Post by sandysfarm on Jan 5, 2014 15:17:19 GMT -5
Thank you everyone for the input. It's great to have so much feedback!
River slept in until 7 am both mornings this weekend, which was a blessing. So far there is more evidence building for my hypothesis that she is crying because she is cold. It has been warmer this weekend, and so the draft in the room where she sleeps hasn't been as bad. I have some PJs that she can wear, so maybe I will try that when the temperature outside drops again and we'll see if that helps.
Dunnrunnin - yes, when I get up in the morning, she is curled into the tiniest ball that she could possibly be in. I never thought to feel her ears, but I will try that next time. When I drape a blanket over her she doesn't complain, but I wouldn't call her expression "thankful" either - more like tolerant. But maybe she appreciates the gesture more than I realize.
ceedee - I have been trying out your suggestion of firmly telling River to be quiet when she cries and then returning to bed. She does seem to be getting the idea that the crying isn't something we like around the house. She is a pretty quick learner.
I can't call River a cuddlebug, exactly, as she likes to keep to herself when she is sleeping and moves off the couch to her bed if we sit down with her. She really likes cuddling with her teddy, however, so I wondered if maybe I could make him a safe sleeping buddy for her at night. She's never made any move to shred him, but I'd hate to wake up and find her choking on stuffing.
So I took her teddy and "dressed" him up in some old clothes of mine after I wore them around all day on Friday. The t-shirt and shorts cover him so that there is an extra layer of fabric over his fur. Her teeth aren't very strong - she's never managed to put a hole in any of her toys, even when she is trying, and only put a few dents in the cupboard door that she chewed - so for now I am hoping that my clothing teddy armour will keep her out of the stuffing for a while.
I've been letting her sleep with him on a trial basis when I am around. She seems to like her Teddy pillow and snuggled right up aginst his smelly people clothes right away. I think he might help keep her warm too.
But I am really worried about her chewing on him. Like I said, I grew up owning Labs, and I know how much damage a dog can do to a toy in about 5 seconds. I also know how tasty, for some dogs at least, stuffing can be.
Is letting her sleep with her stuffed toys unsupervised a bad idea? The closest she's ever come to damaging Humphrey Bogart the bear is when she put a small hole in his foot by licking it. I am fairly sure she licked the fur right off him. Then when the stuffing poked out, she cried and moved to the other side of the crate and looked at me until I came over and examined his wound. She was very concerned, and hovered over me the entire time I performed emergency surgery on the tiny hole. There has been no Humphrey licking since, and that was before the t-shirt armour.
Still, I worry.
If a stuffy sleeping mate is a bad idea, would a pillow be a better option? I thought about getting her one of those backrest pillows with arms that's made for sitting up in bed. She likes to use Humphrey's legs as a pillow, and I thought maybe the arms on one of those backrest pillows would function the same way. I could still even wrap it in one of my smelly old pillow cases.
I really wish that there was a way we could make it work for River to sleep in our room, but between my allergies and asthma and Andrew's absolute "no dogs in the bedroom" rule, it would just be a bad show all around. Her situation isn't so terrible though - Andrew is a night hawk and works in the study until 3 am most nights and I get up at 7 am. I suspect that this is likely also a part of the crying problem.
I am hopeful that it is a quick phase that she will grow out of soon. I also take it as a compliment - it's nice to know that she is warming up to us, so much so that she misses us when we are out of the room
In the meantime, I've dropped hints to all my family and friends that we'd really like a collection of area rugs and runners for Christmas this year.
I'd keep her warmer - shes not as able
to move around in her crate so she's captive to the
ambient temp-
and I'd also give her a snack as you tuck her in for the night. I used to give half a cup of warm oatmeal to a new
hound I had who would burn off calories faster than the other dogs and then get cold and twitchy - which reminded him... maybe he had to pee ....at 5 am. I dont do mornings
well so I had to figure him out fast before
it affected my other dogs...