Never say never

I can't believe this is happening. I am doing something that I always said I would never allow. Our dog now sleeps in the bed with us.

I don't know how it happened. Well, I do, but I don't know how to stop it. It all goes back to one week ago...

Last year when we decided Cash no longer needed to be in his crate at night, we used a baby gate to lock him in our bedroom with us. He was still young and I didn't totally trust him to roam the house by himself at night. We quickly found out that the baby gate would rattle when the cats jumped over it, so we started raising it off the floor so they could go under but Cash was still contained.

Exhibit A:

Our nightly routine is to go to bed around 10 and watch tv for a few minutes until we get sleepy. Cash is always allowed to stay on the bed until the tv goes off, then we tell him to go to his bed, and he willingly (sometimes more than others) goes. Occasionally he will whine around 4 or 5 am, at which point we tell him he can join us in bed. Not a big deal.

The first few nights I was home from the cruise, Cash started whining to get on the bed with us, earlier and earlier every night. I was not happy about this developing pattern, butI wasn't sure what to do about it.

The next night, we woke up around 3 or 4 to the sound of a dog barking. Loudly. I was dreaming that I was on a cruise ship and the barking was coming from someone's dog down the hall. I finally woke up enough to realize it was my dog barking...down the hall...in the living room. The baby gate was still in place at the door. Rodney went to the living room and brought him back to the bedroom (thankfully there was no real danger, Cash just gets very overprotective and likes to bark at nothing).

A few minutes later I'm trying to fall asleep and I heard a whooshing noise at the door. I wasn't sure if it was a cat or Cash. Sure enough, Cash wasn't in the room. I have never seen him try to go under the baby gate, and I have no idea why he has started now.

The next night we decided to let him have free roam of the house if he really didn't want to be in the bedroom. He's a big boy now and we trust him. Fine. Until 4 am when he's barking again. At nothing. Actually, R thinks he can hear the other neighborhood dogs barking better from the living room, and he thinks he needs to bark too.

The last straw was the barking Saturday morning at 3 am, after which I could not go back to sleep...for the rest of the day.

We have used a new tactic for the past 2 nights that is keeping him in the room and not barking, but now we are back to the sleeping on the bed.

Saturday night he whined and we let him up, and last night I didn't even hear him whine, I just woke up at one point and he was there. I always said our dog would never sleep on the bed with us, but I don't know how to stop it. I'm throwing up my hands in defeat.

Congratulations, Cash. You win.