I have not slept for more than 3 or 4 hours each night all week. Our puppy is now barking again all night. We had him for about 2 1/2 weeks before we went on vacation. We couldn’t take him because our location didn’t let you bring pets and we had planned it months before getting our puppy. We left him with my mother in law who also has a dachshund and she said he was fine and slept all night, just like he did before we left. Well now, since we got back last weekend, he has only slept through the night once.
We put him in his crate at his normal time (10:00 - 11:00pm) and he barks a little but then stops. He then wakes us up at about 3:00am and is barking. I take him out because he usually poops and pees but then he barks the rest of the morning after I put him back in his crate. Also, we make sure to feed him right when we get home (about 5:30) and we remove his water around 8:30pm so that he shouldn’t have to go potty at night, but he does.
What can we do? We are considering using a pen with a crate inside so that he can go out and move around instead of being trapped in his crate. Also, we do have a bed for him that he seems to like but I just don’t trust him to sleep in his bed without being confined since he is only 4 1/2 months old and would probably just poop or pee on the floor if he had to go in the middle of the night.
We had some luck with our lab by using a wind-up clock that produces an audible click sound. You wind it up and place it on top of the crate, and it is supposed to simulate the mothers heartbeat (combine that with a sheet or towel draped over the crate and you have created a place that the dog feels safe). That may have been the reason it didn’t bark at your parents…it had a companion.
Well he is like 4.5 months old now, do you think that sense of being in the womb would actually be comforting still or is he too old? Also, whenever he stayed at my mother in law’s he didn’t stay with the other dog at night or during the day. He would be in his crate while my MIL was at work and my mom would go over and let him out during the day, but the other dog just roams the house because he is older and won’t make messes or destroy things. At night, Cooper (our puppy) was just down in the laundry room in his crate by himself.
At our house, we keep him in the dining room which is one floor below our bedroom, but his barking still keeps us up. I think he has some separation anxiety and just wants to be with us all the time. We know that if we just put him in our bed, he would stop, but then he will just be even more attached to us which would be a bad thing.
I didn’t realize he was almost 5 months…so the clock trick would be ineffective. What if you put the crate in your room? You’d only have to do that for a little while, until he gets over it…by that time crating at night won’t be necessary.
We haven’t tried that yet, but I guess we could. We have done everything that we could to make his crate a “happy place”. We keep his toys in it, we feed him in it, and we give him a treat everytime we put him in so that he assoicates the crate with a good place, not a punishment or a place to go when we are not home.
The thing is, his separation anxiety is so bad that he is barking because he knows that we are home but not with him, so he barks for attention. I keep hoping that he will just adjust and grow out of it, but it has been a week since we got back from vacation and I have been awake every night.
We crate our dog at night. Your dog will get over it and will eventually prefer to be in the crate at night. Dogs thrive on routine.
As a rule, a 4 month old puppy needs to go outside and do its business every 4 hours. A 5 month old can hold it for 5 hours. And so on… You won’t be able to sleep all night until the puppy is 7 or 8 months old. There’s really no getting around that.
Thats good to know. My wife and I both work, but we are lucky that my mom can come over 2 times a day and let him out and play with him. At this point, I don’t mind getting up to let him out, it is the barking afterwards for 3 hours that drives me nuts. I am hesitant to go let him out when he barks because I don’t want to reward his barking with being let out of the crate. I don’t want him to think that if he barks, he will get to come out and play. It is just exteremely frustrating that before our week away from him, he was sleeping through the night, but now he wakes up at 3 and barks all night even after I let him go outside.
When Foster was a pup, we would set an alarm for 3 am. Let him out. And set another alarm for 7 am. It sucked but was worth it to have the dog and was better than cleaning up messes in the morning.
Maybe if you set an alarm and get up before the pup starts barking, he won’t associate barking with being let out. :dunno:
We take him to South Park and probably walk him for at least 1.5 to 2 miles which is a lot for a small dog, but he still barks all night.
Yeah, we watch that too sometimes. Our dog is not as bad as those dogs though. He is a perfect angel when we are playing with him, he is fun and rambunctious, he is just a terror when it comes to yipping and barking in the middle of the night.
That may not be a bad idea. I’d rather wake up to an alarm than a bark.
Do you go to the off-leash area at all? I take my dog there pretty often…great place to let the dogs wear themselves out. I swear, 1 or two hours there means she’ll sleep for the rest of the day and night.
We haven’t taken him there. He is only like 6 or 7 lbs and my wife is worried about him getting trampled by the huge dogs in there. I swear, we park over near the pond and walk up through the woods and end up over by the horse stables and then walk all the way back down corrigan past the dog run and back around to the pond and he still has energy later in the night to play at home and then bark all night. I think my dog is on crack.
White Oak off-leash > South Park off-leash… by far.
Have you tried tasers?
Just kidding. Yeah, I’m not sure you’ll have any luck at 5 months. They gotta go, they gotta go. They just can’t physicaly hold it that long yet, but he’ll be able to when he is older.
Grin and bare it. It’ll pass.
I agree with the crate at night, OUr Pit is 1 and a half and he still sleeps in his crate at night. We tell him “Night Night” and he runs for the crate and gets in if the door is open. After we close the door we give him a treat and he lays down and goes to sleep. We use the phrase “Night Night” every time he has to go in. He is at the point now if he hears the glass lid clang down on the cookie jar he jumps up and runs for the crate.
Crate training has saved us hours of sleep, money from damage, and piece of mind while we are gone.
My mom just got a mastif puppy. hes a terror!!! has eatin just about anything he can get his mouth on. But he is learning to be crate trained now as well. he barks when you put him in and he knows your leaving, but will eventually stop.
he doesnt sleep in it though. mom has a bed for him at the end of their bed. he barks when he wants the fan on and barks when he wants out…but thats about it.
i think for your dog take the advise given about putting a sheet over the crate. he a lil too old for the timer, but sometimes the sheet will stop the dog from seeing things in the dark and not put his attention on the lil things that go bump at night. its a comfort thing.
also, if you let him out at 3 and then your back up for work for a few hours later, maybe try keeping him out of his cage and put him in his bed in your room. hes already done his business…so a few hours out of his cage shouldnt hurt if you let him out again when you get up.
also, guffy was right, i dont think your letting him out long enough to tire himself out. hes still full of energy and needs to use it. try leaving him out to go to the bathroom longer than normal…let him run and jump til hes ready to come in.
i would try putting the crate in the room you sleep in, sometimes just seeing you calms the dog down. My best friend had the same problem with her lab, she put the crate in the room so the puppy could see her and the puppy was fine. Its worth a try!
