Sleeping advice for a 4 month old pup

[saintsrugbygirl]

This is a small plea for help.............

OH & I were joined last Sunday by Molly a 4 month old CS.  Molly is settling in well at home and is starting to relax and used to us. 

What we wondered is if anyone has got an advice or experiences of having a 4 month old puppy from new! 

She hasn't had any accidents (No1) since last Wednesday BUT when left alone in the kitchen on Friday evening she had an accident (No2) - we think partly because of the worming tablet she had had with her dinner.

At night we move her bed into the kitchen which has a dog gate (on the first night she figured out how to open the sliding door and so I had to sleep on the sofa with her nudging every 5 mins with her nose!). 

The routine is that she is put into the kitchen at 10pm and OH & I watch TV til about 10.30pm and then we go to bed.  She has a few times managed from 11pm til 1.30am before yipping at us.  After this point one of us ends up sleeping on the sofa so that she settles.

Last night she yipped and whimpered and started hitting the gate every hour (with her paws! and the noise level gradually rose to a bark).  We don't want to leave her barking because our next door neighbours will hear her and that's not fair.

So OH and I & between us take it in turns to go downstairs in case she needs to go out.  We both managed to sleep in the same bed last night - since last Sunday one of us has slept on the sofa.  She doesn't particularly like going outside at 2am but then neither do I like standing outside in the freezing cold with a torch encouraging Molly to go wee wee etc 

We are wondering what to do tonight - even as I type she was in the kitchen with the gate closed and has started whimpering.  We don't want her to get distressed in case it leads to another No2 accident.

My mum suggested moving her bed upstairs next to our bed so that we can get some rest but OH (& I agree) isn't keen on this idea.  Should we continue with leaving her in the kitchen and just let her whimper, yip and bark or is there something else that we could try?

We've tried the hotwater bottle trick (on first night) and it didn't work, also given her a t-shirt from both of us and her chewy toys.

We know that we'll have to get up during the night but if we could go longer than every hour - we'd be very happy.

Any advice???

[suki1964]

Been having the same problem with Billy the ESS. We started him off in the crate and at first he was fine just up once for toilet then through to 5.30 But he got worse (or better at training us) and he started creating every hour or two so one or the other was up to him and come the end we would let him on the bed so we got some sleep

What has worked for us is to put him in his bed next to our bed. He settles straight down and only wants out once in the night. Funny thing is that although hes more then capable of getting up on our bed and furniture whenever the notion takes him, at night he doesnt. He just stands on his back legs and batters me about the head till I wake to take him out  And Ive noticed that these are real loo relief's, full bladder emptying where as before he would squeeze a drip out


Ive now progressed to leaving the bedroom door open and hes still staying in his bed, hopefully I will soon be able to move the bed back to the lounge and he will still know to come wake me

[lolamum]

Can you close the kitchen door? When we had our pup we used a gate on the kitchen door and she was horrendous. getting us up every hour. really do sympathise with you! After about a week i decided that was enough and closed the door, we never heard a peep from her. Dont know whether this was a security thing by being enclosed. dont know what else to suggest, but good luck.

[saintsrugbygirl]

Unfortunately for us - Molly is a bit of a clever girl.  Last Sunday evening she figured out how to open the sliding door to the kitchen and managed to get out!!!

So on Monday I had to get a dog gate. 

We've moved her into the kitchen already this evening and there hasn't been a peep out of her (YET). 

Mind you, she just attended her first puppy class so maybe that will have tired her out  . 

I am hoping that if she does stir tonight, we should go into the kitchen as if we needed to be in the kitchen and ignore her. 

[jann]

   how did you get on last night with Molly, Tara ?   I hope she's settling a bit more now.


(Still waiting for some pics?  )

Jann 

[Coco]

Ths probably isn't relevant but it may be worth noting.
Wherry never cries when we put her to bed and go straight upstairs to bed ourselves, but, if she is put to bed and we stay downstairs she can hear us then she will make a fuss. She has a night time routinte of wee, biscuit, I turn everything off and she goes to bed, so do I. If a stick around to do washing or something  before going upstairs, she will moan.

[Nicola]

Ths probably isn't relevant but it may be worth noting.
Wherry never cries when we put her to bed and go straight upstairs to bed ourselves, but, if she is put to bed and we stay downstairs she can hear us then she will make a fuss. She has a night time routinte of wee, biscuit, I turn everything off and she goes to bed, so do I. If a stick around to do washing or something  before going upstairs, she will moan.

Mine are the same, if I shut them in the kitchen and then stayed in the living room they would start whinging but when I leave them and go upstairs they're fine. They know their bedtime routine which is the same as Coco's above.

[saintsrugbygirl]

Sorry for not giving you an update sooner...............

After talking to colleagues at work and reading some of the other posts on the puppies area - OH and I decided to get a dog crate.

On Monday evening we assembled said crate and put Molly's dog bed in so that she was comfy.  She willingly went in and plonked herself in her basket.  We then had to pop out to drop OH car to the garage for an MOT and although we didn't here a peep when we got home, Molly was slightly recluctant to go back in that evening.  She's not stupid our Molly! 

However, we stuck to similar times and encouraged her to go into the crate.  OH got up at 12.30 and 3am to let her out.  She didn't settle well at 3am so OH stayed with her for a few minutes and then there wasn't a noise out of her until I came down at 5.40am to take her for a walk.

Last night it was my turn to get up during the night.  I had to get up 4 times  similar times except that at 3am she didn't do anything and at 4am she started whimpering so I went down and let her out where she did some business. 

We are getting there and although she isn't too keen on the crate she will sleep in it and not bark which I think is brilliant progress.

Now we just have to try and build up the time that she can go without getting up during the night.

I'll try and upload some photos of Molly - unfortunately I don't have a photo of her from Sunday evening.  We went to our first puppy class on Sunday evening and as it was a 10 mins walk from our house decided to walk.  It was of course raining.

I can honestly say I was embarrased at the state of Molly - dripping water all over the floor with all the other puppies looking gorgeous and dry.  I'm a bad mum, making a show of Molly in public