# I miss sleep.. puppy waking up too much at night



## Francl27 (May 4, 2017)

I can't remember at all how it was with my old dogs but this is killing me!

Our puppy is 4.5? months old and we got her 7 weeks ago.

I go to bed early (by 9.30pm) but my husband often stays up until 11pm or so... He'll let the puppy out then take her upstairs to her crate in our room. Then she wakes me up typically once between 1 and 4pm (whining usually) and I take her downstairs to pee, then she goes in the crate downstairs and I go back to sleep in the recliner (I have a hard time falling back to sleep upstairs anyway because my husband is... noisy at night). Then she usually wakes me up again no later than 6am. Today it was 1.30am and 4.55am! I tried to put her back in the crate again but she just whined and whined and I was just not falling back asleep.

She usually pees right away when I take her out after she wakes me up, but sometimes she won't if she peed at 4.30am then wakes up at 6am
The latest she's slept in in 7 weeks is 6.23am or something, and that happened once. Otherwise, never later than 6am
She slept straight to 6am only once
I do make sure that she's NOT whining when I actually open the crate (but she usually stops when I get close to the crate anyway)
We don't give water after 8.30pm
She gets fed at 5.30pm at night, then usually at 6am
I don't know if it matters, but she's never been crated longer than 3-4 hours during the day so far (5 hours maybe once)
She always settles down nicely once she is in the crate as long as I stay in the room with her (but I never keep her crated if I'm home, unless I'm coming back from the gym and taking a shower, but she got in that habit now and doesn't complain when I do that)
I actually crated her once during the day to take a nap and she was fine with it
She does have separation anxiety issues still when I leave the house (she'll cry and whine in her crate when I go to the door)

I'm just so tired! Any suggestions of what I can change to make her sleep longer? The one time she got fed later at night, it didn't change her wake up time at all but I'm definitely willing to feed her later if you think it's going to help (she does get a treat when she goes to her crate in the middle of the night)... but other than that, I'm clueless. I get woken up very easily and can't sleep with noise so it's pretty much impossible for me to just ignore her and go to sleep if she's whining/making noises in her crate (I tried to just gate her in the room with me once but she was making too much noise with her toys anyway).

Seriously I don't remember having such an issue with our older dogs, but they were not crated in our room at night either... and it was 13 years ago!


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## piperboxermix (Jan 12, 2017)

That sounds fairly normal. Do you know if she is bored, doesn't like the crate, or has to go to the bathroom each time? I know my dog had to be let out around 2 am until she was 5 months old ish. I also get up between 6-6:30 everyday and let her out, so it seems like a similar schedule to yours. Does she have any chews/toys or anything in the crate? I usually put a chew in my dogs crate so if she wakes up she isn't bored. You may also want to try covering her crate with a blanket, that helps some dogs.


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## 3kpets (Apr 8, 2017)

It seems normal to me as well. I mean that is the hardest part but as she grows older she would be able to hold her pee longer. Right now its just because she is younger.


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## Alisa♥ (Mar 9, 2017)

I don't have much to add, other than "we're all in this together"  I'm an epic sleep-er usually, but you'd better believe I haven't gotten more than 6 hours at a time since Prinna came home (and truly, 6 hours is quite the achievement compared to those early weeks, where 3 hours at a time felt luxurious...) I just keep reminding myself how worth it the struggles are, to form this beautiful bond with your lifetime companion (even if that companion currently has an uncanny ability to start whining 30 minutes before the alarm, and will not tolerate any pushing of the "Snooze" button :laugh

Next weekend my boyfriend and I have a wedding, and my mom offered to watch the puppy OVERNIGHT! It will be weird sleeping away from her, but I have a feeling I'll like the sleeping in part :laugh:

ETA: I've tried that "feeding later so she isn't hungry for breakfast until later" trick, too, and it rarely buys me more than 30 minutes...sadly!


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## Lucillle (Dec 31, 2008)

I think you could ask your husband to take turns at taking her out.


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## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

You might try setting an alarm and waking up before she whines to take her out. I know that you are responding to the whining so that she doesn't pee in the crate. But I think on some level that does reinforce whining. Like you wrote, she knows when you're approaching the crate after she whines.

There are two separate pieces of training that happen at this stage: potty training, and crate training. That sounds pretty obvious. But I find that most people lump them together when it comes to night time routines. I think the majority of people out there wait for whining, take puppy out to potty, put puppy back and ignore... And that works fine for some people, as in the puppy learns on her own to just settle after potty breaks. But that also backfires sometimes too. Really, you are teaching the puppy, "Tell me when you want to go out." I use the word "want" because dogs do learn to signal 'want out' and not just 'need out.' 

I favor setting alarms BEFORE the puppy signals, quick and boring potty break, back in the crate. That way the puppy learns "You tell me when I go out." Of course, you want to be fair and not set expectations that are too hard for how old your puppy is. 

Honestly, I probably woke up more than usual compared to other puppy owners. My coworkers with puppies were boasting they could get 7 hours when their pups were 12 or 14 weeks old. I was doing 3-4 potty breaks in the first few weeks. My puppy also had a UTI which is now resolved, but even despite that I woke up more to get ahead of the whining. It was a lot of work at first, but these days on my weekends I get to sleep 10 hours with one potty break in the middle and zero interruptions otherwise. All three of his crates are draped. So it's not like he's naturally quiet. He just really learned that when no one is out in the common area and it's just potty breaks, he stays quiet. Incidentally, my coworkers and I are all raising herding puppies simultaneously, different litters and breeds and such... But I am the only one who _religiously_ ignored whining. And my puppy is the only one who is generally quiet; the other two whine or scream in their office crates at times.


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## AsherLove (Jun 27, 2016)

My st poo puppy learned quick to whine/cry to be let out in the night even though I only carried him down stood still while he pottied and carried him back up. He did go pee each time, but not a long need to pee pee. 
First night I had him he slept all the way through (9 weeks old)
Second night he whined at 6:30am (took him out for a quick pee and back to crate)
third night he cried in the middle of the night (took him out for quick pee, back to crate) Decided that those little pees did not require a potty break.
4th night. let him cry it out... for a LOOOOOONG time. Finally quieted down. Woke up in the morning and he had not had any accidents.
Slept though the night since.


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## Francl27 (May 4, 2017)

Yeah the whole 'might be used to getting her way' by whining thing worries me. Yesterday morning though I did leave her downstairs and went back to sleep upstairs... Today I let her wine until 6am (she started at 5 again). She does pee when she does that though, and I've never asked her to hold so long during the day (really... 3-4 hours max) so I'm worried it's asking for too much because she never has to hold that long otherwise.

For the whining though, she whines a lot if I go upstairs during the day etc... and unfortunately I can't always ignore it for hours because I do have things to do, lol. I'm hoping to get my kids and husband to clear the floor of our bedroom from unwanted clothes so we can start just letting her be free soon though.. just not sure she's ready though because she does pee quite a bit when I take her out still.


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## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

Drape the crate so she doesn't see you coming back downstairs. She can still hear you. But that way there is a higher chance she isn't learning that whining 'brings you back.'


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## WesselGordon (May 17, 2017)

If you want her to sleep with you in the room having her use the adjoining bathroom at night be a good option if you're all geared up for it. Will mean she has to learn first to sleep only where she's allowed and if you use the crate for that it will obviously have to be left open so you can catch some decent sleep.

We have a 7 year old German Shepherd/Collie mix that we keep in the house overnight and I've rarely had to clean up any messes in the morning. We live in a fairly isolated house (nearest neighbors two houses away) so we lock every door at night. My view is simply: rather a noisy dog inside than a possibly poisoned, dead dog outside. But that's strictly my opinion and many people will disagree with it.


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## Francl27 (May 4, 2017)

WesselGordon said:


> If you want her to sleep with you in the room having her use the adjoining bathroom at night be a good option if you're all geared up for it. Will mean she has to learn first to sleep only where she's allowed and if you use the crate for that it will obviously have to be left open so you can catch some decent sleep.
> 
> We have a 7 year old German Shepherd/Collie mix that we keep in the house overnight and I've rarely had to clean up any messes in the morning. We live in a fairly isolated house (nearest neighbors two houses away) so we lock every door at night. My view is simply: rather a noisy dog inside than a possibly poisoned, dead dog outside. But that's strictly my opinion and many people will disagree with it.


I don't really see how this is relevant? I let her go out at night (fenced yard) and let her go back in right away. They spend most of their time inside otherwise and I check on them regularly when they are out during the day. My 13yo dog is completely ok with holding it for sometimes 12 hours at night.

I didn't crate her last night because I slept in the recliner so I just gated the room, but she woke up and followed me when I went to pee at 3.30 so I let her out too (and the other dog had to go too, which is more annoying as he takes much longer at night)... she was still up at 6am (and woke me up because my sleep is light). So I guess that's the problem with not crating her... she follows me to the bathroom, lol. I guess I'd just better get used to being in bed by 9.30pm then... I'll try to get our room cleared a bit so we can let her uncrated at night upstairs too.


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## Alisa♥ (Mar 9, 2017)

Francl27 said:


> I've never asked her to hold so long during the day (really... 3-4 hours max) so I'm worried it's asking for too much because she never has to hold that long otherwise.


I was told by a behaviorist that the puppies' metabolism slows down a bit at night, which is how they are able to last longer between breaks than during the day. This made me feel better about extending the time between breaks at night, although it's always a test to see how long.

The method Canyx describes (setting the alarm before the whine, and slowly increasing the time between your alarms) was the exact method I intended to use! I just found it far too easy to ignore the alarm, so we imperfectly sleep until Prinna makes some noise. She's a quiet puppy overall, so it's easy to hold fast to the rule (only quiet puppies get released from the crate) at any other time of day, but I know that it's pure luck that I don't have a screaming beast in the crate on my hands!


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## Francl27 (May 4, 2017)

Ok now how do you get a puppy to wake up for the day later? It's been 5.15am lately and I'm just exhausted  She whines in her crate but when she isn't in her crate she has the zoomies anyway so there's no way I can sleep through it.


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## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

Same thing. You ignore whining till it's quiet for a few seconds to a few minutes. When I am in a rush I count out 15 seconds of quiet. When I have all the time in the world, I set a stopwatch for 5 minutes or more. Bring some books or a computer to your room so you have something interesting to do while you wait her out. 

There is no magic to it. To get rid of whining you ignore whining.


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## Alisa♥ (Mar 9, 2017)

It's been 4:50 am for the past few days for Prinna, too (and she doesn't eat until 6 am)...I take her out for a quick potty break but then pop her back in the crate afterwards, as if this was another boring middle-of-the-night break, and then I can usually get another hour out of her. She might fuss a little when I put her back in, but usually settles down within a minute or two (and I cover my head with a pillow and make it clear we're not getting up now ). A bone or chew that she likes can help, if she won't fall back asleep.

They sure love their schedules! But, I'll admit I was glad this morning, since I had forgotten to turn on my alarm...:laugh:


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## CptJack (Jun 3, 2012)

Be really boring in the mornings and eventually they'll catch on. Eventually here meaning 'probably before they turn 2'. How much before just depends on the dog.


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## Francl27 (May 4, 2017)

CptJack said:


> Be really boring in the mornings and eventually they'll catch on. Eventually here meaning 'probably before they turn 2'. How much before just depends on the dog.


I pretty much ignore her for 2 hours LOL. She actually fell back asleep today from 6 to 7.30am but there was no going back to sleep for me. Will try giving dinner later and maybe it will help (she wakes up with the sun, pretty much).

She's usually not whining when I let her out though... and I often fall back asleep through it for a bit... but she'll wake me up because she starts making noise whether she's whining or not anyway (if she's up to pee after 3am I typically don't bother crating her again).

I'm puppy sitting another puppy this week end so it's probably going to be way worse (and that one isn't housebroken at all).


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