Just putting pup to bed and ignoring him??

[MissMarplesParcel]

Is this ok? For context. Puppy is nearly 4 months old. We worked him gradually from beside our bed when he arrived at 2months in his crate to under the stairs in the hall. He was sleeping there happily from 11-4 then out to toilet (we put a baby monitor down there so we could hear when he woke up to pop him out). He then goes back to crate until 6 at which stage we put him out again then pop him on the end of our bed for a snooze ( I think this is where we went wrong!!). All good for the past two weeks. Putting himself in his crate and everything at 11.

Then this week - won’t settle at 11 so sit with him till 11.30 then awake and whining/barking at 1am, 3am, 4am, 6am. He will settle down if he gets in the bed.

We are thinking now we just need to put him to bed and ignore him. Get up at 4 to let him out to toilet then back in and ignore again.

Not sure what else to do?? We’ve tried upping his exercise to tire him out but hasn’t worked.

[Windyatthebeach]

Our dpuppy is crated 11 - 6, out for a wee then carried by dh (20kg already) up to our room where she crashes til 10 without a peep!! Your dpuppy needs you op!!
Don't ignore your calling!!
Ddog slave isn't so bad!!

[Windyatthebeach]

*forgot to say she is 6 months. Used to set alarm for during the night when she was younger....

[Floralnomad]

If you want to use the crate then I’d take it back upstairs and try that . You cannot leave him crying .

[MissMarplesParcel]

Hi @windyatthebeach would you go down each time if she was waking between 11-6? We are now having to get up between 3-5 times between 11-6 and know she doesn’t need to go that much. A lot of the time she just sits down outside and looks at us.

[Windyatthebeach]

You can Google how long week by week a dpuppy can hold in needing the loo!! We used that as a guide to the let her out times!

[MissMarplesParcel]

Yes it’s their age plus one so he should be able to hold it for 5 hours (and was doing so until the past 4 days). He was sleeping 11-4 then again 4-6/6.30

[MissMarplesParcel]

But he is whining 1am, 3am, 5am etc now.

[vanillandhoney]

If you've tried upping his exercise he could be overstimulated so you could be accidentally making it worse - puppies of that age only really need 15-20 minutes a couple of times a day.

If he's crying out for you in the night he's obviously not happy - maybe sleep with him until he adjusts or have his crate nearer to you.

[MissMarplesParcel]

@vanillandhoney would that not make it worse if we don’t want him sleeping near us in the long term? (Our room is very small and not really space for a crate, same our bed is only a double so not along of space for a medium sized dog and us once he’s fully grown). My DH slept down with him last night and it didn’t make any difference - he only settled once he got out of the crate and right beside him.its odd as he was happy there the week before now it’s like he needs to be with us again all of a sudden.

[Labracadabra]

Well he's doing a great job of training you, that's for sure. If you know he doesn't need the loo (which he doesn't, if he's been out recently) and has water to drink in his crate then you have to ignore the crying. He's clearly not unwell and not in pain as he'll settle on the bed. You HAVE to deal with this as you are setting yourself up for big separation anxiety issues if not.
When you do go in to get him (because it's time to go out for a wee, or to get up for the day) ONLY go in at a point when he is quiet. If he's crying/squeaking wait for him to stop, then go in.

[MissMarplesParcel]

Thanks @labracadabra I am worrying that this is starting due to him being with us all the time currently as we are both working from home in the same room. We have been working on increasing the amount of time he is away from us both but I’ve read it needs to be worked up in very small increments so it’s taking time and he’s still with us 90% of his day. He won’t be on his own when we go back to work as we’re sending him to daycare but he will be if we need to go to the shops or to visit a friend for a few hours so we want him to be able to cope with that and with sleeping on his own downstairs as we just don’t have the space in our room for him long term.

[Windyatthebeach]

Our dpuppy hasn't had a minute without us since we got her!! She happily goes into her crate at 11pm. Don't hear a peep. She is on 2 x less than half hour walks.
She isn't a needy breed - maybe yours is?!

[Floralnomad]

If he’s ok out of the crate can you not fence off a dog proof section of room to leave him in with some blankets or a bed , perhaps he doesn’t like being enclosed .

[frostedviolets]

Blimey.

I would ignore.
She should be able to hold it all night at 5 months

[twilightcanine]

Two things occur to me...

At twelve weeks old he is just about the right age to start to understand that he can change things in his environment by changing his behaviour. Or have some form of control over what happens based on what he does. So this could just be him experimenting with that.

Also he is at the right age for a second fear phase. So could genuinely be scared.

If it's the former then ignore. If it's the latter then reassure. The trick is to work out which

[vanillandhoney]

@MissMarplesParcel lots of dogs don't do well apart from their owners - mine is one of them sadly! We let him in the bed, haha.

I would maybe go back a few steps. If he was happy downstairs a week or so ago, maybe go back to whatever you were doing then and stick with it for a while longer. They often go through a secondary fear phase at this age so it could quite possibly be that - they just need a bit more reassurance for a while :)