Cleo used to sleep in her crate. So if we went out for dinner she would be crated, then we would come home and she would have some crazy time and then be crated again. I felt bad for her and decided she was old enough to sleep on her own bed. Since she likes furniture so much, particularly our bed, there was no point in trying to get her to sleep on the floor. She's too big for the average dog bed, a twin size would have been great but would not fit in our bedroom, so I settled on a large chaise longue. Steve was convinced that she would never get off our bed to use it. The first night we let her snooze with us as always and then went through the same routine of putting her to bed, but on the chaise instead of in the crate. She got up and came over to me and cried. She kept that up for an hour, with me putting her back in bed and her getting up again. Then she slept on the chaise for a few hours. Then cried... She kept this up for three nights, and on the fourth, miraculously, she slept on the chaise. Success. Until the weather turned cold. Then she would come and cry to get in bed with me again. Eventually she would sleep in a tight ball on the floor at my side. I figured the chaise was too cold so I got her a sheepskin and velvet blanket. It worked.
Steve is still amazed that he was wrong. Of course Cleo and I knew it would work because we understand each other. More photos.
