Hello! I collected my beautiful labrador puppy on Sunday and we've been trying different things to help the puppy sleep, but she still isn't sleeping as well as other people who I know that have had puppies, and not sure if it's a common labrador thing or just ours! Every night since we brought her home the puppy has slept in her crate, we did some basic crate training on day 1 and she seems happy with the crate so far. On the first night, the puppy slept downstairs in her crate while we slept on a matress on the floor next to her. She cried a little and woke up about 4 times to go to the toilet. On the second night, we left the puppy downstairs on her own in her crate while we slept upstairs. She cried for 30 minutes at 2:30 in the morning before I went downstairs, slept on the sofa and put the crate next to me, she woke up once at about 4am, then slept through until 8am. On the third night, we brought the crate upstairs into our bedroom and the puppy slept next to our bed. She went to sleep at about 9PM, woke up at 1am, 4am and 6am. On the 4th night (last night) we did the same as the previous night, we brought the puppy upstairs in the crate next to our bed. She went to sleep at about 9:30pm, woke up at 2am, and again at 6am. Things are slowly getting better and she seems to be lasting longer each night between going to the toilet, but is still getting up 2 or 3 times a night. I've heard other people say that on the first night their puppy slept through the whole night without waking up which would be a dream! Does anyone have any tips on how to help her sleep through longer or is it just the puppy I chose! A bit more background if it helps; The puppy seems to have a lot of separation anxiety which is slowly going over time while we leave her for longer periods. When she goes back in her crate at night she cries a little and I have to talk to her to comfort her to sleep. We tend to give her her last meal about 2 or 3 hours before going to bed. Should we give her meals later on?
Oh also forgot to mention, she doesn't seem to sleep a lot in general! I read that 8 week old puppies should sleep for 18-20 hours a day, but she seems to want to play a lot. She does nap in the day but I'd say she's awake 8 hours a day.
Sounds like your puppy is pretty normal and doing well. my pup is now 7 months and is now making it through the night most of the time, but was a a while until he could last that long with out needing a pee. As for the separation i spent a couple of nights on a mattress near where the puppy crate was and then i moved to back to my room. lived in a small bungalow at the time so this wasn't far away. Alfie is only now getting to the point where he will choose to go in his crate.
It is still very early days for your new puppy! You are doing everything right so don't worry! You may find you tweak very slightly her routine as you move forward. We found it easier to pop our puppy to bed a bit later, 10.30pm as opposed to 9 pm. Hubby would stay up a bit and take the puppy out for a late night wee. (I tend to go to bed early.. ) Then I would get up in the night, just once, and this was only for a week or two. We then got puppy up around 5.30am. We pushed this back a few mins at a time until around 6 am when things naturally start for the day in hour household. Here are some useful tips on what to expect in the early days, bear in mind though, that no two puppies are alike! https://www.thelabradorsite.com/8-week-old-puppy
Waking up every 2 hours is normal. This is a baby....no baby sleeps trough the night. It will take a few weeks before you will get sone sleep I was a zombie for a month. But it gets better.
Haha thanks all for your comments! I'm feeling better already with the sleep, but I like the idea about leaving her to go to bed at 10:30 pm rather than earlier, to hopefully get up less! That article about what to expect from an 8 week puppy is very useful!
Hi we had our girl in our bedroom in her crate and when she cried we just dangled our hand down to reassure her, remember a few days ago they were with their litter mates and mum ,this seemed to work with our pup,we also didn't put her to bed until10.30. We put a teddy in with her(bigger than she was!)which she snuggled up to and also we covered her crate with blankets to make it cosy and safe. It took a couple of weeks but now at 6 months she sleeps until7.30. Good luck
Thanks everyone last night we went to sleep at 10:30 and didn’t wake up until 5:30am! I was worried there was something wrong with her but she just wanted to sleep! Hopefully she’ll do that from on
