Barney is now 16 weeks old. From the day he came home he has slept in his crate in the hall on his own. I did this so that he got used to spending some time on his own, away from our other two dogs.
After the usual settling down problems Barney has been fine sleeping in his crate but wakes up at 5.30am every morning and whimpers. He wants to go out to toilet. I'd posted before about this, as to whether to leave him or take him out and put him back. The concensus was to take him out.
Daylight is not an issue as the hall doesn't have any natural light and all the doors on the hall are shut. We also have a radio on for him.
OH normally gets up at 6am so when Barney has woken him he takes him out but then doesn't put him back. I think this perhaps is a bad idea.
He tried getting up at 4am and taking him out, then the next night at 4.15am and so on. The theory being that he learns someone will come and take him out and he learns to wait till they do. That did have some good results, but 50% of the time he would still whimper at 5.30am, and now its back to happening most of the time.
Then came yesterday.
OH finding it hard to survive on less than 6hrs sleep was desperate for a lie in. Barney whimpered at 5.30am so he took him out and put him back. He screamed for an hour, keeping us all awake. At the point when he paused to draw breath OH ran out of the room to go to him. In the interest of our sanity I told him to take his crate into the lounge where I and the other dogs are, which is where his crate is usually kept. Barney then went to sleep and didn't wake until we did at 9am.
So last night we ummed and arrhhed about where to leave his crate. It was too late to ask you lot
So we left him in the lounge. He woke up whimpering at 7am. OH took him out but him back to bed and he slept until OH got up. A much better result!
I have found that Barney, although will sleep in the hall at night without problem, will just scream the place down if his crate's there during the day. I'm positive its because he thinks he's missing out on something. He can be left alone in the lounge and he doesn't make a sound.
My worry is if he doesn't have a prolonged period on his own at this age he'll have problems being on his own. If he sleeps in the lounge my other two dogs are there as am I (I can't sleep in a bed due to my illness).
When he's older and no longer needs his crate he will sleep in the lounge anyway.
I had a problem with seperation anxiety with my lab, who was my first dog and was with me most of the time, though come to think of it she slept alone and still had it.
With Max and Barney I've tried really hard not to let this happen again.
So I'm really tying myself up in knots as to what to do for the best, both for Barney and my sleep deprived OH (my bedtime drugs make it unsafe for me to get up without my OH holding me up.)
I'm sorry this has been like War and Peace.
I thought you'd be able to advise me better with the whole picture.
