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.

There is no reason why you can’t keep him off the sofa during the day and just put a throw over it overnight so he can sleep on it if that’s where he is happy sleeping .

Have you thought about a handful of dry kibble around 8-9pm to fill his tum? I'm just thinking last meal 5pm til morning is a long time for a growing pup. We are 11 weeks old and doing x 4 meals
7am, 11-12, 3-4, 7-8 and small handful of kibble around 9....but not always if she's scoffed a lot at 7-8 feed.
Might that help settle him a little more?

Also....I don't want to keep harping on, but a smelly slip on shoe of mine added to her pen was the magical turning point from crying to silent nights.

Yes Tinkobell, I have been doing that on and off but to be honest it doesn't seem to make a huge difference. I will think about covering the sofa, or indeed making it uninhabitable during the night - good thought.

On the food front, quite often he'll go straight back to sleep after an initial run around so I'll have a think about it but I think it's more likely to be the wee thing.

My parents used to try putting upside down chairs on the sofa at night to discourage their dog from sleeping on it. Strangely enough next morning the chairs were on the floor with the dog looking very pleased with himself

How was the boy last night Old English?

Morning - bedtime was reasonably straight forward. He went into his crate, we went up to bed. After a couple of minutes there was some mewing so I went down. He just looked a bit sad and forlorn so I gave him a quick cuddle and put a pair of stinky socks in the crate with him (tied to the side so he wouldn't swallow them!) and he went down until 5.30am. Annoyingly, when he barked I went straight down to avoid an incident like the previous one. I took him out side and he immediately ran back inside and reclaimed his place on the sofa.

Overall a success I think! I am slowly starting to feel more human. Still not getting seven hours a night but what I am getting is basically unbroken so I'm a little less Travis Bickle.

That really is progress and not easy under the circumstances of DH. Is he still tenting in the garden or back in the house?! Very best of luck & stick with it. Xxxx

DH never actually made it to the garden. After The Conversation (during which I may have completely lost the plot and told him I hated him) we went to separate rooms for a bit to ensure that he at least wasn't getting disturbed by me getting up. I have returned to the marital bed.

Just had a fabulous walk with pup. I've been a bit braver about off-lead in recent weeks - I put him straight back on if we come across someone else but since we have lots of pretty empty fields nearby there is lots of opportunity. His recall isn't perfect but it's definitely getting better and, pleasingly, he's jumping up a lot less.

He's now having a bit of a sulk because I turfed him off the sofa for biting (that phase is over soon, right?) but no doubt he'll return to his rightful place shortly.

We had a 1.30 and 5.30 get up - both with wees and straight back to bed.

That's good OESD. He's still young and his bladder control is developing but clearly he is now understanding that at night it's a quick wee then sleep

Just a quick update. Pup has been sleeping through to 5.30am most nights. I'm getting up to take him out for a wee then and then returning to bed for half an hour which appears to be acceptable. He seems to be starting the night in his crate and then moving onto the sofa in the early hours but I don't have a problem with that really.

Unfortunately he has done himself a mischief of some sort which we are going to the vet about today. I ended up sleeping on the sofa with him again last night because I think he was in pain. I'm hoping I haven't undone all the good work but he did seem like he needed me.

Sounds like things are going well. Except for him hurting himself of course.
Hope everything goes ok at the vet.

OESD - I won't offer any advice regarding your puppy's sleep training as I can see you've had loads of advice and things are improving. I wanted to comment regarding the situation with your DH.

We got our puppy during the Summer holiday 2 years ago. The puppy was nominally for teenage DS and he and I devoted the 6 weeks to all the early puppy things. However DH who had initially wanted the puppy, really struggled with the changes to our household. We had puppy sleeping in open crate in the kitchen and DH was really fed up because he works shifts and likes to spend quiet time when returning in the evening but obviously disturbed the pup when he went to prepare his supper. He was even less impressed when I banned him from going into kitchen in the morning before his early shift and we ended up moving dog up to DS's room to sleep.

DH also struggled with us not being able to go out without thinking of pup, the biting, the barking, you name it, he was in a bad mood for weeks.

Two years later they are best friends!! so hopefully your DH will start to feel the same way soon.

How did the vet go?

@Caramelapplecake thank you, that IS really reassuring. Frankly the last few days I have begun to question the whole decision too so it's nice to hear that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Vet was not great. Definitely something wrong but no certainty as to what it is. His hips hurt which could be something awful like hip displacement or simply the result of a growth spurt. He has painkillers and permission to go for walks again and we're back in ten days to see how he is then.

Going to return upstairs tonight as he seems much calmer than last night.

Ok. We had awful limping a couple of weeks ago. Think almost non weight bearing. Rest and back to normal now. The buggers do like to worry us. And deprive us of sleep and spend all our money. DH heard mum and I discussing doggy stresses and actually asked WTF isn't this supposed to be fun and relieve stress? Nobody told Wolfiepup.

Sorry to hear he hasn't been well. Could he have just injured himself running about? Mine used to come skidding into the kitchen straight into the very hard solid wood table legs resulting in a few limping episodes.

Hope whatever it is clears up.

I have heard that larger breeds can actually have growing pains too!

Back in bed last night - it was the DS who was the problem instead! (Why did I think a child and a pet was a good idea? WHY???)

You'll get there - I promise you.

Our girl was a devil puppy, I honestly thought I was going to have to re-home her at one point. She never slept, she was a bitey, disobedient, chewy, hyper active brute.

She got to 9 months and it was like a switch flicked. She is now the most chilled out, loyal, obedient, loving little thing. DH idolises her, and he also didn't want a dog.

@positivepineapple Oh God I hope you're right! It's the nipping that's getting me down now. Lots of play nipping but also, because he's in pain, a little actual biting is coming out. He's not actually broken the skin yet but it's close. I'm flitting between feeling sad and worried that he's in pain and really not wanting to be myself!