“How does a dog determine it’s bedtime?”

As I’ve mentioned before, our Yorkies sleep in our bed. If yours don’t, it probably sounds seriously uninviting to you – as it did to me with all of the other dogs I’ve ever had - and I won't be able to explain it to you. If yours do, I’m sure I don’t have to explain myself to you.

The fact that Bailey and Meggie sleep in our bed brings up a question I’ve thought about for some time. “How does a dog determine it’s bedtime?” After all, ours have been laying around – actually sleeping - most of the evening anyway. For some reason, though, at about 9pm they decide it is time to go to bed.

Whether I am sitting watching TV or sitting at my desk working or reading, at just about 9 o’clock they wake up and start staring pleadingly at me (you know the look, don’t you?). If I don’t respond within a minute or so, the little cries start. If the cries don’t get my attention, a bark follows. And still more barks follow if I still don’t respond quickly enough.

When I get up from wherever I’m sitting, they run for the back door to go out to go potty. Understand this – they don’t need me to let them out. They have a doggie door. But they want my wife or I to go to the door so that we will know they have gone potty. They want us to know it, because then they get a treat.

As soon as they have gotten their treats, they head for the bedroom at a run. They are so excited you would think that this is the absolute high point of the entire day. Better than food. Better than walks. Better than rides in the car. THIS is what they've been waiting for all day!

The door is closed, because the bedroom is one of the areas of the house where they don’t have unrestricted access. They stand in front of the door, looking back toward me then looking at the bedroom door and then back at me until I open the door. At that point, they run in and jump up on the bed.

Well, they’re little enough and the bed is big enough that they don't just jump directly onto the bed. They jump onto a little footstool that sits beside a trunk at the foot of the bed. From it, they jump onto the trunk and then onto the bed. Meanwhile, I am turning back the covers and putting the pillows on the bed, and they crash. Usually, they are laying down before I even turn and head towards the door.

So from all of this my question arose. What separates their “sleeping wherever I happen to be” time from their “bedtime?” I wish I could comprehend the activity in those sweet little brains!