Hi everyone, My puppy is 10 and a half weeks old and is currently sleeping from around 10pm until anytime between 4-4.30 until he needs a toilet break. I know this is a long time and I am extremely happy that he is doing so well by sleeping for a solid 6(ish) hours and at such a young age too! I was just looking for some advice on how to start to change his routine so that he will wake up later as when he wakes for his toilet break he does not go back to sleep until about 2hours later and after his breakfast. Any advice would be appreciated as I do not want this to become a solid routine by waking this early. I do try to put him back to sleep but he doesn't have any of it lol - thank you in advance
Hi Rae, its mostly about just stretching the time. A later bedtime may mean a lie in for the morning, might be worth a try. If he wakes you at 4-4-30, make sure you take him out, don't interact, pop him back in his crate and ignore him til he settles. Sometimes it can help to set an alarm to wake him and take him out before he decides it himself. Say 3,30 - then back in the crate. Do your best to do the minimum for night toilet breaks, no speaking no play, keep lighting subdued, all nice and calm.
Hi Rae, you're doing really well, and it does vary enormously from puppy to puppy. My Willow was super easy to extend to go through the night, just by me getting up 15 minutes later every night - I set an alarm, rather than waiting for her to wake me; I think you run the risk of it becoming a habit if they consistently wake at the same time each night (just my opinion, I know many people manage that way just fine). My boy, Shadow, was pretty toilet trained when he came to us (which was at 14 weeks), but he went through a phase at about 6 months (from memory) where he would wake up early again. My latest, Luna, was a complete monster to toilet train and has only in the last few weeks started making it through the night - she's just turned eight months! So, there is no "normal" to hold yourself, to, just go with what works for you and your puppy. You'll get there in the end; it doesn't last forever, even if it sometimes seems like it will.
I agree with drjs and snowbunny. I decide when 'morning' is and treat any other time as 'night'. When the pups are tiny (up to 14 weeks) I'm happy for 'morning' to be 6am onwards. After that only 7am is morning! So, at night I am as boring as possible, no words, no eye contact, straight back to bed. Mollie (nine months old) wakes up around 6:30 but that's still 'night' in my book so I go back to bed and so does she lol. .
My first two were crated at night and I set my alarm to let them out every few hours (Willow came to me at 8 weeks, Shadow at 14 weeks, so this was more a Willow thing). I decided with my latest puppy to leave her crate door open so she could leave it to toilet if she needed in the night. The crate was inside a large pen, so she was still secure. However, as described elsewhere, this wasn't a solution for her, as she would roll in the mess and then shout about it, so I'd need to clean her, the pen, the crate and the bedding several times a night! So, in the end, I reverted to my original method. I can understand why Mags (@Boogie) uses the pen method, as she gets a new puppy every year, but, to be honest, it's not a massive hardship doing the alarm thing with a single puppy. I actually found that I was a bit better rested, because I didn't have to constantly have one ear open. I could just get up with the alarm, take her out and go back to sleep again.
