Night waking 6 months old - crate trained.

[David Morgan]

My wife has always been adamant that dogs sleep downstairs. So, when young Mason woke us and the other two dogs up, I would let them all go outside and then take them in the living room where we would all curl up on the sofa. It could have been setting up some bad habits, but I got most of a night's sleep and I didn't disturb my wife too much and, as I said, they stopped waking before me after a while anyway.

[Darwin]

They're just like children! 

Once waking in the night has become a habbit it's difficult to break and once you've got in the habbit of  having to get up early your sleeping habbits change. 

I've had this with Darwin last year,  but he's nearly 9yr and it's for very different reasons  For a year he was waking us at 2am most morning  ( sleep howling/ pain howling ) and then again at 4am for a toilet break. We're now working to a better routine, very infrequent howling and he longer wakes st 4am. I'm also learning not to wake up at 4am! but we still need to dictate /manage his  toileting routine.

It may be case of making sure your pup goes for his final wee before bed by either taking him out for a 10pm walk. ( I'm not looking forward to next week as OH is away for 10 days so I've got 10 days of 10pm walks) or walking him around the garden. The problem at the moment is it's so dark at 10pm if they go into the garden on their own you can't tell if they've gone.

Good luck

[Londongirl]

We take Henry out for a pee in the garden sometime between 10 and 11pm, on the lead and with a torch so we can see what he is (or isn’t) doing! Thankfully he pretty much pees immediately as all he wants is to go back into his warm bed. I don’t blame him.

Six months is still very young. And they are all different, just like kids. Just another thought - is he comfortable in the crate, and does he have the sort of bed he likes? I think bizzylizzy said before that they took the door off Humphrey’s crate and made sure the room was safe when he was still quite young, and he was happier. Maybe your pup wants more room to spread out and that is waking him up? We have a HUGE crate for Henry with a large flat mattress-style bed as he stretches out completely to sleep. We have a gorgeous Tuffies oval bed with raised sides for him in the living room and he completely refuses to use it. He stretches out on the floor in front of it instead!

[Minky]

Brilliant advice everyone. I can't thank you enough.
I know Scooby doesn't need to go to the loo in the middle of the night as we did have many weeks of sleeping 10:30pm to 6:30am.
He also always goes for a wee just before bed, either on his walk, or in the back garden.
So I guess I should persevere - and may try leaving the crate door open...

[Minky]

First of all, take no notice of what other people say - all pups are different and people often exaggerate how well behaved/trained their dog actually is 

In the spirit of full disclosure, I’ll say Henry really does sleep for 12 hours every night in his crate but in many other regards he’s a complete pain in the proverbial. Sometimes you just have to accentuate the positive, as the song goes. 

Reckon I could forgive anything if my monster slept for 12 hours every night!!!!

[Minky]

Titch did exactly this - we thought he had settled nicely to being in crate all night, then around 5.5 months he started howling at about 2 a.m. Of course I got up and let him out a few times, but soon realised that as it was dark I couldn't always see if he was doing anything or not. So started putting his lead on and walking him round the garden, not talking, no attention at all. Then straight back into his bed, no attention.

Realised that at most he was having a tiny wee, so decided to take him out about half hour later before (my) bedtime and then let him howl if he woke in the night. It was hard, and must be very difficult if you have close neighbours. However, I'm pretty sure it only took a few nights for him to settle again through til early (7-ish) morning again.
This is very reassuring. Not sure I have the confidence yet to let him have the run of the house (downstairs) during the night. I may leave the crate door open and see what happens...

Titch is 20 months now and has had the freedom of the house at night for about 9 months. He still chooses to sleep in his crate most nights, only occasionally choosing his daybed in front of the living room fire.

I've never let a dog sleep in my bedroom, and seeing the livestock (mainly slugs) and twigs he can bring in on his undercarriage after even a couple of minutes in the garden I'm not inclined to change that any time soon 

[bizzylizzy]

Brilliant advice everyone. I can't thank you enough.
I know Scooby doesn't need to go to the loo in the middle of the night as we did have many weeks of sleeping 10:30pm to 6:30am.
He also always goes for a wee just before bed, either on his walk, or in the back garden.
So I guess I should persevere - and may try leaving the crate door open...

............and move any chairs that can be used to climb up and get to things you thought were out of reach, .....just speaking from experience!! 

[Digger]

Hey Minky!
Just a thought....I noticed recently that Inca (biting diminishing nicely thanks ) has been a bit less keen to get in her bed at bedtime lately, and I wondered if she was cold. Think-moments before curled up next to me or the woodburner..so( yes you can all howl with laughter now)..I have started tucking her in. In can't believe I said that out loud.Hahaha Anyhow- she loves it!! Bed time is 10pm, milky bone, Gets in her bed with furry toys to keep out draughts and I tuck her little fleece blanket over her and she snuggles right down and straight to the land of nod. We have a blanket in the winter don't we? He may be waking up because he's a bit chilly- then once you're awake you need the loo. You could check that first.?
My pooch has a bed and an area in front of it about 3ft square with water bowl and a few toys that are safe to leave. A couple of weeks ago she had a funny tummy after a wormer and did make a little whine in the night. When I came down in the morning there was a poo. We said nothing, greeted her as normal and just cleared it up. I don't think it affected the housetraining. At the end of the day, they don't want to mess indoors so that behaviour shouldn't stick and an accident is an accident. Where, your dog thinking that it's ok to get you up in the night might stick as it is something he would probably quite like? I am no expert but just some thoughts I had.
Perhaps if you gave him the latest poss loo trip before bed then make him really cosy, with access to an area that isn't his bed just in case of emergency and leave him ? Might be worth a try

[Minky]

Hey Digger
Sorry for the delayed response. I’ve not been on the forum for a while. We still have the odd night waking but I’ve been able to attribute it to no afternoon poo, which is really annoying as I can’t really ignore the barking!
We may have 2 in 7 disturbed nights, so I ignore his barks unless I suspect it’s a poo.
Little monkey!!!

[Digger]

Ahh that's not so bad then. I'm sure with time it will all iron out!