# Walking Before Bed?



## ckiggins (Sep 24, 2009)

Our pup is almost 11 weeks old and we've had her just over two weeks.

The last two weeks she has been very good at night in settling down and going to sleep. Of course she has to get up and potty a couple of times in the middle of the night, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Over the last few days we have been taking her for a brief 15-minute walk about 30 minutes before bed. The last couple nights she has been very restless, not wanting to lay still, but to get up and walk around. She'll eventually settle after 15 minutes or so but it's frustrating - especially as we are living on little sleep anyway with the nighttime potty breaks!

When she comes in from her middle of the night potty breaks she is also restless for a bit. (Again, this is new behavior - she used to just come right in and go back to sleep).

My question is - is the walk really just revving her up instead of wearing her out as I expected? Would it be better to walk her earlier than we are now? I was trying to do it as close to bed as possible so she would come in and crash.


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## Spirit_of_Cotons (Jun 21, 2009)

1. I'd crate her at night since she's that young, if she's used to a crate. We put our little guy in a crate and he had to hold it all night. Granted we'd wake up early enough to let him out in the morning, but it'll save you the times you have to get up in the night to let your little girl out.

2. I think night walks are fine. Personally I think you're walking too long at night so she can wake up. We take Luke out at 10pm before bed and it's a little potty walk, 5min tops. Than what my father does is try to tire him out or don't pay any attention to them as they'll soon see your schedule and go by it. 
Once your dog looks tired, put her in the crate or wherever you put her and go to bed yourself. 

This works for us. If you crate her, she will whine for about a week or so, but it will die down after she gets the hint of "oh s/he'll come in the morning for me!" 

So that's what I would do, but if you don't want to do it that way. Then reduce her night walks and when you bring her back in either get her really tired (ex: play with her, run her throughout your house, etc) or ignore her. Our dog is now 7mon old and he's finally into our routine. So yours will get into your routine soon too. Hope this helps.


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## Polly1956 (Nov 13, 2008)

I agree with Spirit of Cotons, crating your puppy helps with toilet training.

Just a small tip - have you tried removing her water bowl at night? Removing it at around 6 or 7:00pm should do the trick.

Hope this helps.

Pauline


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