Attempt #1 at leaving Malu out for the night.

[Minga & Malu & Costa]

Malu is 20 weeks old today. Until recently, he would never lay down and relax like the other dogs when he was out of his kennel. EVER. Come out of the kennel, run around the living room, get a toy, drop that toy because Bling has a better toy, bark at Bling because she won't give up the toy, chase the cat, chase the other cat, bark at Bennie because he won't play, bark at Bling some more, get some new toys out of the basket, chase the cat again, etc etc etc. Ball o' energy. So since he has started spending some time on the floor entertaining himself, I decided it is time to start letting him sleep out of the kennel at night.

Time to get into bed for the night. Round up all the dogs in the bedroom, put up the baby gate. Get in bed to read book. Malu wanders around for 10 minutes or so, then finally lays down on the floor. 5 minutes later a cat jumps over the gate, Malu stalks the cat, cat gets on the bed and burrows under the covers. Malu attempts to nudge the cat out, but he won't budge, so he goes back to the floor and lays down. 5 minutes later he gets up and goes into the kennel and lays down. 5 minutes later he comes to my side of the bed and lays down. He falls asleep. 10 minutes later the other cat jumps the gate and comes onto the bed. Malu gets up and sees if his nose is long enough to reach the cat on the bed from where he is standing. It isn't. He lays back down. 25 minutes of glorious reading go by, where Malu is sleeping and not stalking anything. Now I am sleepy, but I have to pee (naturally) so I get up to use the bathroom and Malu gets up and follows me in there. We come back out of the bathroom and I tell him to lay down, he does. I turn out the light. 0.75 minutes later, he stealthily gets up, walks around to husband's side of the bed, uses the dog stairs to get on the bed, then proceeds to flop down as dead weight in between me and husband. He licks my ear.

SIGH.

I get up to get him off the bed and carry him to the kennel. He remains dead weight (26 lbs, I weighed him yesterday) so I stand him up in front of the kennel and he mopes in for the night.

Attempt #2 tonight.

[Minga & Malu & Costa]

Malu has continued sleeping out of the kennel at night. However, he is quite a vocal dog, and he always finds something to bark at in the middle of the night at least once. I tell him quiet and he usually lays back down and goes right back to sleep. Hopefully he will get the routine soon of sleeping ALL night!

[Leigh & Allie]

I was looking for an update and I found it. Great job!!!

[Minga & Malu & Costa]

Ha! They are so crazy! I love them though.

[Kevin Poole, Penny & Ozzy]

My daughter back in England has an Abyssinian, she's won a few shows with her and is hoping to breed from her. See photo below:

[Minga & Malu & Costa]

My cats just like to sleep on the bed with us. There aren't really any cat shenanigans going on at night because they are older. They are Abyssinians and there will be no training those brats out of anything! Persistent breed, they are.

[Kevin Poole, Penny & Ozzy]

One of our cats used to do that too, but persistent ignoring worked well in the end. We did it before we got the dog, to stop the cats chasing each other across the bedhead! A great way to wake up at 3am!

[Minga & Malu & Costa]

Unfortunately, my cats will not tolerate this idea of the door being closed. They will rattle the door incessantly and make murderous yowling noises all night long. The baby gate seems to be working well.....

[Kevin Poole, Penny & Ozzy]

We close the bedroom door at night, the 3 cats have the run of the rest of the house. Our doodle Penny has always slept in her crate at night and at no other time, except on the rare occasions we go out and don't take her with us. Once a week we let her sleep on the bed as a treat for all of us, we have a king size bed and there's plenty of room. Now at 14 months, she has the choice, and chooses mostly to sleep in her crate at night, but funnily enough, about once a week she still gets up on the bed with us when invited. Very cool!

[Minga & Malu & Costa]

Malu slept out of the kennel all weekend, as well as remaining out of the kennel during the day with us. He even took naps on the living room floor when we took naps on the couch! Yay.

[Christine & Shelby]

Good job Malu.... such a smart doodle!