16wks - surely I should be allowed to sleep now?

[OldEnglishSheepDog]

I'm honestly at the end. Pup has slept through ONCE since we got him. When he wakes for a wee it can take an hour to resettle him. Much of the time I find myself sleeping on the sofa with him on my lap.

I'm currently stood in the living room afraid to move as he will start whining the moment I do. I am on the fb page everyone recommends and am following advice.

Can't fit crate upstairs so to be with him means being downstairs. Stopped bedding down on the sofa a couple of weeks ago as it felt like I was creating an expectation.

I have woken up in my own bed once since I got him. He is taken out around 10pm and settles reasonably quickly, it's when he wakes that us the problem.

Right now, despite all the planning, I am wishing we'd never got him. I am clearly incapable of looking after him and he can't be happy to be whining this much. It's not his fault but I don't know how to fix it.

Yeah. How you feeling today OP?

Morning All! Well that was a revelation! After the last update there was a couple of yaps around 4.30am (standard!) so I went down and let him out (no chatter or play as per usual). He went out but didn't actually need to pee - I think he might have just been checking what would happen. So we went back in (I had completely forgotten about the lead) and he trotted straight back to his crate. He obviously came out again at some point as the alarm went off at 6am and he was sat happily on the chair next to the stairs.

Everyone was up at the same time so DS and I were able to take him for a super early walk which was lovely.

It looks like it is simply the fact of being closed in that upsets him so we will continue like this. I can cope with being woken in the night, it's the persistent yapping afterwards that saps my soul but it looks like we may be on the way to cracking it!

I'm off on some training on Friday night so DH which be in charge - I'm hoping to get this routine completely embedded before then.

Thanks all - I think we are starting to move forward!

That's such good news

Getting there. Such a massive change from when you first posted. Well done you and doggy!!!!

I am braced for tonight. He has been whining when I've gone upstairs today so I wonder if I'll have him rattling the stair gate. Still, I had a whole six hours of sleep last night so I'm feeling pretty chipper.

Good luck OESD. Remember it's a marathon not a sprint and all the time you are building up a new night time routine for you and him.

It is a massive improvement on before. Good luck with tonight.

I have JUST been woken by a single bark. Went downstairs to let him out and he was sat happily on the sofa! Cheeky sod. I'm back in bed now, waiting for the 6am alarm. I think maybe we've cracked it?

Whispers back

And everything seems better when you aren't sleep deprived.

Amen to that!

Yay!!

Fantastic OP. So you now know he CAN do it! Have confidence.
If I can be so bold as to suggest you resist now responding to the one-off yap. See if you can lengthen it a little moving forward?
My 9 week old is going from 10pm to 6am not a peep. Her last feed is at 8pm, poos at 10pm. So from a physical point of view, I'm sure your boy is up to this.

Great work!!! Am very glad for you all

@Tinkobell - yes I will but I'm going to give it a couple of days I think. One step at a time.

How have the last couple of nights been?

Thanks for asking! last two nights have been two wake ups, both of which have been a quick wee and then straight back to the crate. We'd like to get down to sleeping all the way through but frankly this is a huge improvement so I'll take what I can get at the moment!

On a related note, I was on a course yesterday and came back to a puppy who smelled of vomit because our DS had thrown up on him. Poor DH had a rather traumatic first experience of being in sole charge!

That's a massive improvement. (Apart from the vomit!) Here's hoping for full nights sleep really soon.

That's so good OESD. The sleeping all the way through may come naturally as he grows up. Tbh mine sometimes needs the toilet before morning time as he has never have a bladder/stomach of steel but he does have a health condition which flares up now and again so I don't push it.

If it doesn't happen naturally for your puppy you can always start training him to not get up unless an alarm goes off.

Wow. Such progress compared to when you opened this thread. Onwards and upwards! You know he can do it now, so have faith! Well done!

Quick update: we have found the down side of leaving the crate open as he has decided that his bed is the sofa. We are in two minds about this as we're not going to have a fight for the sake of it but also we want to be in control when he goes up (to avoid muddy paw prints, etc). We'll have to think about that one. Also, what a bloody waste of a crate!

Last night went through until 5.30am. I remembered someone saying don't come immediately when he barks so I didn't (frankly, I was knackered so was going back to sleep whatever!) The floor was awash with piss and poo when I came down so lesson learned. He only barked a couple of times, presumably to alert me to what was about to happen, so he wasn't distressed or anything. There was however a small puddle of milky looking sick on the floor which I haven't seen before. Not sure what that was about - he seems fine this morning.

I always went to mine at night/morning to avoid accidents. The thing is if your puppy went through the night without accidents it is easy to wait a bit before going to them. When your puppy has less bladder and bowel control you really can't avoid that unless you want to be cleaning up in the morning.

To reduce muddy paws I use a throw on my sofas as he is allowed up on them. The throws are actually really cheap duvet covers as they can wash and dry easily

Great progress, such a change from the start of your thread. Maybe try him again in the crate at night, now that he's got the hang of self settling?

Sorry OP, I hold my hands up for being the one to suggest not dashing down when he first barked. What times his last meal at night?

That's ok Tinkobell, I wanted an excuse to stay in bed really!

His last meal is about 5pm although there are training treats in his walk later on.

I'll stick with going to him when he calls.

We have a no sofa policy for the dog who doesn’t really agree! So under the sofa lives a couple of plastic mushroom boxes, they are light and they go on the sofa when our back is turned. Works like a charm, dogless sofa!