SaddlePsych'D
Well-Known Member
Generally we've never had problems settling Ivy down to sleep at night. She always used to sleep downstairs from day 1 because it wasn't safe for her to use the stairs in our old house and when we moved it took ages to sort bedrooms out enough to allow her upstairs. There was the phase of carpet scratching which had us lifting the carpet in search of critters but turned out to be her very strong preference to sleep in a particular corner of the spare room, where her upstairs bed now resides. In the daytime she sometimes sleeps downstairs but there comes a point in the evening she takes herself up.
Last night she woke me up panting heavily which had me worried because she'd only been laying in her bed and hadn't been panting when we'd all gone to sleep. I brought her downstairs and put stairgate up as it's much cooler but she wouldn't settle. I tried moving the bed to where she was scratching but she was clearly not happy with the situation. In the end I gave up and let her back upstairs as the pacing about probably not great for cooling down.
I can't work out if I'm worrying too much about the over-heating thing and if she's too hot she'll work it out to go downstairs eventually, or if it does make sense to be firmer about her sleeping downstairs given previously that was where she slept.
Also thinking if we take her on holiday it would be good to have a bit more of a strategy to settle her somewhere. Because she's been so good at home and visiting family it's not been something we've really worked on!
Last night she woke me up panting heavily which had me worried because she'd only been laying in her bed and hadn't been panting when we'd all gone to sleep. I brought her downstairs and put stairgate up as it's much cooler but she wouldn't settle. I tried moving the bed to where she was scratching but she was clearly not happy with the situation. In the end I gave up and let her back upstairs as the pacing about probably not great for cooling down.
I can't work out if I'm worrying too much about the over-heating thing and if she's too hot she'll work it out to go downstairs eventually, or if it does make sense to be firmer about her sleeping downstairs given previously that was where she slept.
Also thinking if we take her on holiday it would be good to have a bit more of a strategy to settle her somewhere. Because she's been so good at home and visiting family it's not been something we've really worked on!
Such creatures of habit. I try to get Joe to lie in the hall (coolest spot) but he's not keen. He's huffing and puffing and nose-whining at me now because he wants to go out for a walk, which I'm going to have to put up with that for another hour or so before it's cool enough to actually go out.