Hi everyone, I had the very pleasant surprise of Rollo sleeping through last night (until 6.30am when I ended up waking him as I was worried something was wrong!!). We only got him last Saturday, when he was 8 weeks exactly, and after the first couple of nights being a bit random, from night 3 until the night before last he has always slept 11ish til 3am, out for loo, then slept til about 6am. But last night we put him down slightly later (about 11.45pm) as we were up and he went right through until 6.30am. I had expected the 3am loo break to go back gradually until he was finally going through the night so I am wondering if last night was just some sort of weird fluke and we'll go back to the 3am wake tonight? Obviously I'll find out tonight but just wondered if anyone else had experienced this or is it normal for the night wake to gradually get later until they're not up til morning? He's our first pup and as it's only been a week we're complete novices so really interested to hear other experiences - I've only just joined this site and I love it already!!
Re: Sleep fluke or breakthrough?! From what I've read, it varies a lot from pup to pup. I started off with Willow leaving her for 2.5 hours and then increasing it by 15 minutes a night, which we were doing really well at and I ended up having to wake her a couple of times. I was becoming confident that she'd be able to go through the night but then she got a bit of a soft bum and it went back to several outings a night again, which really disrupted things, although we're back on midnight - 7ish now at 13 weeks. I've heard other people say that their puppies came able to go though the night at 8 weeks! So, you may have one who has more capacity... or it may just be a fluke! Let us know how you get on tonight
Re: Sleep fluke or breakthrough?! Thank you!! At the moment I'm sleeping in the family room which is just off the utility where Rollos crate is so I've been letting him wake naturally then taking him out rather than me coming down at a set time but we were just discussing how to manage me moving back up to bed. I think I'll stay on the sofa the next night or two & see what happens. Obviously IF it's the start of sleeping through then it'll be no problem but if not I think I'll move back up to bed & start setting an alarm for 3am then like you, just push it back in 15min chunks. I really am praying he can last through as our wee boy (9 months) generally wakes about 5.30-6ish so I've been knackered getting up at 3am too. I don't mind as obviously it's a relatively short term thing, but sleeping through would be fantastic!! I can't believe Willow is only 13 weeks, from reading your other posts I assumed she was older as you sound very knowledgable and as though you've trained her so so well already. I really want Rollo to be well trained but have to admit I'm finding it a bit overwhelming trying to remember everything. I read Pippas book before we got him but it's hard to remember it all and as I have 2 young kids (my eldest is only 2.5years old), it's very hard trying to find the time to read now. He's been such a good boy though which is really helping, seems very content, has settled so well and generally pretty good with the toilet apart from the odd wee accident. Will definitely update on the sleep situation tomorrow morning!!
Re: Sleep fluke or breakthrough?! Thank you for your kind words Yes, she's only a baby and my first puppy. Luckily, I don't have any kids so I have plenty of time for reading. We went on holiday just before we picked her up and I read three dog books, including Pippa's two! I read the Happy Puppy Handbook a couple of times, so the information went in pretty well, plus watching kikopup's videos online really helped to cement some of the clicker training fundamentals. Maybe it would be easier to flick through some of those that are relevant to you because it takes a lot less time to watch a video (5-10 mins) than to read a chapter of a book and try to understand it? If I were you, I'd see how he goes tonight and take it from there. If he goes through the night again, I'd be tempted to move back up to bed. Willow's crate is in the living room and I slept on the sofa when she was struggling with her belly, because she could wake up at any time and I had to get to her quickly, but once she managed two consecutive nights sleeping till 5, I went back to bed. I'm pretty attuned to her making noise in her crate and I'm a light sleeper, so I know I'll wake if she ever needs to go out during the night again, but unless she has another stomach upset, I don't see that happening. Good luck!
Re: Sleep fluke or breakthrough?! Hey, we have Inca who is now 13 weeks. She has been managing to go 8 hours at night for about the last 10 days now but it did take a while to get her to that stage.. I have a lot of friends who reckon theirs went right through the night at 9-10 weeks but Inca is relatively small so my theory is smaller bladder too. As Fiona says see how Rollo is tonight and if he sleeps right through again then hopefully you have cracked it! The sleep deprivation is painful at the time (I can sympathise) but totally worth it now.
Re: Sleep fluke or breakthrough?! Fingers crossed that it's a breakthrough Harley slept through pretty quickly - I think at 9/10 weeks old. Every pup is different, I was just lucky in that respect.
Re: Sleep fluke or breakthrough?! It sounds like Rollo is settling in superbly. For the first few weeks I set my alarm and would take Rolo out, after a few alarms being turned off by myself half asleep and me going straight back to sleep and waking up in the morning with Rolo whimpering I soon stopped setting it at all, his whimpers would wake me and now at 15 weeks Rolo sleeps all the way through. Thanks to the responses you got from your last post I picked up a nugget of information on covering the crate I have now started covering Rolo's crate now not only does he sleep through the night he sleeps till a healthy 7am yes 7am, this morning 7.40am I didn't ever think it would happen. Fingers crossed for you tonight. Kris
Re: Sleep fluke or breakthrough?! Well that's him down although he didn't poo before bed despite me waiting outside with him in the freezing cold for 20mins... Now I'm tucked up & praying for another good night, fingers crossed!!
Re: Sleep fluke or breakthrough?! Yes!!! I put him down at 11.30pm and didn't hear a peep until just after 6am, and I think that was just because Adam (my 9 month old) woke so he was in the family room (which the utility room is just off where Rollos crate is) making a racket. Took him out and he promptly did a wee then has been in playing with Adam since. So now I'm going to try bringing his bed time forward very gradually as in an ideal world I'd like him eventually going about 10pm til 6am. Just going to do it about 10mins at a time though so tonight I'll put him down at 11.20pm and see how that goes then so on. That is off course assuming it's not just been a 2 night fluke and that the all night sleeping continues.....
Re: Sleep fluke or breakthrough?! I was told, once they can go overnight, they can go overnight. As long as you don't suddenly give him a massive bowl of water just before bed, his bladder is saying it's strong enough to go through the night. Good times!!
Re: Sleep fluke or breakthrough?! I've always gone with that theory with the kids and once they slept through a couple of times, took the tough love approach of refusing the change feeding routine etc (ie not go back to feeding at night etc) so will do the same with Rollo. Obviously it's a bit different with a pup to a baby but the general theory that I now know he can easily last so I won't change his feed/water routine etc and hopefully that means it should all go smoothly. Thank you again for all your comments, it's so so helpful and very much appreciated
