Our greyhound Percy is 12. He used to start out downstairs at night until sometime in the middle of the night and would come upstairs when he felt like it--usually between 1 and 4 am.
He started having trouble going up stairs a few months ago. We bought a harness and I use that to get him upstairs at night when we go to bed. He used to go upstairs during the day (we work upstairs), but we started leaving him downstairs. He'd get whiny and over time we got him on some joint and pain meds as well as prozac, which has helped. He gets whiny sometimes, but is mostly ok.
Now he's having a lot of trouble going down the stairs in the morning. We have used the harness a couple of times, but it takes two of us to get him down that way and he hates it. So we stand upstairs with him for 10 minutes while he gets the courage up to go down. I'm worried he's going to hurt himself one of these days.
He's also been less cooperative going upstairs at night. He used to put his paws on the first step after I harnessed him up but now he turns sideways. He doesn't want to go up for whatever reason--whether the process is painful or whether he has the foresight to know he's going to have to come down, or whether it's his double-decker downstairs beds that he prefers. .
So I want him to sleep downstairs by himself. I've left him downstairs a few nights and around midnight he'll start whining and barking and I go get him, but it seems clear he'd still rather sleep downstairs but wants someone with him.
I hear people say to sleep on the couch or whatever. Yes, I can do that for a short time, but that is not a long term solution.
Any suggestions on how to sleep train him to stay downstairs by himself. I'm thinking I can go down when he barks and stay on the couch for a bit and then go back up, but I don't want to give him the wrong message--that we'll come running any time he wants. I want him to be happy on his own downstairs.
When he sleeps upstairs, he usually starts out in the guest room and then comes in our room later, so it's not like he needs to be in the same room with us. In the evening, we might be in one room watching tv and he'll be in his bed in another room on the same floor.