We picked up our new pup, Gretta, last Friday and things have been going really well overall. She is quite mellow, not super nippy, and overall settling in nicely. My question is about when she gets up in the night to do her business, she has a hard time settling back down to go back to sleep. She has been getting up every two hours, and when I bring her back in, I put her in her crate and then sit next to it until she falls back asleep. The last two nights, she comes out of her crate, climbs up into my lap, and then falls asleep. It is adorable, and I love it, but it takes her a good 20-30 minutes to fall back asleep. If I transfer her back into the crate before she is fully asleep, she will either climb back into my lap, or start whining if I have already shut the door and gone back to the couch (I am sleeping on the couch in the same room as her crate). While I love having a sweet sleeping puppy on my lap, I feel like we're getting into a bit of a pattern of her not being able to fall asleep unless she is on me. I would love to get her to the point where I can just put her in her crate, give her a rub so she knows she's ok, and have her fall asleep and settle down on her own. I guess four nights now of only sleeping for a 1.5 hour stretch is starting to get to me. Any suggestions on how I can get her to settle down on her own in the night and not need to stay awake for 30 minutes every time I take her out? Thanks!
You love the night time cuddles and so does she! The problem is it's becoming a habit. I would put her on her bed, sit by the crate and ignore any whimpering or shouting, don't speak or look at her. Hard to do, but she'll quickly get the message and settle sooner. I did this for a week with Mollie then started waiting a bit further away while she settled. Then by the open door. Now I just leave her and she's fine (17 weeks) ...
