Puppy now waking up even earlier!

[rollerbaby]

Our puppy has been sleeping through the night from 10 weeks - between 11pm and about 6.15 to 6.30am. For the last few weeks he has been holding it really well and waking us up at 6.30 to do a poo outside (he might have done a wee or two before that but not woken us). This lasted about a week, but the last two days suddenly this has now become 5am and he barks to be let out. Yesterday we caught it in time at 5am, but today he had done it before we came down at 5.15. he's not content to settle himself back down and just keeps barking until whenever we give up.

We're both totally knackered and seriously thinking about bringing him up to the bedroom where we know he will settle down.

Should we get up when he barks at 5am or let it go an bit later?

We haven't been crating him overnight - we leave the door open in the pen with pads down. But frankly we might as well since he wakes us up anyway!

Any advice? We are going to put him in our room tonight otherwise, which we really don;t want to do and he will have won! ;)

It's all gone tits up!!!

After a week of improvement we are basically going backwards and he is waking more and more in the night. We think this is because we are letting him come up into our bed when he gets up first thing in the morning, so now he thinks oh good if I wake up now they'll take me upstairs!

to cut a long story short, we are both knackered and thinking we should abandon the fight to keep him downstairs! We don;t mind having him up there and hopefully he will be accepting of the new baby in nov (he will be 12 months then). As a cocker spaniel who is v loving and friendly I think it will be ok...

Of course it is because you take him upstairs to your warm bed! lol

He has trained you well

Good luck with your new baby in Nov

Wah I know! I swore we wouldn't be one of those really daft dog owners! Anyway, don't worry we had a summit meeting last night and decided to toughen up a bit, stop the bed cuddling and see it out no matter what.

Bedtime midnight, howling 1.30 - 3.30am, silence til 7am and we woke him up. Am praying tonight is better! All my fault I know, not his...

wish us luck!

PMSL @ 'good luck with your new baby'

personally i would have taken a competely dfferent approach and moved her next to the bed, and if she made a sqeak during the night, stuck my fingers into the crate to silently reassure her....she would so learn to settle.

gosh this brings back memories! went through all this 13 years ago - and am now going through it all again as our boy reaches old age and is having accidents throughout the night! Doggie diapers help =)

daisy why PMSL laughing at new baby?

Thought you were suggesting that honeymoo might get trained by the new baby too

Must have read it wrong

So last night he woke up barking at 3.30am and on and off until 5ish, then we got up for him at 6.10am... Shattered.

I wish I could do doggy diapers! Unfortunately, that isn't the problem - he wants us!

I agree Clutha, I would prefer to bring crate up but he is so clingy that I think it would only make things worse for him in the long run.

We will persevere for the next week and see how things are going (how sleep deprived we are!).

Bought new ear plugs yesterday and ironically OH slept like a baby!

Daisy - our baby is due November whihc is what minimu meant.

Hi honeymoo - i've popped over from the November thread

You just need to keep your resolve and he will stop eventually. Our Cocker is very demanding of attention too, but it does get better as they get older. I imagine your suspicion of him wanting to come up to the bed with you is right - if you would prefer to keep him out of the bedroom then don't let him in again ;)

We still crate our cocker overnight as it's handy when we stay at other peoples houses, and he is quite happy to dash in there at the end of the night expecting his treat

Good luck

this is all very interesting reading as we are getting our baby cocker girl in just over a week's time!

I am really hoping that she will be fine at night! She already sleeps all night in her cage and is toilet trained for night time- she is taken to some newspaper at 7am when she wakes up and does the toilet straightaway. She is also going on the paper during the day now too. She is only 6weeks old so I think that is quite good. Is it likely to all change when we get her?

Thanks Apple, much appreciated! I know you are right and we just need to have patience as he is teaching us what he'd like at the moment and not the other way around! Can I ask if you are at home all day or does he get left for short periods whilst you are at work? My OH is going to be working away from home 2 days a week soon so we will have to extend the 2 hours that he is currently happy to be crated for at a time I think. Another challenge!

Hi Monster! Get yourselves some puppy pads (much easier than paper and less mess) you will need probably about 2 bags of 50. We stopped using them as soon as we started crating at night - they are too little to be locked in until their bladders are bigger to hold most of the night and the pads become confusing (at least that's what I was told) so at first he would sleep in his crate and pop out onto the pad happily in the middle of the night and then wake us up between 6 and 7 normally. The first 2 weeks are hard though as they miss their litter mates and if you want them to be downstairs (which we did) you have to be v tough and not go down when they cry. It took 2 weeks for him to stop crying at night and bloody hell it was a long two weeks. What I do know is that earplugs and pillows over head DO work! Which is why I am so cross with myself for being weak and bringing him up to bed in the early morning as we have effectively gone backwards from a dog that would sleep through until 6ish to a dog that wakes in the night and won't stop barking!

I have to say though he was so precious and tiny when we brought him home at 8 weeks that I didn't mind any of it - he loved his cuddles and really has been the most loving, affectionate dog ever. No problems with socialisation whatsoever he LOVES all dogs/people. We introduced him to loads of people/places everyday and we've never had an issue.

It's just the bloody night time barking. If that would stop, life would be perfect!!

hello monster and honeymoo

ditch the paper AND the pads .

they only serve to unnessarily delay and elongate toilet training

as it means you need to train your dog twice, first to go on paper/pads, then to go outside.

when you are better off training outisde straight away

in my career as a dog trainer, ive dealt with many a person whose dog developed 'half toilet training' as they got older, in the sense that the dog is mainly clean, but under certain circumstances or at certain times, will still revert to going in the same spot by the back door, as they had been taught to do so when pups.

so its a default emergency measure {emergency by their defintion, not yours)

so by using paper/pads, you do risk making a rod for your own back.

We ditched them a while back Clutha, as agree it was getting confusing for pup as he went out 90% of time... But when he was v little it was helpful for us anyway as he often couldn't even hold it for the amount of time it took him to realise he needed to go. He was also pad trained when we got him which was good. I found them good also in the middle of the night so we didn't have to get up 3-4 times (he didn't bark to let us know at that point).

SOOOO... no waking last night until 5.45am!!!

YIPPPPEEEEE! Am very happy with the little furry animal today. Now all we need to do is up that to 7am and all will be right with the world.

hey- we picked our pup up on wednesday and she is adoreable! She is not quite 8 weeks yet and she is already toilet trained- she does all her poos outside and most of her wees. She is also sleeping all night in her cage without going to the toilet and no crying!! We are very impressed. She is happy, settled and loves to be near us but is happy to sleep all night in her cage cuddled up in a fleece blanket and a furry toy.

Just need to keep tabs on all the puppy biting- any tips on best ways to deal with it? So far we are mainly distracting with her own toys and withdrawing attention. Saying, 'No' etc seems to have no effect at the moment.