hello omg peeps my male black lab is 9 months now about 2 weeks ago we started leaving him out of the cage when we go out went really well no damage we have since started nights but the cage is no longer there and he has all of downstairs night one went really well tea walk chill bed at 9:30 slept till 6 second night same routine but up at 2:30 4:30 6:45 and same again last nite what am I going to do? is this because I have taken the cage he has been in on a night before its like having a baby all over again he sits at the baby gate a crys realy loud till someone goes down before he wakes full house it has even got to the point where my partner goes to the toilet shuts the baby gate and he sits and crys till she comes back down stairs think the situation feels worse because have had very little hassle for 9 month and now its all at once lol
Re: think i may have dropped the ball with my lab sleepless nights help My immediate response would be to put his crate back and let him sleep in there - maybe with the door closed for the first night to get him used to it again, but then you could start letting him sleep in his crate, but with the door open. It sounds like he is missing the security of his 'den', and so is trying to get to you.
Re: think i may have dropped the ball with my lab sleepless nights help I agree with Karen. We got rid of our crate just before Lilly was 3 years old. It was no problem sitting in our kitchen. We just didn't put it up again after a short break last easter. We have our SIL's lab at the moment for a holiday. Every opportunity, Lilly is in Georgie's crate. Honestly. They form very strong attachments to their dens and need to be weaned of them. If you are desperate to NOT have the crate then you probably need to go back to basics of how to settle in a ew dog/puppy I suspect.
Re: think i may have dropped the ball with my lab sleepless nights help I think the crate is their 'den' and they feel happy and safe there. We were going to have Tatze out of the crate while she had the cone on, post spay op. She had other ideas and didn't settle 'till we let her in the crate. Message received!!
Re: think i may have dropped the ball with my lab sleepless nights help yes my pair at the grand old ages of two, and two and a half years old are still clinging to their Crate Dens, both happily de crated at night and sleep with me on my bed :, but during the day I work part time and they have been in crates since being teeny pups while I'm not there and they really don't want to see them go. I've even tried just leaving them with the crate doors open, but they were still not happy...two little worried faces when I got back after that experiment (ANYTHING could have happened to us you know, kind of faces) so that was the end of that...I'm lucky in that they have their own Dog Room so no problem leaving them up, but we are in no hurry to dismantle!
Re: think i may have dropped the ball with my lab sleepless nights help Me same Debsie,we will always keep Dexters crate up,he hardly uses it now but every so often he will be found having a snooze in there and it's the first place he takes a frozen kong when he's given one.he is is gated off from the rest of the house at bedtime and just settles on his beanbag bed now..... Debsie I can't believe you can get any sleep with 2 labs on your bed! ;D lovely for cuddles but you must be tight for space ;D x
Re: think i may have dropped the ball with my lab sleepless nights help I have become adept at sleeping in very small spaces surrounded by fur and at a strange angle. I normally wake up with a black head next to mine as brodick has managed to engineer himself into a position where i am spooning him, with cuillin snuggled tightly into the curve of my legs. And no duvet on me as cuilli scrapes it off when she does the circle circle scrapey thing before lying down. Its a tough life in the Debsie kennel ;D
