the covers.

Angela, Carolina is getting the upper hand. You need to train her to sleep in her crate first. She will whine and test you. Just like a child. Just dont give in. The best thing to do is try to ignore her. If you have to just a quick sharp NO if she whines for more that 3 or 4 minutes.
She will learn she has to sleep in her spot. Now, when she has that down, leave the crate door open and make her sleep in there. IF she comes out and gets on the bed, put her in the crate and close the door.
You have to be the BOSS !!!
Once she learns she isnt the ALPHA of the house, you will all be fine and get a good nights sleep.

I think i remember you are a new GH owner, so I will go from that perspective.

I wouldn't encourage bed privileges this early. Plus Carolina is so new she doesn't understand the rules, boundaries, limitations yet. She could very easily become dominante and start "owning" the bed. This is unlikely, but still a possibility.

I would start doing some leadership training. This will help establish you as the leader so any consequential issues will be easier to resolve once they respect you and know their place in the pack/house.

The owner shows leadership in many ways, they may not make sense to you but they will to the dog:
- Go out the door first, don't let the dog walk ahead of you when you are walking. This does not include potty. Let them do their business, then go for a good purposeful walk. By purposeful I mean walk with your head up and shoulders back towards a target. Don't just meander or else the dog will too. Walking your dog on lead is the BEST way to establish pack order in my opinion.

-Leave it: This command will come in handy. While on your "purposeful walk" if the dog sniffs or shows too much interest in something, just give a quick snap of the lead and say in a calm firm voice "leave it" Do not yell. You should rarely if ever have to yell at the dog. In fact it usually has the opposite effect. The snap should not be forceful, or a Tug, imagine you are just tapping someone on the shoulder and saying "lets go this way", same thing with the dog. Oh and my personal opinion, NEVER USE A FLEXI-LEAD! You have absolutely no control over the dog and they are dangerous (more on that if you want...just ask).

-Wait: This command is another great one. You can use it to make sure they wait before going out the door, getting out of the SUV, before they get fed. I use wait when Cash is getting out of the SUV, that way I can open the door and get his leash etc, and I know he won't bolt out. I also use it when I am fishing for keys to get in the house and I need him to stand still, or if I am feeding two dogs, I make him wait as I am feeding the other. Its very handy! To teach it I just place the palm of my hand in his face and say "wait". If he moves I give a small correction on the leash. After he waits long enough, you can use a clicker or say "good!" and give a treat. After a while you won't need to treat any longer.

-Bed: I use this command when I want the to go to yep..you guessed it...bed! Just tell them the command, and lead them to the bed witha treat. When they lie down, give them the treat. Again after a while you won't need the treat.

Now for going to bed. I wouldn't necessarily crate her at night, especially if she is crated during the day. My personal opinion...its a bit much...but that is just my opinion, and since you are home and if the doors closed, what are you crating her from doing? I would place the bed next to yours, and use the bed command. Something someone suggested to me but I have never done is: Put a leash on your wrist for the first few nights, and when she gets up, give her a correction and put her back in bed. Also take her out right before bed so you know she doesn't have to go potty. I know you won't get a lot of sleep, but they are pretty fast learners and it shouldn't take more than a few nights.

Oh and if she does get on the bed and starts to growl if you try to remover, then DO NOT BACK DOWN! Go, get her leash and calmly put it on her. Do this just as calmly as you would if you were going for a walk. Most Greys are obedient to the leash. If you have to you can bribe her off with a treat, but I prefer the former because it reinforces your leadership. If you do go into it with nervousness, you are much more likely to make things worse. Trust me the growling is just a test. Cash did it with me, and we got over that REAL quick!

Please feel free to contact me or anyone else on here or at the Kennel of you have any other issues or questions. We all want to make sure your life with your new greyhound goes as smoothly as possible!

Good luck!

Keith n'Cash

I would start some NILF training. NILF stands for "Nothing in Life is Free"

Wow Keith, greyt info!

I would just add, from a personal perspective:

When we got Milo, he assumed he got to sleep in our bed with us. NOT happening! The first few nights I gave him a stern YOUR bed, Milo and pointed to his bed on the floor. He barely looked at me. I literally had to slide him to the edge of the bed and help him off. But they are very fast learners. After a couple of days of consistency, now all I have to say is Milo, bed, and he gets right down and goes to his bed. He does know if there's only one person in our bed, he can join them; but he knows to get off on command when told. They are very smart but don't let them teach YOU!

Good luck!

Thanks for all the advice.

We are walking alot, and it's not strolling. Mostly with me, but occasionally with Leon. We are working on several commands. Leave it, close, let's go, off.

I have been thru the training classes route with previous dog, and it included crate training. But that began with the puppy stage.

The crate is set up in the family room where we spend most of our time. Carolina rarely goes in it, even when we're not home. We tried to confine her to small areas of the house the first few days, but she did some major damage to the baby gate. She is learning more each day.

There seems to be a divided camp on the crate issue. With a pupy it's a must, but many GH folks say they never use one, or it was no big deal as it was their GH's favorite place to rest.

If I put her in the crate at night, can it be in a different room than our bedroom?
If she is behaving fine during the day, should we go back to crating during the day?
we both work outside the home, but I come home for lunch each day. We walk about 1.5 miles at lunch each day. It takes around 15 minutes. This is in addition to early am and evening walks, which are in addition or in conjucntion with potty breaks. She potty's well.

Thanks again. Time to go home to the little girl furbaby. She is so excited to see anyone come home!

Angela

There is a divided camp on Crates, but thats because no one dog is alike. What needs to be kept in mind is that when you adopt a GH especially from the track/kennel vs a foster parent, you need to keep their routine as close to what they did as possible and gradually move them away from the norm. So, at the kennel they were in crates when not running around. So the crate is familiar, however the big difference to some dogs is that they were left in crates with 40 of their buddies in the same room. Some dogs have issues with being crated in a room all by themselves. In some instances a crate is just not a safe option if they start being destructive to the crate and potentially hurting themselves.

I would not try to crate her in a separate room when you sleep, I have yet to hear of someone doing that with any success. Like I said, these are very social dogs that want to be with whomever is home, in the same room, especially this early in the relationship. Once they get use to the environment, they may roam around the house on their own, but I know it took Cash over a year to hang out in a different room.

If she is behaving fine during the day, why crate anyway? Just provide a safe environment (remove any dangerous temptations like remotes, food, etc) Not every grey has to be crated. Do you provide any distractions during the day? For example, I put pnut butter with treats in a Kong and freeze it, so he can suck and lick on it all day. I also leave the TV or radio on. These may help keep them content while you're gone.

Again, it sounds like you're doing a lot of good things, and none of what you've describe are big issues, just keep doing whatcha doing.

Keith'n Cash

I thought the "issue" was not wanting the dog to sleep in the human bed. If that's the case, then work on it and leave the things that are working alone.

Well, actually there were two issues that surfaced....the Bed, then what to do with the crate. But in some instances beds, bones, and other "valued resources" can be an owners first experience with a growling/snapping dog. I'm not saying this will happen, its just a possiblility that can be minimized if you work through the leadership issues and GRADUALLY allow for more freedom for the GH, once they show they can handle it. I have heard lots of stories where the GH snapped or bit because they "owned" the bed or bone, etc. I am one of those! Yes I have been growled at and snapped at because of things I failed to do beforehand. If you develop the leadership relationship with the dog, they will be less likely to snap, or otherwise misbehave.

People tend to correct "acts" instead of behaviors, in other words, correcting the growling vs trying to find out why they growled and why they felt they could growl at you, etc. and working on that.

Sorry, just trying to explain why I went into so much detail.

Well here's the skinny on the last 2 nights.

Wednesday night, we put her in her crate in the hallway just out the bedroom door so she could hear us. Then we went about our old night routine of watching a little tv in bed and talking/reading. All was good. There is a night light in the hallway and it shinned in her crate. But once we turned the lights out and tried to go to sleep she cried and cried like she was in agony. Then a strange noise...she was chewing on the metal door with her teeth. We let the crying go on for over an hour with a few verbal corrections, but when the teeth began grinding Leon let her out and she joined him on his side of the bed.

Then last night, we brought the dog bed and several old blankets and such up to the bedroom. We brought an old leach and hooked it under the dresser leg. I wanted to to be able to move around the dog bed area, but not get up on the bed. She was rewarded when she stood on the bed, and then later when she laid down on the bed. We watched TV and she stood on the bed, whining just a little. Then she would rearrange her blankets and curl up. Then after a while we turned the lights out. The hallway night light still shines some light in the open bedroom door. She did sleep on the dog bed. At several points during the night, she would rise, shake, whine a little, re-nest and go back to sleep. If she pawwed at the bed she was told "no". I think this will work out. It will just take a little while for her to understand what we are looking for in a behavior. In the morning, once we got up and Leon took her out, she was then allowed on the bed while we showered and dressed.

She is really a well behaved girl. We can't complain. She lays on the kitchen floor while we eat meals at the kitchen table. She walks well on leash and pottys quickly. She doesn't protect her food or toys. I do leave a radio on for her while I am gone. I also open blinds so she can see out the windows that go almost to the floor. She has a variety of toys available to play with, but she seems confused when I put treats in kong. She can smell them, but can't get them to come out and walks away from the kong with the treats still inside. I wonder if it's the milkbones i'm using?

Anyway, thanks for all the advise. It's great to have so many points of view. I know this will work out. She's a smart girl. This Sunday will be 2 weeks with us. I can't wait to see where we are in 6 mos or a year. She's great as it is now!

Thanks again,
Ang, Leon & Carolina

I never let a new hound sleep with me. It was 5 months before Mem was allowed on the bed or the sofa. Part of that is b/c she is the type to take over if allowed. I sleep with Star and Mem now. Beecher would like to sleep with me but he has given up. Tessie sleeps on the living room sofa alone and the boys sleep on dog beds, in the bedroom. As far as good sleep........................what's that??????? I'm not sure I can remember GOOD SLEEP!

Well all seems to be going well. Dog bed in the bedroom with several comforters/blankets to nest with. Cara is still tethered to a dresser on a 10 ft lead to a harness. SHe spins and re-nests 4 or 5 times a night, each time whinning just a little to see if she gets any reaction. If it goes on too long I "shhhhh" her.
Maybe one day she won't need to be tethered. We are using clicker training to show her laying on the dog bed quiet is the desired behavior.

On the up-site, she has embraced her crate which is downstairs in the living room where we spned most of our time. We statrted the clicker trianing with it. She will now go in and out of it on command and doesn't resist. I still haven't tried to leave her in it if we are going away. We have only used it for meals, and carrying in stuff from outside where we needed doors proped open.

Thanks so much for all the insights. I think we are all doing amazingly well for just over 2 weeks.

Amazing little girl, this Carolina.

Angie & Leon
Hartsville SC

She sounds really smart. I bet you would be able to get rid of that line now. It might take several times of saying NO but I find that greyhound are so eager to do what you want them to do. They really want to please.

I applaud you for doing the clicker training, that is super! She seems very smart and it will really help her to learn what is right and feel success when she pleases you.
I hate to tell you my first grey was a spinner and nester all night long.
My second one liked to shake his ears in the night and that made the floor shake!
My newest one sleeps very quiet and changes position gently without disturbing me.
If they don't sleep quietly at the bottom of the bed, your sleep will never be good. So, training will get you a better nights sleep than most of us get!!
Go for it!!

We will all be jealous when she sleeps quietly all night on her bed.