The dog sleeps across the hall, and at three in the morning the dog hears her get up. Now there are two of them in the hallway, one of them unsteady and one of them wagging, and the trip to the bathroom has a stop you did not plan for.

Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.

Pets are part of the household, so they belong on the floor plan. Walk the route the way she walks it at night and mark every place the animal can be: its bed, its water bowl, its food dish, its crate or gate, and the spot where it waits for her to come back. Each of those is a place where a foot can land in the wrong spot.

Walk the six stops with the animal in place

Start at the bed. Note where the pet sleeps when she gets up. Many animals sleep against the bed frame or at the foot of it, which puts a body exactly where her first step lands. Ask whether she has to step over it, go around it, or wake it before she can stand. If she does any of those, the pet's sleeping place is part of the sizing problem.

Continue to the door. A gate, a closed door with a pet on the other side, or a crate pushed against the threshold can narrow her turn. Check which way the gate swings and whether it latches toward or away from the route. Stand where she stands and see what the gate does when she pulls it with one hand.

In the hall, look at the water bowl and the food dish. Bowls are low and often sit in a line where a walker wheel or a slipper edge will meet them. Move them out of the walking line, but not to a spot she has to bend down to reach at night.

Compare the options on paper and on foot

You have two broad choices: let the animal move freely along the route, or keep it in one room at night. Each needs its own check. If it roams, test how it behaves when she stands up in the dark. Does it come close, does it lead her, does it stop at the bedroom door? If it stays in a room, test whether the door is easy for her to open with one hand while the other steadies her on the frame.

Run the walk twice, once with the animal where it normally sleeps and once with it moved to the other spot. If the animal is not in the house during the daytime test, use a helper or a toy at the same height. Write down which version left her with a clear path and a free hand for the wall.

Name who moves the animal

Decide who is responsible for the pet's night routine. Someone has to shut the gate, pick up the bowl, or move the bed when the route changes. Name that person and name a backup, because a sleeping animal will not know the plan has changed.

What to write down

Write one line for each of the six stops with the pet's usual position at that stop. Add a note for every near-trip, including the ones where nobody fell. Record the time, the stop where it happened, and where the animal was standing. Bring that list to the next conversation about the route.

If she falls, or gets hurt in the dark, call her physician, and do not treat the animal's position as the cause without asking. The page Mom Keeps Falling: the first ten minutes after a fall lays out the order to follow.