# Help! 7 Month old puppy stopped sleeping through the night



## steven17 (May 21, 2014)

Hi All! I'm hoping you have some advice for my issue because I could really use a good night's sleep. 

My puppy Steven (7 months) has been pretty good about sleeping through the night since about 4 months, but suddenly in the last couple weeks he has started barking at night. He will initially settle down (goes to bed at 10:30) but then about 1-2 AM he will bark, and from then on he'll bark about once an hour or more. 

We have tried:

1. More exercise (longer walks before bed, dog park, etc.)
2. Saying "no." He stops barking, but then will bark again later. 
3. Ignoring the barking (Hard for us to do since we live in an apartment and if we ignore him he just keeps barking and barking)
4. Leaving the bedroom when he barks and returning when he's quiet. This gets him to stop barking but he starts up again eventually. (same problem as 2)
5. Sleeping in a different room. This worked for 2 nights and then he started barking again.
6. Flirt pole play in the evenings to tire him out. He thinks it's scary. Maybe this will work once he gets used to it. 
7. Playing music/white noise for him. 
8. Changing the temperature of the room (AC/fans, etc.)

Nothing works. We're considering letting him sleep in the bed with us, but he's a destructive chewer (including/especially blankets) so this seems like a recipe for disaster. He has a vet visit on Saturday so we'll be able to clear up any potential issues there, though he seems normal other than this so I doubt it is a health problem. The problem did start just as it started to get hot out, so maybe he doesn't like the AC noise? But that's not really a solvable problem because I doubt he'd like it better if it was 80 degrees in the room (and neither would we). 

Thanks in advance for your ideas.

ETA: He is crate trained, and this barking is from the crate. He is good during the day in his crate (I have a webcam on him so I can watch from work) and had previously been good at night too.


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## BernerMax (Mar 15, 2013)

What kind of dog? Sounds like he may be hitting the dreaded adolescence stage....


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## steven17 (May 21, 2014)

He's a mystery mutt, about 25 pounds. Here's his "guess the breed" thread: http://www.dogforums.com/general-dog-forum/295362-another-guess-breed-thread.html

I think he is in the adolescence stage. He's started to have selective hearing.


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## Brooklynsmom (Mar 19, 2014)

Our puppy started doing that about a month ago (at 6 months). Then we discovered there was a raccoon living in the outdoor closet, near her crate. We live in Brooklyn so this seemed problematic. Hahaha. Now at 7 months she sometimes wakes up barking around 1 or 2am (the raccoon is gone) or she has problems settling down to go to bed. I'm equating it to her being in that terrible adolescent phase and hoping she will grow out of it. She sleeps in the bed with us sometimes and she never wakes up and barks there, only in her crate.


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## steven17 (May 21, 2014)

Thanks for the input. Glad to know we're not alone! We gave up and started letting Steven sleep outside the crate. His barking is much better but I wake up if he moves around because I'm afraid he's going to get up and start chewing our blankets. There's no real winning.


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