Good Morning, I’m back again for some more advice after everyone was very helpful last time! Ember is now 12 weeks old, doing well and she’s making really good progress on lots of things. I’m having one particular issue at the moment, and hoping someone can give me some pointers. She was doing great at settling down for the night in her crate, would have a bit of a grumble, but went to sleep pretty quick. However, as time goes on she’s whining and howling for longe periods of time after we put her to bed for the night, and after she goes back in if she’s been out to the toilet. At the start, she would have a 1-2 mins of noise. It’s now up to about 10 minutes, and last night 15. I’ve got neighbours on 4 sides, so keen to try to get this resolved! For information, she sleeps in a crate in the kitchen. Usually pretty happy in her crate day time, we’ve been doing the crate training and she’s been good with it. When we do have to get her up in the night, we’ve followed all the advice - make it boring, not fun, don’t play, let her do her business then straight back in. Any suggestions On how we get this moving in the right direction rather than the wrong, would be appreciated!
What time do you put her to bed? I had different problems in that my pup was waking up earlier and earlier but when I changed her bedtime from 10pm to 11pm it helped a lot. I stopped doing things like tug of war or fetch late at night as well as it was ramping her energy up too much, you could maybe try some sniff work just before bed to tire her out in a calmer way. She'll probably grow out of it in time even if you do nothing she's so young still
Hi Sukhpreet, she usually goes to bed at 11:00, generally she’s been more docile up to then, we don’t try to play games with her in the late evening. Although she has no schedule for when she decides she’s going to go crazy, that can happen at anytime, but mostly she’s calm in the lead up to bed.
Sounds like you are doing the right things to me, hopefully someone with more experience will message soon but if I'm guessing I think she will grow out of it as long as you keep doing what you are. Does she whine and howl straight away when you put her to bed?
I sometimes let my pup settle and go to sleep outside the crate at night then after just a minute or two I guide her to go in so she sort of decides to go in herself, not really sure if it will help but if she's sleepy going in she might be better through the night. Some people leave an item of their clothing which can be comforting but there is the obvious chew risk
I was going to post a very similar question to yours today, so will be intrigued by the replies you get. Our 5 month old puppy was happily going 11pm-6/6:30am but then we went on a few UK holidays and brought him along so he was with us 24/7 (also changed to a high meat content food just before we left). Since trying to re-establish a routine we've had non stop howling, yelping, screeching from about 10mins after closing crate door at 11pm all the way through to 3am and puppy still hasn't fallen asleep, and his anxiety and stress levels are through the roof. After a week of crate work (but me not leaving at all during day) he now he seems ok to go to bed but we have a 4:30/5am wake up with the same level of noise! He will go to relieve himself but then will not settle back in to his crate and screams the house down. I try minimal engagement and back in to crate with a treat and my dressing gown to lie on which gets me another 20mins of quiet then I put him in kitchen behind stairgate with a Kong which buys me another 20mins before he decides he's missing everyone. He is waking my children who are now losing vital sleep and it is breaking me. I know he can last longer because on holiday with his crate in the hallway of our cottage and the bedroom door open, he slept happily to 6:30am. I have considered the 'say quiet and squirt water' approach, setting an alarm for 4am so we wake before he does (and changing food as I think he needs to poo more on the new food) or moving his crate to the upstairs hallway outside our bedroom door and gradually moving it back down to the kitchen. Letting him 'cry it out' simply doesn't work. Worth also noting that he happily sleeps in his crate during the day if someone is there but cannot bear to be left for even the 5 mins of the school run during the day. So I am really looking at going back to basics. Not sure if this will work for you and your pup's age but we found that a very short walk at 10/10:30pm really helped ours because he just sleeps all evening while we watch tv and I think the walk helped break that up, gave him some interesting scents to tire him out and also brought on the final wee and poo before bed. We follow the walk with a short period of calm play and cuddles then ignore him as he starts to tire and lays at our feet. Then we guide hm in to crate with his 'on your mat' command and a bedtime biscuit. We also try to minimise our activity upstairs as we get ready for bed so that there are not so many noises to remind him he is away from us. I hope someone has some good ideas for us!
Crate the puppy by your bed, even if that means having an additional smaller crate for nighttimes. Until you establish a sense of security and a secure attachment between your puppy and yourself, you won't be able to leave them. There's your clue... Why even the hallway outside? Would you put your newborn baby in another room? Just like a newborn baby, you are your puppy's attachment object and you will never see a puppy feeling secure when separated from you, unless you first associate being in the crate with your presence - not your absence. You can sleep downstairs next to the crate in a made up bed, or you can crate the puppy by your bed. Those are the two options. Please don't do this. Your puppy is making noise because he is panicking and scared, feeling abandoned by his attachment figures. A baby animal in the wild, would die. Perhaps you've experienced the sheer terror and fear children experience if they lose their parents at crowded events and can't find them... How exactly is spraying him in the face with water going to help him feel safer and like you are available to help him manage his panic and fear? Instead you, his one safe attachment figure, suddenly becomes frightening as well and inexplicably does something scary to him.... That's kind of the opposite of what you should be doing, since him hearing people are still around (albeit out of sight) will help him to know he hasn't been abandoned and you are close by - although not visible. Allowing your puppy to make distressed noise in the crate is only associating the crate with the panic and fear he feels at these times, making it even less likely he is going to enjoy being left in there next time. Allowing a puppy to 'cry it out' is damaging on a neurological level for developing puppy brains: http://www.simplybehaviour.com/letting-dog-cry-cause-permanent-damage/ You might want to follow these crate training procedures, since crate training is exactly that - training - and unfortunately too many people get puppies and put them in crates and close the door and expect everything to be fine: https://thehappypuppysite.com/crate-training-a-puppy/ If things continue, you really need to be consulting a qualified and force-free behaviourist who can visit and give you a custom made training plan.. Good luck.
Hi Jo, Thanks for the advice. It would be no problem to move the crate into the bedroom if that would help. Just wanted to double check before doing so - is this still the best way when the pup has previously been fine sleeping through the night? She was very good at little noise until a week or so ago. Thanks!
Yes, it's best to do whatever you need to do to stop the unwanted habit from being practised over and over (here, crate her next to you) and then once you've broken the habit, can progress...
Many thanks Jo for the advice. I've been working hard on crate training by hand feeding meals combined with a solid down stay, door opening and closing etc during the day. We also moved meal time to 8pm and he now goes happily to bed until 6am. This morning I even got to him before his first bark. Since the holiday break in routine, I've suspended all day time absences and just doing little baby steps of leaving the room and coming back, leaving him in downstairs hallway while I'm doing things upstairs. Trainer is coming next week to help with the daytime separation anxiety. He's a clever boy so I'm sure we'll get there soon.
