Sleep regression for 7mth old pup - HELP!

[Mner]

This is long, I am sorry. Up until a month ago, Dpup was absolutely briliant with the crate at night-time, when we popped out. He liked it and would put himself to bed at night. You could put him in and he would just curl up and go to sleep. He absolutely hates it now.

Possibly a few things have contributed - the first night he stressy about it was when there had been a mouse in the house, and he was maybe a bit too wired; he has chewed up his favourite tunnel bed (which we have had to bin...); on the odd occasion he has settled if anyone has got up in the night, then that has been it, he wouldn't go back to sleep after that; there were two nights that he escaped (as DS had opened the side door and we hadn't realised), and he was curled up on the sofa the next day...

But he is now incredibly stressed going in and won't settle at night or if we nip out.

We have tried short bursts in there, giving him treats and chews in there (he ignores them), favourite toys, giving him an old slipper (he has mouthed all over it but no improvement), having the radio on all night, made him a new tunnel bed (he chewed it all up)...

Nipping out, because he has been so stressy, I have occasionally left him out and about downstairs and he just curls up and goes to sleep on the couch. But he needs to be contained. We have a cat, and I want to make sure everyone is safe when we're out/ at night as Dpup does chase Dcat occasionally. Also, our downstairs (in the room where his crate, normal bed and the couch are) isn't quite finished and there are a couple of cables and pipes hanging out of the wall. If he is free to roam, I don't want him chewing a cable whilst we are out/asleep.

Last night, we put a stair gate up in the kitchen, put his bed (not the crate) in there with toys, a chew treat, the radio, an old slipper. His bed can't go in there normally because space is just so tight so it was a new spot but we thought if he was in there, he was contained (away from the wires, pipes) but could be out of the crate safely and the cat would be able to get out and away. He cried all night, and started chewing the stairgate, which meant we just had to put him back in the crate.

Any ideas on what we can do next either to get him back in the crate or to get him settled in the kitchen? Please help!

Make the cables safe and let him sleep on the couch as that's where he wants to be , shut him in that room so that the cat is safe . Btw , I'd stop giving things like old slippers to chew as they can't tell it's an old unused slipper so it just encourages them to think they can chew all shoes , dogs should only be encouraged to chew dog chews / toys. Bin the crate your dog has made his choice !

Thanks so much for answering.

The room with the couch, cables and crate is an open plan room, where our kitchen is going to go. The cables and pipes are in place for the new kitchen. We can't bury them until the new kitchen goes in and covers them up, which is approx 6-8 weeks away.

If we shut the cat out of the open plan room with the couch, the cat is then effectively shut in the kitchen (or shut upstairs) and we will have the same problem but with the cat - he will just scratch the door and moan until someone opens the door for him. If we shut the cat in somewhere at night, he wouldn't use a litter tray. He is an old cat, very set in his ways.

We hadn't ever given the dog anything of ours to help him settle before because of that very reason. MIL suggested it the other day as it helps her dog to settle and it was offered in desperation.

Have you another room where you could put a sofa for him where you could shut him in or separate him into an area with a stairgate / barrier , worse scenario is buy enough gating material to pen him an area around the sofa where it is and see if he will just settle with that . We never had a crate , started with a large pen and then just moved to fencing him into areas until he went free range .

We have 3 rooms downstairs:

• the open plan area (lounge, kitchen to be, cables, pipes, right in the middle of the house, blocking this off would cause problems for the cat).

• the old kitchen, which is where we tried to partition him off last night which is incredibly tight on space, no room for the dog bed/crate to go into day-to-day but we can fit a dog bed in there at night when no one else is using it, definitely no room for a couch/armchair.

• my office - he's not allowed in here on his own as there are too many cables from the computer.

There's obviously upstairs but we were trying to keep it a dog free zone for the cat.

We could get a metal stairgate to go block the kitchen off and keep him in there without him causing damage to it but that won't solve the complete lack of settling down in there

Maybe that could work re buying a pen to fence in the sofa... but is there anything we are missing on how to settle him either in the crate or in the old kitchen as I think this would be better long term...?

Just in case anyone stumbles on the thread looking for help...

We spoke to our vet who recommended a behaviouralist. They have been absolutely fantastic. We have blocked off the pipes/wires with furniture for now and are letting the dog just sleep in the main room for the moment but we have moved the crate so it is in the main part of the room, bought extra blankets from the charity shop and put towels around it to make it more of a den.

Then we have been doing lots of crate training - mainly poking treats through the bars until he goes in and gets it. We came down this morning, and he was asleep in there. The doors were open. We will have to build back up to that but really pleased to have come so far from where we were.