Have you got your puppy to successfully sleep in?

[rollerbaby]

We are trying to train our puppy to sleep after dawn (4am) and wondering if anyone has had any success in doing this. How long did it take you?

We're ignoring our 6 month old pup who is very persistent...

Where does your puppy sleep?I know how draining it is when they wake and will not stop barking/howling/whining.
We crated our puppy at night from day one with us,at bedtime I covered the cage with a large blanket and if he started barking before about 7,I would let him out,take him out for a wee,I wouldnt let him mess about or play,I would then put him back in his cage,covered it back over and left him,took about 3 nights for him to realise that he was staying there all night,I know I was lucky with him.Good luck,what sort of pup is he?

Our pup used to wake up very early and not want to go back to sleep when he was very small, so we would sleep on the sofa with him. But the very early rising didn't last more than a couple of weeks really. He did wake in the night for quite a while, but like bubbles, we took him out for a pee and settled him back down again.

Is there something that is waking your pup up in the morning? Noise outside or the light?

Minimu has been really helpful if getting us to retrain our 6 month old pup to sleep in the kitchen in his crate. It's taken about 3 weeks of no sleep but the 4am wake up calls are persisting... I have cleaned his crate out 3 times this week on waking! Nice.

I know we just need to keep ignoring him so he "gets" it, I just wondered if anyone else had specific experience with this later on and how long it took to break?

Ironically at the beginning he was sleeping until 630 or 7 when we first got him and crate trained him (and before we made the huge mistake of taking up stairs) but I suppose it was winter time then so the light and birds weren't there....

You can imagine how much he is loving the nearly daily baths we are giving him!!!

I think the light mornings are the problem with puppies and thats why I used to cover the cage with a balanket.

I ignore the puppy at any time before 6.30, she seems to get that, would like to extend that to 7 but that is probably wishful thinking.

Sorry to gloat 9 week old puppy this morning slept until 8.00am. It is much easier to prevent this from happening than cure it once it has started.

6 months there is really no need for them to need the loo between 11.00 and 6.00 at all. It is just habit and they have got used to waking at that time.

Crate them from an early age and make sure the crate is in a quiet area idea if possible at least two sides back onto a wall, cover the crate with a blanket, shut the door from day one and then you go to bed. I don't get up in the night to them at all. In the morning come into the room ignore the puppy in the crate do a few things in the room and then let them out with no fuss at all. 5 mins later I will have the cuddle and fuss them.

If they have started waking early it is hard work to make them sleep longer but can be done.

If they religiously wake up at 6.00 set your alarm ten minutes earlier and let them out as suggested above. The idea being that it is your responsibility to say when they come out not theirs. Gradually over time you should be able to push the time later and later. But it needs to be you deciding when to let them out.

Also look at your feeding and weeing schedule. Are they waking hungry could you give them their last meal later (depending on the dog if that won't make them need to poo earlier!). If they are waking to poo maybe move the last feed earlier in the evening or give them a last short walk before they go in the crate.

Oh my god that is not fair!!!!!

do you think the waking them up before they wake approach (i.e. for us 3.50am) is better than ignoring?(which is what we have been doing for about a week now) I'm not sure what we would do between 4am and normal getting up time apart from going back to bed - we could leave him on the floor (which he wouldn't mind I know) but is that good?

He eats at 7pm, so we will try a bit earlier I think... as he won't poo before bedtime every night.

Mr Moo is close to breaking (as he is the one getting up!) and bringing him up... I need to fix this!

We give our pup a short walk most nights between 10 and 11pm (we started doing this to get him to settle at bedtime), and he always poos (sometimes several times). He's pretty good at sleeping at night really, although he does generally tell us how much he'd like to sleep anywhere but in his room!

honeymoo it is deffo to do with you and what you are doing and not the dog needing to be let out.

Our puppy has just spent the w/e at my mother's where she slept in until 8am (its normally 6.30am here) with NO barking, whereas we get a wake up call from madam at home.

grr

my fault.

Am going to be super firm tomorrow.