# Puppy waking at 3am for no reason



## CorgiNerd (Oct 21, 2016)

I am so sorry about posting a lot of questions, but this site has helped me a lot for the past few days. My 5 month old corgi puppy has a strange sleeping habit(?).

Usually Thor would sleep in his crate, and he's doing fine since he started - Never woke up to potty in the middle of the night, and wouldn't bark in his crate unless it was morning and I needed to get up. However, I wanted him to sleep out in my room instead of the crate as of now, since his crate is getting small and the bigger crate that we'll be getting would take some time to come, due to some circumstances. So I've tried to let Thor sleep out - Usually I'll put him in the crate myself with the "Go to Bed" command, and if I don't bother then he'll sleep on his dog bed outside of the crate. He doesn't really go to the crate to sleep by himself at night.

He sleeps at around 10.30PM, and while in his crate he would sleep throughout the night without fuss, when he sleeps outside he wakes up at around 2.30AM to 3AM. I sleep very late so I'll still be awake at that time, and I'll notice that he's awake when he begins to play with his toys on his own. It's not to potty or anything - He doesn't pee in the room nor does he ask to go pee, just gets up and plays with his toys. Yet in his crate, I don't see him wake up at all around this time. If he's outside and wakes up at 3am and I put him in his crate, he immediately goes to sleep.

Anybody know why he's randomly waking up at that timing when he's sleeping outside, but not in the crate?


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## Lillith (Feb 16, 2016)

Because he's a weird little puppy, is the simple answer, lol. And because he can.

I would suggest removing the toys from the room or putting them where he can't get them. He will most likely go back to sleep once he figures out there is nothing to play with. He probably does wake up when he's in his crate, but he can't do anything so he goes back to sleep before you notice.


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

I can't add anything concrete. But, a 5mos, many puppies are losing their baby teeth, growing adult teeth, and teething with sore gums. Waking up to 'quietly' [???] play with and chew on toys may sooth his gums?


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## CorgiNerd (Oct 21, 2016)

Lillith said:


> Because he's a weird little puppy, is the simple answer, lol. And because he can.
> 
> I would suggest removing the toys from the room or putting them where he can't get them. He will most likely go back to sleep once he figures out there is nothing to play with. He probably does wake up when he's in his crate, but he can't do anything so he goes back to sleep before you notice.





hanksimon said:


> I can't add anything concrete. But, a 5mos, many puppies are losing their baby teeth, growing adult teeth, and teething with sore gums. Waking up to 'quietly' [???] play with and chew on toys may sooth his gums?


Thank you both for your thoughts on the matter! The teething issue could be the case, but I can't exactly be sure yet. I've tried removing all his toys from the room when he sleeps, but he ends up bothering me (If I happen to be sleeping then he'll wake me up) and if I ignore him, he either tries to find something to destroy or just sits beside the desk and licks the metal frame, which he likes to do, or bite at the side of an old, spoiled speaker that we just put there for storage. (He's not biting into the cables or anything, just the frame.)

I did happen to notice somethings, though. When in the crate he does wake at 3am SOMETIMES, while other times he sleeps completely through. When he wakes he licks at the metal doors for a while before sleeping again, and when he can't sleep he'll start to call out. I always assumed it was for potty, so I take him out to pee and put him back in. He doesn't make anymore noises, but keeps shifting around for a long time before finally sleeping, somewhere around 3.30AM to 4AM.


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## Lillith (Feb 16, 2016)

CorgiNerd said:


> Thank you both for your thoughts on the matter! The teething issue could be the case, but I can't exactly be sure yet. I've tried removing all his toys from the room when he sleeps, but he ends up bothering me (If I happen to be sleeping then he'll wake me up) and if I ignore him, he either tries to find something to destroy or just sits beside the desk and licks the metal frame, which he likes to do, or bite at the side of an old, spoiled speaker that we just put there for storage. (He's not biting into the cables or anything, just the frame.)
> 
> I did happen to notice somethings, though. When in the crate he does wake at 3am SOMETIMES, while other times he sleeps completely through. When he wakes he licks at the metal doors for a while before sleeping again, and when he can't sleep he'll start to call out. I always assumed it was for potty, so I take him out to pee and put him back in. He doesn't make anymore noises, but keeps shifting around for a long time before finally sleeping, somewhere around 3.30AM to 4AM.


Yeah, just sounds like a young dog thing. Mine did something similar for about a week until I figured it out and he learned potty breaks outside during the night are quick and boring as all heck. I eventually ignored him until it was time to get up, and now he knows sleeping through the night is his only option. I think your pup will probably grow out of it.


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