Help, I'm not getting any sleep!

[IZ]

Iz is 11 weeks old (24 pounds). He is doing "okay" with housetraining. He asks to go outside sometimes, (never while he is on carpet of course ). At night, he sleeps in a crate in our bedroom. He enters the crate fine -  and goes to sleep. He wakes about 4 hours later and needs to go out. All of this is fine...so far. After I take him out that first time during the night (normally around 2 ish)  he wants to go out every hour. He generally pees each time, but he also grabs the leash, rolls in the snow and romps around. I sternly correct and immediately bring him back inside while he tries to play. We go back in the crate - and we start over again in an hour. How do I teach him he can hold it? How do I get him to not play too? His max in the crate seems to be 4 hours. He on occassion will pee in the crate while we are out. (but generally at the 4 hour mark). I don't mind getting up once - but this 4 and 5 times has got to go.....

[AC]

11 weeks old and holding for 4 hours sounds very good to me! Angus is now 7 months and housetrained but his hours are getting worse to go potty. I think it all depends on how late they have thier last meal. I always made sure Angus was/is finished eating before 9:00 pm and cut down on his water and he goes out at 11:30 pm to do his business and can then hold it until 5:30 - 6:30 am. I have found lately that he wants to go out around 3:30 am and like Iz every hour after. Even though he does pee I really think he wants to get out and play (he's really enjoying the cool weather). If your taking Iz out on a leash to pee and as soon as he is done you bring him back in, even though he wants to play, you might start noticing that he will wait longer and longer outside before he does his business as you are inadvertently teaching him that as soon as he goes potty he has to go inside which he does not want to do!!

[Winslow 151]

Hi,

Winslow was the same, I suggest maybe move the crate to an area IZ can't see you, (We left winslow downstairs in his) He may see your motion at night and think you are up so maybe you want to play outside too.

Crate IZ where you can here him, no water after a time you decide in the evening, Figure 4 -6 hours between "pit Stops" monitor Volume, (IZ will mark territory every time he gets the chance to.) The longer you can hold IZ off the better his control will be.

Winslow is 6 months now sleeps out of his crate and goes from 11:30 to about 6:30 before he comes and gets us to say he needs to go out.

Good Luck

[brandon]

I'd work on wearing him out more before bed time.  Maybe some fetch or romping in the snow, etc..

[k2campbell]

We had Kate's "sleep" area downstairs when we brought her home, Eric and I slept in the spare room on the same floor to tend to her throughout the night.�  We go to bed around 10pm, she usually would need to pee around 12:30am, 3am and then again around 5:30am (which is wake-up time for me anyhow)...

Then it just slowed-down completely.�  She would only get up once throughout the night, around 3am.

Now (at 5 mnths) Kate sleeps on her cot in our bedroom, and we have to wake her up in the morning (lazy girl)!�  � �  But - as soon as she's woken up - she goes straight outside for a pee...

I guess what I'm saying is I think a lot of it comes with maturity, but I do think moving Iz's crate out of your bedroom would be a good idea.�  He'll whine for a bit (but) he'll put himself to sleep.�  Also, are you keeping any lights on at night?�  We did for a while, but found Kate would whine a lot more with a light on.�  Now, if I'm getting ready for bed (and Kate wants to sleep), she'll whine at me until I turn the light off - then she's out!�  � � 

When Kate went from being let out 3 times throughout the night to once - it literally happened overnight.�  I think she just hit a spurt where she "understood"...

Hope this helps - good luck (and) try to squeeze in a quick nap or two if you can in the evenings! 

[Anakalia]

OH OH I think I have a suggestion!!!  This is something I had to break Koby of too.  This is what somebody (can't remember who) told me to do.  Take him outside to potty, praise him for peeing, but then ignore the play, don't say anything to him just stay quiet.  If he plays before he pees ignore as soon as he pees, say good boy pat on the head and then take him inside and be totally quiet.  When they're in play mode they HATE being ignored, it may be a little frustrating the first couple of times but it works!!  Good luck!

Andi

[IZ]

Thanks to all. I think we made a little progress last night. Got up at his usual 2:47 (same tim every night). But when he barked and whined at 4:44 - I let him go. It took 40 minutes - but he did stop and eventually fell asleep. Of course my alarm went off at 5:40 - so that gave me 10 minutes of peace and quiet - but it might have been the best 10 minutes of my evening! Perhaps there is light at the end of this tunnel. Thanks everyone

[Good Hope]

There is! Sapphire did something similar, when she hit 4 months... voila... slept all night.

Deena

[shangrila]

You will get different advice from everyone, so take everyones ideas and decide what you think is best for you. Here's my 2 cents: I think that you should expect to go out a few times a night for awhile. At that young of an age even 2 hours is really really long for a puppy to hold it. I also think it is really important that he can see you or he might get scared and start to cry because of that... That being said, there are a couple things you can do to try and make it a little easier on yourself. For one, limiting water and making sure to do lots of playing to tucker him out before bedtime help a little bit. Another thing that helped us when zoey was a baby was carrying her. Instead of having her walk, we would carry her to the spot where we wanted her to pee, and she would pee right away and get praised. The we would let her walk back to the house herself, but if she was trying to play way too much, we would just pick her up and carry her back into the house.

[greek4]

I was lucky, both of my dogs were sleeping through the night with dry crates at 12 weeks.  I always have kept them out of my room in a crate and for a few weeks got up once in the night to walk them.  After a the few weeks, I would try and hold them off until morning. 

My male will still hold off peeing so he can spend more time outside.  Since the fence is not up and it is 20 below zero, they go out on tye outs but me being a freak I still stand out there with them.

You could try taking him out and once he comes in give him a tasty treat and back into his crate.  Move the crate into a dark, cooler room where noises and sounds won't distract him from sleep.  Take him for a nice long walk or play ball later in the evening.

My female sleeps better in her cage in the basement, if I let her sleep in my room she paces, gets on and off the bed, breaths in my face and seems cranky the next day.  Just make sure you set up habits that you won't to be the routine from now on.

I hope someone can give you advice that might help.