13 week old Puppy advice

Hi Everyone, this is my first post on this forum!

I have a 13 week old black lab called willow and she is wonderful. We’ve had her since 8 weeks and she’s great at using the toilet outside, training is going well and for the most part she’s pretty good walking on a leash.

But i am looking for some advice about sleep. I’m not expecting her to necessarily sleep soundly all night - she’s only a little baby but I just want to make sure I’m doing the best for her and giving her the best chance to sleep soundly at night.

For the first few weeks she didn’t sleep much at all. She had a crate which she was quite happy to go into as we did some crate training giving her treats while she was in there and sometimes feeding her in there too. She would go in and fall asleep when she was tired in the evening. The problem was when we locked the door and went to bed. As soon as she realised she would cry and cry and wouldn’t sleep. Even at 10 or 12 weeks she would wake us several times just so that we would come and give her cuddles.

My partner and I decided to put her in the bedroom with us and leave the door to her crate open so she could move between her bed and her crate both of which are in our room. She’s a lot happier now and we generally get a lot more sleep but we now have a slightly different problem. She can now hold her bladder all night but even so throughout the night she will put her paws up on our bed and try and get our attention. Our bed is quite high so there’s no way she’ll get on it but I’m worried about her back legs and want to stop this sooner rather than later it seems to be getting worse not better even when we ignore her. Is there any way we can stop her from doing this? Should we start closing the crate door again?

Many thanks in advance for any advice!

 

Hi there, and welcome. What is your long term aim for Willow with regard to sleeping? Are you happy for her to sleep in your room or are you planning eventually to have her sleeping in a separate room or in her crate? If we know what you are aiming for it's easier to help you plan to get there

 

Koda is now 15 weeks old. The first few nights when we got her at 8 weeks I had her in the crate next to my bed and managed to move it. I live in a bungalow though so she is still on same level so not far away. Now she is happy to sleep in there waking between 5 and 6. I take her for a wee then put her back in her crate. She does cry but attention seeking crys gradually stopping waking at 6.45ish wanting her breakfast. I then take her on my bed and we both go back to sleep. She doesnt get much attention from me so it seems to work at the moment. I would persevere with crate and put up with the crying if I was you to suit you and she will get it hopefully. I did leave crate undone one night by mistake and woke at 5,45 with her sitting by my bed but have gone back to closing it. It is all so hard knowing what to do for best as they are so loving and sweet. It does depend on what you want ultimately. Don't know where her this helps or not. Good luck.

 

Thank you so much for your help!

I think we are very happy for her to just sleep either in her crate or in a basket in our bedroom - its comforting to have her there in the night. Really what we want her to stop doing is trying to jump on our bed in the night.

Should we just close the door to the crate and put up with her crying? She is quite a loud pup even in the day she cries for attention which we try to ignore!

 

Just an FYI. my older small lab jumped all the way on top of our kitchen table when she was about a year old. A bed even a tall one would be child's play for a full grown lab. Our tall 3 yr old lab can jump on our bed from a stand still and land in the middle of the bed.

 

If the crate is in your bedroom she might not cry as she will feel safe with you. Our noisy velcro pup quite happily goes to his crate (which is currently ruining our bedroom!) at night as long as my OH shows him that mummy is in the room...

Yup, he is a serious mummy's boy.

 

Most definitely No! Allowing a pup to become distressed will help her in deciding the crate is an awful place to be - particularly when there is no escape and no response to her calls. The distress that a pup feels at this 'abandonment' can develop into Separation Anxiety and lead to major behavioural problems.
Focus on building the crate as a great place to be with treats for her to find, feed all meals in there, close the door while she eats but open it again before she has finished. Give her Kong's in the crate, close the door but open it again before she has finished.
Practice leaving her in the crate with the door closed for a few seconds and then return and very slowly build the time of separation to minutes then 15 minutes, 30minutes etc. The crate should be a happy place for a puppy to relax and sleep when it wants - not a form of prison that it can't escape from.