Success!

Before I married Ryan my cute adorable bulldog Zoey slept on my bed with me.

 

I mean look at this face as a puppy how could you not want her to sleep with you?

 

 

  

 

But I digress,   at first she slept with me because it's easier to potty train I think with them sleeping on your bed,  the minute they wake up and move it's out the door to potty at night.  I did the same thing with Maggie, but the difference was once she was potty trained she didn't want to sleep on the bed anymore.   Not so much with Zoey,  she was fine snuggling next to her mama at night and no one was sleeping on that side of the bed so it didn't bother me.

 

But then Ryan entered the picture, and he was not okay with a dog on the bed.   I was sad but told him we would work on weaning her off the bed,  so for the first month or two (oh okay maybe 3 or 4) she slept on the bed but on my side in between my legs.  She is not a teacup yorkie, she is a 50lb bulldog and it wasn't that comfortable so it motivated me to get her to the floor.  The next move was to buy a new dog bed and place it next to my side of the bed so she could sleep there.   It worked most of the time, but she would wake up in the middle of the night and scratch to come up or scratch so I would know she was there,  this went on for about a year. 

 

About this time Ryan and I bought a bigger bed and the room on the side of the bed on my side was getting smaller, so I moved her bed to the end of the bed to see how that would go.  It was rough at first with her waking up and coming over to my side to scratch but eventually she was okay with it and slept at the end of the bed.  

Now one thing that is not great about a bulldog is they snore, and not light either.   If Zoey is laying on her side she is much quieter and we can go to sleep,  if she is laying flat with her head in between her paws.  Oh its loud!  So I was getting up once or twice a night to roll her onto her side,  well the most amazing thing happened about a month ago.   I got up to roll her on her side and she looked at me with the annoyed look in her face and got up and walked out and went into the living room and slept on the couch!!!   I thought it had to be a fluke thing because the next night she was back in our room at bedtime again,  but once again when I rolled her over she got up and walked out.   Now most nights she doesn't even come into our room anymore,  she is perfectly happy sleeping by herself on the couch with no one to bother her and she can snore as loud as she wants.

No we just need to wait and see if she stays out there once the pack n play is in our room.  I have a feeling both girls are going to want to sleep by their baby at first.  Or at least our German Shepherd Maggie,  she is very protective...

I call this success!