9-13-14

For the first month of Leo's life with us, he slept in a crate in our bedroom. Well he started in a crate on the bathroom floor for one night followed by a night in a crate on the kitchen floor, but there are only so many nights a woman over 40 can sleep on the hard floor next to the crate before she caves in. 

On his third night, we moved Leo to a crate on top of a bench right next to my head at the top of our bed. That way when he woke up, I could put my hand on the crate door, he'd calm down and we'd all go back to sleep. As long as I was laying so I faced him. After two weeks of that, we moved him to the floor in our room. We edged him closer and closer to the door over the next couple weeks. 

Finally last Friday, we moved him to Mac's bedroom. Mac has a loft bed so we put the mattress on the floor for the time being and put Leo's crate on the floor next to it. Mac dealt with a few night-time barks but the move was pretty seamless. 

After a week of the crate in Mac's room, we made the decision to leave Leo out of the crate last night. We had no idea what he would do, but he seemed content to curl up on the end of Mac's bed. Mac thought he'd died and gone to heaven because all he ever wanted in having a pet dog was for it to sleep on the bed with him. 

Leo woke Mac up around 6, our normal weekday wake-up time, but Mac just rolled over and went back to sleep. So guess what Leo did about 6:30?  You got it. He peed on the floor because he'd held it as long as he could. We learned that lesson and will make sure he's taken out on time so Mac can continue to enjoy this great puppy love curled up on the bed. 

 (After Leo's walk, he went back into Mac's room to get in his doggy bed. Awhile later I peeked in and got this photo of Mac in his bed petting Leo in his bed.).