Question
I and my wife are adopting our room mate's dogs, but they "insist" on sleeping in the bed with us because that is how they lived with my room mate. This would not be much of a problem if I could sleep okay with them. However, one of the dogs moves around a lot if I move, which wakes up frequently through the night. They also get fur in the bed. It causes me serious problems (e.g. dizziness, poor work performance, dangerous driving, etc...) if I am not able to sleep / sleep well.
Things we have considered:
If we leave them out in another room, they whine and try to break down the gates to come see us, which also keeps us up. My wife also won't stand for this solution because she does not want to see them upset (and I don't either, but I need to be able to keep my job, etc...).
I was thinking about getting dog beds beside our bed, but they probably will not stay in them. Temporarily, my wife is sleeping in the living room with them, or my room mate is sleeping with them, but neither of these are good long term solutions.
I have also considered giving away the dogs, but it has been my wife's "dream" to have dogs, and I do not want to crush her dream. This would be a last resort if all else fails.
Do you have any suggested solutions to this problem?
Answer
My girlfriend and I fostered a dog who was insistent on being in the bed with us every night. Something that ended up working for us was to put a couple old shirts in her dog bed (because they smell like us), get her to lay down in it, then cover her with a blanket. Once she settled in we would go to bed. It took a night or two for her to get used to it, but then she was able to sleep through the night on her own. And so were we!
Answered By - Alex A.