Hi everyone, so having mastered the toilet training to a much better degree we find ourselves getting into a pickle over sleepless nights with our puppy. We are finding it difficult to understand that when we first brought our puppy home, he was sleeping, in his crate, on his own, from about 10.30pm right up to 7.00am & sometimes we would have to get him up. It seems to have gone a bit pear shaped lately & we cannot pinpoint why. On the whole we were all going to bed at 10.00pm and he was sleeping 6 or 7 hours, waking at around 4.30-5.00am to go for a wee. Although having taken him out, he has been reluctant to go back in his crate & sleep for a while longer unless one of us sleeps on the sofa so he knows we are there. We had a particularly bad night last night. We had all been out for the day, trying hard not to let our puppy walk too much, as we understand that over-excercising is not good for a young pup, only for him to crash out at 9.15pm into a deep sleep. Consequently we had to wake him for the last toilet trip to garden before going to bed which seemed to wake him up completely & he would not settle back to sleep in his crate. After a while, he did go to sleep, but seemed to wake every 2 hours, with my hubby spending most of the night of the sofa. Does anyone have anything at all that they can share that may help us overcome the sleepless nights. We assumed, maybe wrongly, that as he got older, he would sleep longer & hold on longer for a garden trip. Many thanks indeed for any advice.
Sorry to hear you are having a bit of a setback with the housetraining.. How old is your puppy? I'm not sure if I can help as whenever I've had puppies to house train, they.ve had the run of a suitable room and I get up early and clean up wee's and poo's, gradually getting later as they get cleaner as they mature. I've always found that by 12-14 weeks they can go through the night. Is this something you could do?
Thank you for your reply, I am not sure if we can let our puppy have free run of the downstairs without crating him at night. He is 12 weeks old and the house training is not really an issue anymore, apart from the early morning to go for a wee. We just felt a bit deflated I guess as he seemed to sleep better and go longer at night when he was much younger than he is now. On an up note, he has never soiled or wetted his bed within the crate, even from day 1 with us. We are just worried that, even though it is good that he wakes us up to go out, that this will set us up for him never being able to sleep an entire night alone, as he does not settle back down again after his garden trip, or is this something that does not stick with puppies/dogs. I know they are incredibly intelligent creatures, but is it likley that they would work this to their advantage of having someone around 24/7?
Oh, I see what you mean. I haven't any experience of that issue myself, but at 12 weeks he's still really tiny. I would say that as he grows and matures and his life is fuller with walks and training and so on he will sleep longer naturally. Hopefully someone else with be along soon with more advice. I see you are in Cambridge, I was born there but moved away when I was nine, do you live in the city or nearby?
Thank you, yes, we are hopeful that things will even out once he matures. I appreciate that this is more than likley normal for such a young puppy and as we are first time puppy owners we are probably over-worrying & stressing ourselves out. We are in South Cambs, so not in the City Centre.
Does his crate have a cover over it? We have just decrated our 14 month old but up to that point she had a thick cover that went over the sides and part of the back. It made it very den like. Also scrunched up a blanket so she had a pillow like mound to cosy up to. Tossed in a small handful of kibble which she was happy to follow in. He is very young and as he gets more active, he will sleep better I am sure.
Hi there, yes, we put an unused duvet cover over his crate, to make it cosier and he has a small cushion that fits neatly at the back of it for him to lay on, we give him his own blanket and his favourite cuddly toy and a chew toy incase his teeth play up in the night. Not tried enticing him with kibble or treats, as generally he will go into the crate initially at night time with no problems, its just the waking at 4.30 am that is wearing us down a little. I think we need to be a bit more patient and cross our fingers that the more he matures, the more he will sleep.
Yes I totally understand. This time last year, I was very sleep deprived with my puppy. It seemed like an eternity but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t. I think once you are able to walk him you will find he sleeps better.
Thank you, everyone is so very reassuring & so good to hear that all of this is normal & that it will pass with time.
Oh yes, it will pass with time. They all sleep longer as they mature. Keir is eight months old and happily goes from 10pm to 7:30am ..
If our 14 week old wakes up before about 6:15(normal now is 6:45) and starts whining to go out, we go out and then we put him in his downstairs crate, with a small kong and kibble to hold him over. He's not supposed to climb stairs more than once a day according to the breeder, and he's getting too heavy to be carried soon. Just like our children(humans), we tolerate(the kids are now teenagers) whining and crying for about 20 minutes before going down to check. Its never gotten more than 20 minutes even when he was just a day away from mama. I think if our puppie could hold it longer than 8 hours, he would since he often goes back to sleep on his bed in the living room after breakfast.
Oh I do hope so, we are getting so weary. We find it difficult to understand that his sleeping pattern is going backwards instead of forwards. He seemed to sleep much better when we first got him home at 8 weeks old.
Lots of adjusting to his new home and exciting new places to go will have tired him out in those early days. I always say ‘give it a fortnight’ when a new pup arrives, because that fortnight is the honeymoon period. After that we have the normal puppy lol I’ll never forget how calm and gentle Mollie was at first then - wham - crocapup with bells on!
Ah, that made me chuckle, crocapup. We are trying so hard to be patient & will continue to do so. Apart from this hiccup, he is a fabulous puppy, he now alerts us to when he needs to go outside by sitting on the door mat by the back door. He even resists going back indoors if we have misread the signs that he needs to do more than just a 'wee' and he is taken to basic reasonably well. So all in all he is marvellous, I guess just lack of sleep on our part is making us cranky.
