Hi all

My new pup arrives home in about 10 days and the one thing I haven't figured out is the sleeping arrangements.

My two adults (same breed) sleep in the bedroom with OH and I and while we are happy with that I don't want 3 in the bedroom.....nor could they fit. Ideally, I would keep my old boy in the room with us and my 3 yr old female would go downstairs to sleep with the pup but I know full well my full-of-attitude-brat will scream blue murder if she is asked to sleep in another room. So, i have a few options. Start the two adults sleeping downstairs in the next few days to get them used to it in the hopes that my girl will be ok with it.... My concern though is she will be bark her way through pup's first night and be a pretty poor example to him ;) She didn't used to bark until we fostered a staffie x greyhound who had severe SA and now she is very vocal so I know just how these bad examples can work out!

Alternatively, i leave my older boy downstairs with the pup. He will be an angel, as usual. I will miss him loads and worry he will feel he's done something wrong by being outted from his bedroom....

I don't want to leave the pup downstairs alone as he is used to being with littermates etc.

There is some argument for letting him sleep with us for the first while in his crate but I do think it would be hard to move him downstairs after that plus I can't fit a large crate in the room with my other large dogs!

My answer to it would be you dont know until you try! but what ever you try id definatly stick with.(puppy wise)
have the boy and bitch sleep downstairs together,and when the pup comes have pup sleep downstairs too if all is settled and well with your elder two...then maybe as pup gets used to new home take your older boy back upstairs with you leaving him with your bitch...how large are your dogs?lol
Any particular reason you feel he will definatly scream the house down?
ive only ever had one bad puppy do that and ive had many rescues in and out plus my own ect,just my boy cried but then that i belive is because he was never crated and slept and lived outside for his first 4 months of his tiny life and had no idea what a warm bed was...
how about a loud ticking clock and a warm heat pad for his first few nights??

i genuinly belive if you give  puppy a bed time it makes 'actual' bedime and the routine soo much easier for them and you..
good luck ill be doing this soon

Thanks for the advice, I don't think the pup will cry - I think my female will! She loves sleeping with us and don't think she'd take kindly to being turfed out!

Give it a try.i bet she only crys for a teeny bit...
and edited to say i bet you HOPE she only crys for a teeny bit,mine will go where theyretold too stupid and docile to even are so long as theyre beds are warmlol
good luck.x

As you are importing him can't he sleep in that carrier and if floor space is a problem place it on top of the crates the other 2 are in?

I have forgotten what breed too.

didnt know he was being imported, but yea good idea,although he cant stay up there forever and i think thats half the problem as theyre large they cannot all go up s rom is scarse

My older two don't sleep in crates, they have full run of the house and sleep on large beds beside our large bed. We have a fair bit of furniture in the bedroom and his giant cate (all large breeds) won't fit. More to the point, I (i say I - i mean my other half) would prefer if now - or over time- we didn't have three large dogs sleeping in our bedroom..... :(

I would have the old 2 sleeping downstairs from tonight till the pup comes.  I would give them something fantastic at bedtime for the next week so they don't worry too much about being ousted from the bedroom.  Then when pup arrives, their is no big upheaval for the sleeping routine and the pups not downstairs by himself.  I wouldn't take anyone upstairs for the next while so as not to cause any tension.

Would there be room for one of your dog beds, and dog, in the hall outside the bedroom with the door open, leaving room for the pup's crate in the bedroom, so no one feels excluded? I wouldn't want to banish my older dogs just as the pup arrives, and I would also want the pup in the bedroom near me, so this might work if your bedroom is too small for everyone.

if you're going to turf out your existing dogs then do it before the pups comes or they'll hate him even more, if he's being imported then he's going to be over 3 months of age so what are his current sleeping arrangements?

my import slept in the breeders bedroom in a cage (which is my preference) so he continued to do that, and I haven't moved any existing dogs out to make room for him.  I prefer the new dogs to sleep with me so I can keep my eye on them and let them out if need be....  so I would get the existing ones used to the new arrangements before the new boy arrives :-)

my youngest now 16m sleeps in the kitchen with my 6yr old bitch, the oldest girl 9.5 yrs sleeps in the dining room and has the run of the hall but when my OH or son go to work at 6am or 7am the oldest girl comes up to sleep for an hour with me which is our special time together.... she is happy with that as she gets too hot if she comes up for the night and tends to wander ..

Its amazing how they adapt to change of sleeping arrangements, I have altered it a few times this past year with loosing one of my girls due to illness, before deciding on the above arrangement which seems to suit everyone.

> Its amazing how they adapt to change of sleeping arrangements

Due to the building work here, our dogs have slept in so many places over the last 4 years and have never worried :) For 18 months they slept in our bedroom due to the rest of the house being heaps of rubble/bare brick/no lighting/heating etc. Then they slept downstairs, which is where we prefer, being moved from room to room depending on what work was going on. Now, Tara prefers to sleep in the garden room but due to building work going on around her or because OH has been using some chemicals etc etc she often is prevented from going in there at night. Sometimes I can't find Tara as she is sleeping in a corner behind a pile of sacks of cement or under a stepladder :) The dogs have been through so much upheaval they are immune to it :) :)

I will start my pair sleeping downstairs tonight. I wanted to do it earlier but we had a friend staying for the last while so I didn't want to keep her up if the dogs were going to be giving out so since she's going home today, operation downstairs sleepers can commence!

The puppy sleeps with the two last remaining littermates who haven't gone to their homes yet in a room in the house, not with any people though so he will only be missing canine company hence why I want my dog/s to be with him. He did stay with us for one night when we were visiting and slept in the bed with us however :D :D

Keep us posted on how things are going.

Well the two adults slept downstairs last night. My boy was an angel as usual, and my girl had a few intermittent barks but slept the night through, however at 6am she went ballistic and barked for 20/25 minutes straight so in the end i went and brought her upstairs - i know that is the exact wrong response but we have neighbours either side and in all honesty, I think it just shows me that maybe my adult boy and pup will sleep downstairs and my girl, inka, will stay up with us. She is a rescue and has a variety of peculiar issues but has come on brilliantly so if it gives her good security to sleep in our room i don't want to interfere too much...

Although I was thinking last night that so many people with new pups are bringing them home to houses where they have no other dogs and those pups are expected to learn to sleep alone in a different room so maybe i could do that.