So Beau is still struggling with sleep and Annie and who knows what else. For the past 3 nights out of 4, he’s left our room to go sleep in the recliner downstairs. Part of it is Annie’s noise - she pants pretty loudly when she gets hot, she rolls around on the floor, she scratches, she licks, she shakes her coat (which is substantial). Basically, Annie is one of the loudest dogs on the planet. I haven’t even mentioned her barking. Nor have I mentioned the cat (who is not really a problem anymore except that Annie barks at him a lot).

Of course, I’ve lived with her for 14 years, so she’s mostly white noise to me. But poor Beau has shared a home with her for four months and it’s taking a toll.

We decided to try getting her hair cut for the summer in the hopes that it will reduce her panting (and then there’s the added benefit of a lot less shedding). She’s got a double coat, with that thick downy fur under her longer, wiry hair. The plan is to shave her hair pretty short - to the downy coat - to see if that helps keep her cool. I just made the appointment for Saturday.

I will take and post pictures. If she’ll let me, that is. She’s camera shy.

And maybe Beau will get some uninterrupted sleep.

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1. Oh please. Try sleeping on a queen-sized bed with three fat cats who are used to spreading out on a king with their human pets.  THAT’S misery.

   Posted by Jaynee  on  04/19/06  at  09:07 AM

2. Poor Beau. And poor Annie. Hopefully she’ll find the new do a pleasant, cooling thing. :) More importantly, hopefully it’ll help Beau sleep better!

   Posted by beth  on  04/19/06  at  09:10 AM

3. Heh. Annie sleeps on the floor now, on my side of the bed, but she’s still loud to Beau.

   I am hoping Annie appreciates the haircut. And I’m really hoping she doesn’t end up looking like a complete dork. ‘Cuz part of her charm is that she’s like a great wooly bear.

   Posted by  on  04/19/06  at  11:18 AM

4. Our black lab can be really loud at night too.  She pants (often when she’s not even hot!) and oh my goodness her snores all but shake our house.  My fiance bought a white noise machine and when he uses it, he says it works like a charm.  Until he bought it about a month ago I’d say we were averaging one night a week where neither of got any sleep because of the dog.

   I don’t know if something like that would work for Beau, but it did for us.  This is the one we have:

   http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007XJWYA/qid=1145463554/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-6086415-2163934?_encoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=3760901

   Good luck!  I hope he gets some sleep soon.

   Posted by Jenniy  on  04/19/06  at  11:20 AM

5. Thanks for the tip. We even talked about running a box fan at night for the noise cover.

   Posted by  on  04/19/06  at  11:31 AM

6. We have a small odor-reducing fan plugged in in our master bedroom and it is great for white noise.  Not that the fan helps when my husband snores in my ear, but for “surface noise” it’s great.

   Posted by Jaynee  on  04/19/06  at  12:07 PM

7. Poor Beau.

   The fan sounds like a good idea.  It would probably help keep Annie cooler too.

   Posted by caltechgirl  on  04/19/06  at  12:40 PM

8. It’s not even hot yet! Annie just pants a lot. She’s a panting dog. She is 17, for goodness sake. Maybe she’s having hot flashes.

   Posted by  on  04/19/06  at  12:49 PM

9. Poor Beau!  We love our dogs dearly but at night, we close the bedroom door and they sleep elsewhere (mostly on the couch, I suspect) for the same reasons.  Could Annie adjust to that, or would she scratch the door off?  At 17, she’s not likely to adapt well to change, so I’m assuming that’s not an option.  The white noise machines might work.  Shaving her will surely cool her off, but I laughed at the notion of hot flashes. Good luck!

   Posted by Gwynne  on  04/19/06  at  01:02 PM

10. There’s no telling how she’d do to being banished from the room all together. The potential for barking would increase because of the cat - he head butts her and it makes her bark. And she barks when she plays, which she does a lot with the cat.

    I’m thinking that grooming the dog and the white noise machine are the first resorts. If that doesn’t work, then I’ll consider banishing her from the room. Maybe.

    Posted by  on  04/19/06  at  01:11 PM

11. I second the notion of hot flashes. Why not :)

    I don’t know that I could banish my girls from our room. Then I might not be able to sleep cause I was too sad. (They’re spoiled, I admit it.) I will keep my fingers crossed for the white noise/hairdo to do the trick!)

    Posted by beth  on  04/19/06  at  01:28 PM

12. Many years ago, my neighbor kept a rooster in the back yard. He began crowing at 3:30AM. Let me tell you, roosters are incredibly loud. Since we lived in the country, there wasn’t anything I could do about a rooster living next door. So I bought ear plugs. After a couple of nights of getting used to them, I had the most blissfully undisturbed sleep. It’s a thought. :)

    Posted by Kate  on  04/19/06  at  01:28 PM

13. Kate, that’s funny. When I first moved back to VA, I lived in an apartment complex that backed up to some older homes in what used to be rather rural country. The house on the corner had a rooster that I enjoyed every morning when I walked Annie. Fortunately, I could not hear him when I was in my apartment, only outside on the dog-walks.

    Posted by  on  04/19/06  at  02:05 PM

14. Earplugs rock.

    Heh.  The house I grew up in was on one acre in the middle of the woods.  Then someone built a mobile home park for the elserly around us.

    I had chickens.  There was absolutely nothing anyone could do about my having chickens, considering the town, the zoning, the location, the yard size, and who was there first.

    A couple of the neighbors actually sold their trailers and moved rather than listen to the roosters.  Others thought it was cool; a nice rural touch.

    Posted by Jay  on  04/19/06  at  05:05 PM

15. let me get this straight...you’d rather sleep in the same room with your dog rather than your husband?

    As someone who’s been married 25 years...I think you should re-examine your priorities....

    Posted by  on  04/19/06  at  07:22 PM

16. me, that’s not what I was saying at all. I much prefer to have my husband next to me. But I know that banishing Annie from the room might not work because she’s old, she’s in her routine, the cat will pester her and cause barking, and who knows what else. I’d be willing to give that a try, but even Beau knows the barking is a certainty.

    Posted by  on  04/20/06  at  04:49 AM

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