night time woe

[Maisiesmum]

Hehe BB, this really is like a Groundhog Day.
We have always had Labs who are born half puppy/half dyson!! So I was really surprised when Maisie delicately picked one piece of kibble up at a time and had a walk about in between. I too thought she wasn't food oriented.
I wasn't happy with the food she had been on so I changed it after a few days ( I know you are meant to do it gradually but I reckoned it would do her more harm being on a cereal based food than swopping straight away to a whole prey kibble). This was a complete changing point and she now barks at me as soon as I get her bowl out, ploughs her way through the food without even lifting her head and will even give a paw for a tiny piece of cheese.
Don't (like me) presume he is not food oriented, it may just be he hasn't found the thing that rocks his world yet.

[MIN]

I have noticed, no mention of WHOO HOO's yet. So not quite that bad yet   

i do know what you are going through, you start  to believe that all the people who say "go on get a pup, life will be fantastic" must be simple in the head.  It will get better and you will laugh and you will go through it again sometime in the future no doubt 
sending you a  and  for the nasty daddy

[Blueberry]

MM, I put him onto raw food the day after I brought him home.  The breeder was heavily promoting some kibble which I've never even heard anyone else mention, and was very keen that I should feed him nothing else.  I looked it up online and it is full of rubbish; not for my boy!  I'm pretty sure she is being given an incentive to promote it.  I didn't tell her, but I already had a freezer full of Nutriment in waiting.  I let him have breeder kibble the first night, but next morning he went straight on to the Nutriment without a hitch    (It certainly makes the poo easier to deal with)
He's had a very sleepy day today, interspersed with short periods of playfulness, and even had a ride in the car in his crate, as I took him to meet my mum.
Currently in his pen yelping and howling, because I am in the next room *sigh*.  (I have also observed that when he gets upset like this he does a poo in his pen)
I am going to try giving him 4 small feeds today instead of 3 bigger ones, with the last one just before bed, in the hope it will help him settle.

[Blueberry]

I wish this forum had an option for posting a sound recording - he has an amazing range! 

[Mudmagnets]

I wish this forum had an option for posting a sound recording - he has an amazing range! 


Well I guess you could do that if you video recorded the little dear in full on mode and put it on photobucket or similar, with a link to it on here, let us all enjoy the serenade!!

[Theo961]

I  don't think  anyone  understands just how much noise can come from such a little puppy unless they have gone through it. Hang in there, it does get better. 

[daw]

Why not just try keeping him with you more? Seems to be what he longs for...

[Blueberry]

Had a much  better night. 
I stayed up till 11 with him, we had quiet time on the sofa (and both fell asleep).  I fed him around 10. 
My father in law suggested I give him something of mine to sleep on, so I sacrificed the new t shirt which I had been wearing all day and put it in his crate.  He came straight back out again, but the light went off and I stayed in the room until he had gone back in and settled.  Then I went upstairs to bed and didn't hear anything until 4.30.  There was a bit of whining, but not for long.  I fell asleep again until 6.30, when I got up to tend to him.

[TedsMum]

Ted loves a used t shirt or sock..... Or any dirty washing at all really 

[Blueberry]

Just beginning to despair of ever again having a night's sleep! 
We've had Blue for exactly 2 weeks now.  Since I last posted, Blue is waking even earlier.  It started out being 4 - 4.30 ish.  The past two nights it's been around 2am.  He's not hungry, doesn't want to wee (I take him out but he just wants to play), he just wakes and panics when he realises there's no-one around.  He works himself up so much, it's distressing for both of us.  As soon as I pick him up and calm him for a few minutes, he settles down and eventually (within an hour or so) will fall asleep again.  I put him back in his covered crate, which is inside a puppy pen - so he can get out to drink and wee, and I return to bed, but he soon wakes and starts raising hell again.
I'm utterly exhausted.  Any tips?

[Patp]

Oh dear sleep deprivation at its worse!

Personally, I wouldnt feed his last meal as late as 10, bring it forward gradually until its 7pm at the latest.  This might be why he is getting you up 

I bought a small battery night light which was left on during the night with Jinley and if I did come down, the main lights were never turned on and I very rarely spoke to her other to say shush in a calm quiet voice.

Is there an option that the crate could come upstairs?  Be warned though it is only a small leap from that to them taking over your bed  but the bedroom / landing option has worked for many.

[Blueberry]

Thanks PatP.  I started giving him a 10 pm feed because he was waking me and I thought maybe he was hungry.  I put him back to 4 feeds daily, hoping the late one would settle him, but it seems it hasn't..  I'll go back to three feeds and make the last one earlier then.
I don't talk or play with him when I come down, it's more a matter of holding him until he stops shaking and crying, and I only use the small light.  To be honest, I'm so flipping tired at 2am, I can hardly speak at all!  I take him out to see if he wants to toilet, but he just assumes that's a cue to play, so we come straight back in.
My husband will not accept the dog upstairs at all, so I'm thinking of sleeping downstairs for a bit, to see if that helps.

[Holly Berry]

Oh dear. 

3 ideas:  ignore the behaviour you don't want and reward the one you do. When you first leave him, you can start this through the day, if he's quiet come back in, if he howls ignore him, but the second he stops, go in. Keep repeating, but you have to be consistent. At the moment he has you trained that if he makes a noise you will come to him. They are so quick at training you, you don't even know they're doing it.

               Let him sleep upstairs. Mine have their own beds and aren't allowed on our bed to sleep.      Initially and at our caravan they have soft crates, which I zip up until they learn to stay in their bed.

                Get another dog 

It will get better. He just wants to be with you. Do you leave a radio on for him? Or record yourself reading and put on a loop. He thinks that you've left him and he doesn't know yet that you're coming back, or as I said before he's got you trained already to be at his beck and call 

   

[Murphys Law]

We had the same with Murphy. The only thing that worked, I'm sorry to say, was to move his crate upstairs to our bedroom which had an instant effect. His crate was moved to the landing after a couple of months and then totally disregarded when Murphy was about one.

Millie is currently in a crate in our bedroom but hopefully not for long.

[Londongirl]

Every dog is different, but here's what worked for us:

By the time we'd had Henry about three weeks, we started working towards a routine where he'd be settled for the night by 8:30pm, so he'd get a good ten hours sleep before we all get up at 6:30am. He'd have his last meal at 7pm while he was still on four meals (which I think we did until he was about 12 weeks old). Play and cuddles and then put into his crate at about 8:30pm. He'd usually settle pretty quickly. His crate is in the kitchen so even as he was settling down for the night, he was used to us coming and going, so I think he found that reassuring. Gradually things in the kitchen would get quieter - I'd turn the lights off in the dining area where the crate was, but we'd still be in and out of the main kitchen until bedtime. We'd take him out for a wee at about 10:30, being quiet. As he was dry at night by then, he'd usually sleep through. The only exception was a few nights when he had an upset tum and needed to go out to poop VERY URGENTLY. For a few days after that he kept waking at the same time, around 2am, even though he didn't need anything. Once we were fairly sure his tummy was fine and he didn't really need anything, we'd wait for a few minutes before going down and more often than not he's go off to sleep again.

It's early days, and I do remember the sleep deprivation, there's a reason it's used as a form of torture!