A
female
age
41-50,
*m2011
writes:Hi ,The issue i have is when i stay over at my boyfriends ,his dog does not sleep at night ,he comes in and jumps on and off the bed ,this can go on for hours and everyone else gets woken up too .The dog can't be shut in a room ,he hates it .He was like this when i started staying over and got used to me ,but now he has got very bad .When i don't stay he sleeps through the night .The dog is fine with me otherwise ,but if my boyfriend gives me attention ,the dog stares at us ,is it jelous or somethink else . Reply to this Question
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reader, anonymous, writes (3 July 2012): You need some help from a dog trainer, otherwise you will end up in the spare room.
A
reader, anonymous, writes (3 July 2012): It's just being protective of its pack OP against this friendly invader who is very close to the alpha of its pack.
Then again it could just be his breed, his personality and whether he's had chop or not. Dogs can be very territorial when it comes to their pack, my eldest one now is very protective of my girlfriend and will literally sit beside her the whole time visitors are there constantly watching them and if they get too close to her he will pop his head and give them the stare, he has a lovely very relaxed temperament except when it comes to people going near my girlfriend. Which is kind of funny because at the beginning he was very pissed off that she took his sleeping spot, now they're inseparable.
OP if you're not living there, then you're not part of the pack, just because the dog accepts you doesn't mean it's going to be comfortable with you so close physically to the alpha. It will calm down with some patience and a firm hand but it's kind of normal and natural. My girlfriends sister shared the bed with my girlfriend one time and my dog went a bit nuts. Which set all the other ones off and they eventually had to let the dogs sleep with them in the bed because they quite simply are not going to rest easy knowing there is an unknown person in their territory so close to their master, they will want to guard her.
It may well be that you took his spot too OP, dogs don't function well without routine, if you're disturbing his routine by taking his spot once or twice a week to stay over then I really don't know how you expect it to just be okay with you taking it's place.
Look just remember it's a dog, it's not doing this on purpose to mess with your head or ruin your sleep. You're the invader here and it can't adapt that quickly as you're there only sometimes.
Look it will take time but it should get used to it, given that you're not part of the pack though and only invade its space some of the time that might not happen either.
You could try crate training but it takes a lot of patience and a lot of sleepless nights as it gets used to it. I'm not a fan of crate training at all really, dogs don't have a den instinct since we domesticated them. It's not they were roaming the wild any time recently and personally I think crate training is more the institutionalization effect that long term prisoners have than it anything to do with a dogs natural instinct to live in a den. They actually far prefer being with their pack, locking them in cage away from their pack at night is counter-intuitive but they will adapt to it if you're okay doing that.
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