Hi everyone. I mentioned in my introduction post about Ash waking a few times a night but I'm absolutely exhausted and I think I'm making the problem worse. At night he goes into his pen about 10.30pm no problem. My husband and I go up to bed around 11pm or just after and put the baby monitor on. The puppy (now 9 weeks) wakes around 12.30am, 2.30am, sometimes 3-4am, and then at 5.30-6am when my husband gets up for his marathon training run. Each time I go downstairs and open the pen and back door he goes out and always does a wee or poo. As I work from home and this puppy is for me I've been doing all the night shifts and keeping eyes on him 24/7. I'm now so exhausted I'm not as energetic as last week. Instead of getting up with Ash at 5-6am like usual and playing on and off with him till lunch, I'm flopping on the sofa. I tend to have half an hour play in me before I'm tired and the puppy seems the same. Ash has started to sleep most of the day. If I'm sat down he just slumps next to me and sleeps. Should I be trying to wake him more? Every time he falls asleep I'm starting to get relieved so I'm feeling bad. My husband made him stay awake last night after 5pm but it made no difference. Help!
Re: Exhausted I am no expert (first time puppy owner too!) but I would say don't worry about Ash sleeping too much. My puppy Pongo (now 6 months) slept ALL THE TIME.... and yes, I really recognise that sense of vast relief when he sleeps! I decided that the most beautiful sound in the world was a puppy snoring...
Re: Exhausted I didn't do the get up in the night thing. I had my boy in a play pen, with a bed (later a crate) and newspapers as far away from his bed as I could get them. I was very, very, diligent about his toilet training during the day, but at night he had a wee and a poo on his newspapers. I kept the nights very short at first - 11pm to 5am - but I didn't get up. We got through toilet training just fine without any problems. If you need more sleep, I'd find a way to get it! Getting up to let the puppy out 3 or 4 times a night is a gold standard that we managed just fine without.
Re: Exhausted Ah, now this is a subject that I am now an expert in (1st time puppy owner too) : and I feel your pain! I had the same sleeping patterns with Maisie in the first few weeks and it seemed that I spent most of my time with her just flopping on the sofa while she slept, as I was so tired. She seemed to sleep a lot in the early weeks and even more so in the afternoons/early evenings. At nearly 4 months old, she still sleeps most of the afternoon and evening. Pups need their sleep and lots of it! Waking did not seem to make any difference to whether she slept longer at night. The night time visits will begin to stretch out over the next week or so and you will begin to feel more human again
Re: Exhausted Oh bless you, I totally feel your pain! My girl is now 18months old and I can barely remember the time when she was getting up in the night but I know it was exhausting! Perhaps if you explained to your OH how tired you are he might do a couple of the night shifts for you just so you can get some rest for now? With regards to the waking up in the night - is your pup actually waking you up by crying or are you getting up to get him up? If it's the latter I would say make this just the one trip during the night. I used to put Penny to bed at 11pm, then get up at 3am and then at 6am. After a week i started making the 3 am wake up time later by 15minutes each night until it got to 4:30 am. Then I left her through the night but got up at 5:30, then changed that by 15mins each day until it was an appropriate time for me to get up. This seemed to work well for us as after about two weeks or so she was sleeping through the night from 11pm til 6-6:30am. Another peice of great advice I had was from my mum - 'puppies are like babies, when they nap, you nap' it definitely kept me from going insane those first few weeks. If your pup is actually crying during the night then you need to determine whether he is crying for attention or whether he genuinely needs to go out for the toilet. When he cries do you go to him immediately? I would recommend waiting ten minutes, if he quiets down chances are he was just crying for attention and enough episodes of you ignoring this will soon sort it out. I think a pup of 9 weeks should be able to hold his bladder enough for just one toilet trip during the night. Dont worry too much about letting your pup sleep during the day, puppies grown and learn whilst sleeping so he has a lot of this to do. I would say try to keep him up later at night though, perhaps 10:30 is too early a bedtime at the moment?
Re: Exhausted Thanks so much for your replies. I was worried I'd made him mix up night and day. It's reassuring to know that other peoples puppies sleep the same amount. When you are tired you start to second guess yourself. The moment I hear him yelping over the baby monitor I go straight down. He wanders around the garden but does always go to the toilet after a minute or two. He is then happy to go straight back into the playpen. He rarely whines going back in but if he does I ignore that. I was wondering if it was just a habit but he always goes to toilet even if it's a little wee and always does one poo in the night so I feel bad he could be crossing his legs. I will try waiting a few minutes before taking him tonight. It could be the feeding schedule the breeder has him on. Human-grade raw puppy meat & veg purée at 6am and 4pm and then a bowl of eukanuba for him to graze on as he likes. He tends to eat kibble at noon and bedtime (as well as dried liver and kibble as training treats). For the last two days I've given him extra food at lunch as he sits at his empty bowl licking it. My husband says i will make him fat. I like the idea of napping when he does but I work from home so can't always do that. Hubby has just texted to say he will do tonight's toilet trips YAY! He's tougher than I am so it may just be what Ash needs. Thanks again everyone xxx
Re: Exhausted Hi, It gets better, honestly it does. We're just a few weeks ahead of you at 13 weeks and this morning the alarm went off and I showered all before puppy got up.....felt very odd to be going downstairs feeling awake and refreshed instead of where you are now! Keep the faith (Bonjovi music playing in the background in my office influencing my posts while the pupster sleeps in her crate by me!)
Re: Exhausted Steph you may have answered your own question there - the feeding schedule. I would never recommend leaving food down for a puppy to graze on as it won't help with housetraining and getting them on a 'regular' schedule. I would suggest giving the last meal at 6pm at the latest and then removing all food, you may also want to think about removing his water from 9pm - many of us have done this until our puppies learned to control their bladders better, however it's personal choice. If you can get your pup onto a regular bathroom schedule you may find this will help greatly with the waking up in the night. Re. the crying to wake you up - on the one hand it's good as he's telling you he needs to go out, but you need to teach him that he can't just get up whenever he feels like. Try waiting ten minutes later each night to let him out.
Re: Exhausted Hi there, I am not surprised you are exhausted. And you need to give yourself permission to stop doing this. It is not necessary. Many new puppies need to get up once or twice during the night for the first couple or three days. Then maybe once a night for the rest of the first week, two weeks at most. So, if a puppy is waking someone up four times a night at the end of the first week, I would say that there is a problem. Either he is crying for company (which you are giving him) and then emptying his bladder when you let him out because he may as well if he is awake, or, he has a UTI. You cannot carry on like this. I suggest you either have the puppy by your bed for a couple of nights (if he sleeps through you'll know he was crying for company) or do what Julie suggests and set up a pen with a bed at one end and newspaper at the other, so that he can wee on the paper if he needs to.
Re: Exhausted It really isn't necessary to play with your puppy all morning! Puppies need loads of sleep like a baby. I heard of a dog who became totally neurotic because his owner was always playing with him and he didn't get enough sleep. At the moment, he will probably sleep more than he is awake, except in the evenings when you want to relax!! Then they seem to stay awake and be a menace ;D
Re: Exhausted Thanks Lauren. I will try that with the food as that sounds like very good advice. I'm guilty also of putting a handful of kibble into his playpen as a reward each time he goes in, so that is probably stimulating him too and maybe he's after that. Thanks also to the editor for their advice. The upstairs of our house is v. hot (for health reasons) so Ash panted for hours when we tried that, and woke the kids with his yelping and wailing. We decided he would have the downstairs and our cat the upstairs. I slept on the sofa for the first few nights. The breeder said it was cruel to ignore a puppy if they need to go to the loo as her puppies are housetrained. I think it's that that's makes me listen out for him and go straight down. It's so hard to tell when he's just after company. I think though that only one trip is genuine and that's the 2.30 ish trip. It's not a uti as he is fine in the day. Thanks everyone Carnie aka LadyrattlesUK
Re: Exhausted Thanks Stacia. I don't play with him all the time, we usually play for 5-10 mins together then I leave him be. The rest of the time he's climbing on me, exploring, digging holes in the lawn, chasing stuff by himself or sleeping next to me. He's fine playing by himself but gets up and follows me if I swap locations if he's sleepy. Mmmmm... The night thing could def be a company thing as he won't go to sleep without me during the day
Re: Exhausted Hi Ladyrattlesuk! My puppy is also 9 weeks and I am tired. Catching up on sleep during the day when she sleeps. Typing one handed as she is snoring on my lap. Special case as she had her jabs today. I usually give her last feed at 10. She has water available all of the time. Bed at 11 ish and I get up before she cries around 5.15, trying to get to 6 eventually. I quite like it when she has a snooze too, and I think that's ok and nothing to feel guilty about. I am mostly on my own so I know it is hard without any backup but I just believe that tiredness is temporary zzzzzz, even though it is hard. Just keep going. I guess you will find what works best for your puppy as we all probably do things differently. But lots of us are feeling the tiredness and you are not alone in that .
Re: Exhausted My husband had a good idea. He's going to put ClassicFM radio on as Ash always snores for the couple of hours our TV is on in the evening. I will report back tomorrow and let you know if it worked. We have also removed the kibble bowl. Sounds like your puppy is doing really well Jane Carnie x
Re: Exhausted [quote author=ladyrattlesUK link=topic=6801.msg92315#msg92315 date=1404152585] The breeder said it was cruel to ignore a puppy if they need to go to the loo as her puppies are housetrained. I think it's that that's makes me listen out for him and go straight down. It's so hard to tell when he's just after company. I think though that only one trip is genuine and that's the 2.30 ish trip. [/quote] 9 week old puppies are not house trained. It is perfectly possible your breeder started the process, but 9 week old puppies are not house trained. She may have meant it was cruel to leave a puppy who need to go to the loo in a crate - which I agree with, hence the pen with separate bed and newspapers idea. If you think only one trip is needed, then I would move to ignoring all calls for company and just start going down at set times. Otherwise, it's hard to see where this is going to end... Best of luck with it.
Re: Exhausted At such a young age I would suggest doing 4 meals a day. I done 7am, 11am, 3pm then 7pm. I didn't rake the water up, but limited it after 10pm. I would try and leave Ash for 5-10 mins before going downstairs incase he settles himself. I also used newspaper/puppy pads for the first 3-4 weeks which helped at night time. It does get better
Re: Exhausted [quote author=Steph link=topic=6801.msg92304#msg92304 date=1404150748] Hi Lauren, did you mean to address ladyrattlesUK instead of me? [/quote] Yes I did! Sorry Steph! It's been one of those days...
Re: Exhausted Carnie, it's 10.20pm and my pup is asleep. Ideally, she would be playing or pottering about until about 10.45, so I will have to wake her up in 10 mins and try to get her to do her thing in the garden. Easier said than done. The other night she would not wake up and I carried her out, all sleepy-eyed (her not me, well me too) popped her on the grass where she fell asleep again. This means probably not lasting until 5.15. It did mean she cried to be let out the other morning at 4.45. I knew she needed to go so I got her up. I don't want her to get in to the habit of crying and me coming but I knew she simply had to go. My problem is that I don't put her back to bed! So, I am up from around 5. Just telling you this so you can see that I haven't got it all sussed! I am a little worried tonight too as she had a mini explosion this afternoon after her jabs and wormer - have lined the crate with a big towel.
