Can't sleep through the night

7188 Views 12 Replies 11 Participants Last post by jenlaur, Sep 22, 2009

lizandhec

Discussion Starter · Sep 21, 2009

This is my first time on a forum like this, and I can't believe how helpful it has been to read other people's posts and find I am not alone and know that others are having similar issues with their golden puppies! My issue at the moment is that my baby girl Zoey, is just not sleeping through the night. She is about 15 weeks old and most times will wake up between 1-2am and I take her out to go to the bathroom, and then she is awake around 4:30am and there is no putting her back in her crate then. She is awake, ready to play, run and start her day! I guess my question would be, should I stop taking her out at the 1am time she wakes up? And when will she start sleeping a little bit longer in the morning? Is this typical, or have I trained her to not have to "hold it" through the night by taking her out. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance!

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boomers_dawn

· #2 · Sep 21, 2009

I'm pretty sure a 15 week old puppy is not supposed to be able to hold it and sleep through the whole night. There's some formula for how long they can hold it but I can't remember exactly what it is. Something like an hour for each month of age +1 or 2. I'm sorry I can't remember exactly.

I think you're supposed to pick up the water bowl after a certain time like 6 pm and just take them out in the middle of the night till they're big enough to hold it. That's what I did.

Maybe at 4:30 take her out to potty then put her in her crate, go back to bed, and ignore her so she doesn't get the idea that she dictates what time the whole house gets up?

Good luck. I remember when mine was a puppy I felt like a sleep deprived mother of a newborn. I'm pretty sure that's normal. They are babies at that age.

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laprincessa

· #3 · Sep 21, 2009

What time does she go to bed? Max has always gone when we go - around 3:00 am, although sometimes he puts himself to bed earlier - and he's been sleeping till 9:30 or so since we got him. (yup, within a week, no problems at all)

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BeauShel

· #4 · Sep 21, 2009

See if you can keep her up alittle later to see if that will help. And if you can ignore her when she starts to whine on the second whining. But it might be alittle longer before she can hold it all night.

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Ash

· #5 · Sep 21, 2009

I remember having to take the pups out in the night up until almost 5 months. Try taking her water away 2 hours before putting her to bed and getting her all the exercise she can handle during the day. But no way would I be getting up around 4am with her. She would be outside and then back to bed. Def try more exercise.

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iamswiss

· #6 · Sep 21, 2009

After reading your post I feel so lucky with our Bailey. She's now 14 weeks old, but since we got her at 8 weeks she was holding it until 5.30am in the morning (last time she went out was around 11.30pm) and now she even sleeps until 7am.
We usually take the water away around 8-8.30pm and go every 2 hours at least outside with her all day long. The longest she's ever in the crate is maybe 2 1/2 hours and she's fine with that.
A week ago my husband forgot to put her in the crate and she was all by herself in the kitchen area and we were gone for 3 hours and when we came back she was fine, didn't destroy anything and to my surprise didn't have any accident. I was so proud of her, that she waited for us to go potty with her.
Maybe you want to add a longer walk in the evening so that she gets more tired.

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Nicole74

· #7 · Sep 21, 2009

Bailey still gets up in the middle of the night and is very restless. She actually doesn't need to go potty at that time, she is just up. I don't put Bailey back into the crate either after she wakes up in the morning, which is between 4-5am.

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Ljilly28

· #8 · Sep 21, 2009

I agree with the idea of giving her a little more playtime before bed. Against all conventional advice, once you are up at 1am anyway, maybe tire her out then too? I know people's good wisedom says not to play in the night, so they dont wake you iup to play; however, it might get another few hours of quite on the other end to make that outing tiring/fun. How about putting in a frozen kong touy at one so she'll keep herself busy?

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momtoMax

· #9 · Sep 21, 2009

Hmm, I'm going to give you advice from a different direction. She just may have you wrapped around her little puppy paw! She should be able to hold it longer - I mean, what's the longest she's held it throughout the day? She may be taking advantage knowing that if she cries hard enough, long enough, you will come. I'd put her to bed at 10 and not let her out when she's crying and crying. It will be hard, but as you're not sleeping well anyways, the tough part will be standing the noise. Finally, even if it takes an hour, once she's quieted down for a few minutes, maybe around 3 AM, because she should be able to hold it that long, let her out to potty. Don't do anything to work her up, let her out, let her in, tell her good night, and go back to bed. If she's up at five, ignore the yelps crying whining. Make sure that she has a chew bone or other things to keep her occupied (my puppy can play and amuse himself, yours can learn to as well) from the night before and when she stops making all the noise for a while, let her out. You may be teaching her crying = human comes. I'd break her of this ASAP! Good luck!!

PS. Ear plugs are awful handy!! You can get them at a lot of drug stores.

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Willow52

· #10 · Sep 21, 2009

Hank is 10 weeks today and has been sleeping through the night almost since we brought him home at 5 1/2 weeks. He does occasionally go out during the night but his normal sleep time is 10:30/11:00pm-7:00/7:30am. I know I'm lucky and this isn't usual. I'm due for some luck with sleep issues as our granddaughter lives with us and she didn't sleep through the night until she was 1 yr. old!

I like the frozen kong idea to keep her busy while you get a couple more hours sleep. Is she hungry? Hank doesn't eat supper until 8:00pm, maybe that helps in that he doesn't get hungry so early. I don't restrict his water.

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Nicole74

· #11 · Sep 21, 2009

I also stopped taking Bailey out at 1-2am when she was 10 weeks. My aunt has a lab mix who ONLY goes out pee in the middle of the night. Sadie will wake them up 3-4 times a night to go potty and she is 5-6 years old. That would drive me insane.

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lizandhec

Discussion Starter · #12 · Sep 21, 2009

Thank you so much for the responses!! We do take up the water around 8 o'clock and her bedtime is about 10:30 most nights. It sounds like we need to be tougher on the 2nd time she is barking/whining at 4am. We generally try to walk her before bedtime as well, but she has started to "not walk" on walks. It is tough to get her to walk without a treat in hand throughout the walk. I will all your suggestions try them out. Thank you so much!!

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jenlaur

· #13 · Sep 22, 2009

Liz, I feel your pain. Our girl just turned 15 weeks old. While she gave up the 1:30 a.m. potty a couple of weeks ago she's up every morning at 4:30. DH and I both get up at 5 to work out most days so it's not a problem. But on those days we want to sleep guess what....4:30 like clockwork. We let her potty and put her back in the crate. Sometimes she will go back to sleep for 45 min - an hour. This morning she went back to sleep for about 45 minutes and as I'm typing this she is sleeping under my chair. What would be ideal is if she would sleep until I got home from my workout at 7 a.m. But once our other dog a 6 cats start stirring she's not about to miss any of the action!

I agree with the other posters: tire her out during the day (we walk 2 - 3 times and that helps a lot), take up her water. Some people say not to put chew toys in the crate at night but I've heard her chewing on her antler in the morning and anything that will give me a few more minutes in bed I'm all for. Also, have you tried ignoring that 1 a.m. cry to go out? I know it can be hard. Riley's cries turn to a howl and a bark after a while. Good luck!

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