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]

Update for night #2....Friday night we had dinner with some friends, then everyone wanted to go out, except my husband. One of the friends was in town from Dallas, so I offered to go with everybody and be the designated driver. So we dropped off my husband at home and I went out til about 2 a.m. When I got home, Ryan was asleep on the couch and Malu had been sleeping on the living room floor. So I let all the dogs out to pee and got ready for bed. By the time I came out from the bathroom, Malu was already laying on the floor, so I just got into bed and turned out the light. He slept until his usual time (6 something) and then woke up and I heard his collar jewelry jingling, so I got up and let him out, then put him in the kennel so I could go back to bed! He never tried to get on the bed, so I think he might have the idea......he IS a smart Dood after all.

[Minga & Malu & Costa]

Well fortunately, all these shenanigans went on while I was reading in bed. He went into the kennel right after I turned the light off when he got in the bed. I knew that he would just keep trying to get up there. Lol.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Never a dull moment with a Doodle around!

[Christine & Shelby]

Oh boy... what a night. I'll have Shelby talk to him next time he's here about how the night time stuff works. Although we had a small setback today with daytime freedom..... seems Shelby got the taste for a kitchen cabinet - sigh :o(

[Adrienne Shapiro]

Personally, I separate my cat at night or the cat will tease the dogs all night into a game of "chase me" and I would get very little sleep. Sometimes the cat has free roam of the house, and I close the dogs in the bedroom, sometimes I confine the cat into her bedroom (yes, she has her own room, with a kitty door to run into and away from the dogs) and give the 3 year old the run of the house, BUT my 6 month old WILD puppy, stays in her crate...she is NOT trustworthy anytime, even if I am awake!!! It doesn't sound like you really get any sleep....good luck....your puppy sounds like my little one, LOKI,,,,a handful!!!-----but cute....

[Leigh & Allie]

Keep trying. It will work

[Leigh & Allie]

He sounds like a lot of fun!

[Camilla and Darwin]

LOL, He sounds like he has such a big personality. So cute!