Night time advice needed

[waggytails]

Hattie will be 16 weeks old on sunday, the problem is at night we let her out before bedtime 10/10.30pm. She then wakes up anytime between 3.00 and 4.30am, which I don't mind, its that after that, she is up at 5am very active and wanting to play and be fed. I wont feed her till 6am.  I'm not to sure do I let her cry after the 4.30am wake up or I'm I doing the right thing, she sleeps down stairs in a create, This morning oh got up sat with her leaving her in the create she calmed down quickly and went back to sleep till 5.30am. so do you think we should just let her cry or move the create upstairs or carry on the way we are and hope it just improves.  The disturbed sleep is taking its toll now.

How old are puppies before you can expect them to sleep through.

[bracken]

Its your personnal feeling about having a dog in your bedroom, both my cockers sleep in my room on their own beds 
When Hattie wakes I would let her out to the toilet but say nothing and make no eye contact if possible.
Then put her back in her crate, she may cry alittle but it will be attention seeking and should stop soon 
I did have massive problems with my Rosie she barked for 4 months at night until I could take No more..........( I was so very tired)  I gave in and put her in my room she is fantastic now 
Good Luck  Jo

[CarolineL]

Start as you meant to go on. 

There is a divide of opinion on this, some dont like to leave puppies to cry, others believe that if you go to them when they cry you are rewarding the behaviour.... If Hurley woke up then we got up, let him out to the toilet and then put him back in his crate, if he created then we left him to it. By going to him when he cries then he learns that crying = attention. I learned the hard way. Hurley was not allowed upstairs but in the morning because we did not time our interruption right he used to sit at the bottom of the stairs and whine and whine and whine and whine........... he has only just grown out of it now.

[VickyG]

it's so confusing isn't it, my fur baby comes home soon and I'm already so confused as to what to do with him at night when he's in his crate - get up when he cries/ ignore him.  Hope you get it sorted and get some more sleep 

[september]

Roxy was exactly the same, We used to get up and let her out in the night to wee every 2 hours or so and extended the time we left her for gradually.  She soon went through the night (to be honest I can't remember exactly when, I must have blocked it out!! I would guess at 3 1/2 4 months ish ) but even when she went through the night she was up and awake at 5.30 and wouldnt go back to sleep until she had been fed and played with.  What we did was to get up at 5.30 for a bout a week then we just started to extend the time, so the next week it was 5.45 for about 4 days then it was 6.00 etc etc, we made sure she knew she had to settle til at least 7.30.   We didn't set an alarm, she was still waking at 5.30 but we didn't get up til the time we decided on, we would ignore any fuss she made until it was time to get up. 

This worked really well for us and it didn't take too long for her to settle into a routine.  As we didn't go to her when she cried she gave it up!  She is 14 months now and sleeps til between 7.30-8.30 depending what time she gets to bed, then she will start to whimper, we go and feed her let her out and then she will go back to sleep til we get up.

We left her to cry right from the first night but always got up to let her out to wee.  Its personal choice but we didn't want her to have to sleep with us (she does occasionally for fun! but generally she sleeps in the kitchen)  Its quite hard to ignore them when they are so little but once you get a routine going and they get used to it they are fine!

[jlscallan]

i was very fortunate my archie went straight through as soon as he arrived, and does not get up til we get up, however my old cocker used to get up at 5.30 always did and never grew out of it i think it depends on the dog

[bluegirl]

Bronte will stay quiet downstairs but she's not asleep because I have a monitor and I know as tiny pups they'd wake and play about 5am each morning. I never got up but they were quite vocal at times.
Bronte can however hear you if anyone nips to the toilet and she will start to bark and whine then. We ignore her for a while then OH usually goes down for a quick sharp chat with her that usually goes like this "shut up and go back to sleep" but it works for us.