Healthy dog sleeping with cone?

[Yellownotblue]

Hi, my dog is just over 1 year old and a very good boy. The only difficulty is that he is a poor sleeper.

He never took to his crate, and he is very tightly bonded with me, so he sleeps in my bedroom. However, he often wakes up in the night and will cry until I get out of bed and either let him out to have a perfunctory wee in the garden, or have a little indoor walk around the house then go back to bed.

I’m finding this exhausting. On bad nights he cries around 1am and again at 5pm. Im a poor sleeper myself, so often I don’t get nearly enough sleep.

I know he doesn’t need to pee - he often goes throughout the night with no problem. It seems he just finds it impossible to settle back when he wakes up in the night.

He was neutered last week and is now wearing a cone (E collar). He doesn’t need the cone anymore, his scar is dry and healed and he isn’t licking it whenever I take the cone off. I expect the vet will tell us to ditch the cone on Monday.

But - since wearing the cone, he has slept through the night every night. He seems very peaceful and not at all bothered by it.

Would I be unreasonable to put the cone on him for a while longer at night time, so he sleeps through the night and lets me sleep too? Are there any downsides to having a healthy dog in a cone at night time, indefinitely?

thank you!

I suspect now he has started to sleep though - with cone on - he'll either not bother waking when it's off, or will try to wake you but give up easier. Use the momentum to hold strong and stop getting up for walks round the house etc.

Truthfully sleeping through is probably not linked at all to the cone and more linked to the procedure or any discomfort associated with it, breaking the habit.

Perhaps he's just a bit chilled now he's got less raging hormones. I wouldn't have thought an EB would be at all comfortable to sleep in. I've got an 11 week old border collie puppy AND Covid! She's crated by the bed, tried her on the bed, she thinks that's play time! She goes in no problems,but wakes up twice for a wee. The older one is flap trained, we've done that for the past 25 years.

Could you try cutting it down shorter and shorter over the space of a few weeks until it’s basically gone? Sort of wean him off it and hope the good behaviour sticks?

I agree with @PenhillDarkMonarch that this is probably a habit. I would try and ignore him for progressively longer durations if he does wake. Hopefully, the cycle is broken now though.

If its any consolation, mine likes to get under the duvet. This is taking quite a bit of effort to stop (although it is hilarious). I don't want to be changing sheets every day 🤦‍♂️

Pressed send before the image had uploaded. Here's a pic of him having 'got in' at about 4am.

Let us know how you get on. Refreshing to see others having doggies in bed. It's sods law decided one last puppy... got Covid, first time ever. Puppy had been going roughly an hour longer each night,,it was great, Monday Covid hit, Wednesday DH took her crate into "our room". Now he's gone down with it, and she doesn't want to sleep at night!! DD came last night with shopping, she has a year old baby.... the irony!!

It will be a habit, but I agree with a previous poster, the cone will not hurt, my lab (18 months) spent 8 weeks in a cone overnight due to a nasty eye ulcer that took forever to heal. Trim it down slowly over the next week and stay strong.

It could be he's sleeping better because he's been neutered....

Funnily enough, my previous rescue didn't go upstairs. Not because he wasn't allowed, he just never did. This one started downstairs, mainly as he had not had any training and had no boundaries and was into everything. After a few months, we went away and he slept really well on the floor of the room we were in. He always seemed a little disconnected and I thought I'd try him sleeping on a bed of his own in our bedroom.

The difference it has made is huge. It feels like he is much more bonded with us (understandably), but he is only allowed on our bed by invitation and as a special treat. He always tries to get under the duvet, but I don't allow that every time as I don't want it to be expected. Also, I only allow it on sheet changing day. I don't know how he breathes, but he loves it. More surprising is how he gets under so quick. I struggle sometimes and I've got hands. He is faster than me with just a nose 🤣🤣

Thank you all for your advice. I tried letting him sleep without the cone last night. As expected, he woke up in the night and started mewling. I then put the cone back on him, and he went back to sleep until morning. I think it’s a combination of restricted movement (he’s a small breed and the cone is big) and restricted stimuli that just drives him back to sleep.

I think I’m going to keep the cone on for a few more nights, then try again without, hoping to break the pattern.

@Phillipa12 , thank you for confirming an extended cone spell didn’t harm your dog, that’s just what I needed to know.

just a thought do you think it just makes him feel safer more enclosed. You say he is a smaller breed could you try him in an igloo type bed.

Just to confirm, I think the strategy has worked. The dog is now sleeping through the night with no cone, so I think it was a matter of breaking the pattern. Thank goodness as I was exhausted! Thank you all for your advice.

If he ever goes back into a waking pattern, I may well try the cone on him again to help break it. From my perspective it was a successful experiment 😴

@Beautyfadesdumbisforever he isn’t into dog beds at all, in fact most of the time he sleeps on the hardwood floor, shunning all cushions and furniture. Little weirdo ☺️