Will my puppy ever sleep??

[waddlewhisky81]

Hi, we're 7 nights in now with an 9 week old Hungarian Vizsla and she will not sleep at night at ALL. As soon as we pop her in crate she cries and howls from 11 until we get up at 5. It does not stop.
Her crate is covered, has her toys in and bedding that she'll happily sleep on in day. We leave the radio on and tried a mixture of lights and no lights. We've tried putting her in asleep but as soon as she realises we've gone, within an hour, she's crying again. At our wits end here, any advice?
Thanks so much

Put her crate in your room?

If you don't want the crate in your bedroom, grab a campbed or some sofa cushions and sleep next to her crate for a couple of nights, quietly verbally reassuring her you are there if she cries. By 3rd night you should be able to sleep round the corner, then night after that back in your room with a baby monitor or similar.

Following as I'm currently going through similar with my pup although intermittent barking not constant. How are you coping with the noise and do you have neighbours?! I'd let mine bark if it weren't for the worry of him waking up the whole of our cul de sac 🤦🏻‍♀️

We are really trying to avoid the crate in bedroom. I'll try sleeping with her. It's got to be worth a go, we're running on empty here!

How about researching how to look after a new puppy.

www.purina.co.uk/dogs/key-life-stages/puppies/sleeping-arrangements

Either bring the crate into your room or sleep next to her. She’s a baby who needs comforting.

Luckily we have no neighbours. I'd be out if my mind if we did as it's constant all night. It's been much harder than I imagined and I was expecting it to be hard

Great idea Petsy, I certainly didn't think to do any research at all

We had puppy in with us the first three or four nights, then we tried her downstairs and she slept without a peep and has done since. She's six now. She's a tiny baby who isn't used to being alone and is in a new place. Sleep with her and gradually transition her to sleeping alone.

“Lock them in a crate and let them cry till they fall asleep” thinking which is both unintentionally cruel and also can lead to attachment issues and potentially to separation related problems - as one of the very first things the puppy learns is that these new people do leave you alone and it’s scary.

Settling a new puppy at night, tends to involve a bit of camping out near their crate. This is a basic part of modern thinking on dog ownership. I'm somewhat surprised you have never encountered it.

She needs to be near you at night. She's gone from part of a pack to sleeping totally alone in a strange environment.

There is a puppy support thread on here which is very helpful and I bet there will be a fb group for your breed which will have all sorts of advice.

Hope you get it sorted and she calms down soon.

Tbh I posted a very similar thread to this last week and the vast majority of replies said that taking the dog out of the crate when it's is completely the wrong thing to do. I was told to ignore ignore ignore even if it meant pissing off neighbours. Your case does sound quite severe so I think the gradual transition will probably help. Just do what works for you. My friend had this issue with her pup who is now 2. She couldn't handle it and dog now sleeps in their bedroom with them every night. Personally I wouldn't want that but it's what you're happy with.

Vizslas are known as velcro dogs and are a bit more likely than some other breeds to struggle being left.

If you don't want her in the room then setting up camp downstairs with her sounds like a sensible way to go. I found that spending 20mins or so gently settling Battendog down with my arm in his crate, making 'hush' type noises helped. I then kept up with the noises but slowly withdrew my arm and crept up into bed (he was in my room).

Each night he was quicker and quicker to settle. Once you've had a few settled nights then slowly moving yourself away from the dog and up to yur own bed - this might take a few nights to do in stages.

@Perpetuallyperplexed27 your case was a bit different in that your dog was settling but then waking up and making noise and you felt this was not because the dog was scared but because it wanted something more exciting than sleep to happen.

In this case it reads more like the dog is distressed.

When looking at the best approach to deal with a dog behaviour problem, a useful question is to ask - is the dog's emotion a negative one, such as fear?

If the answer is yes, you are more likely to succeed by changing the emotion rather than worrying about the specific behaviour.

If the answer is no, then you're free to focus on the behaviour and what the dog is hoping to gain by it.

If this puppy is scared (most likely) then the best approach is to help her feel less scared.

p.s. hope your pup is doing better now!

Thanks for all the helpful advice. We've decided to try crate in bedroom and see how we get on. She's so contended when we're here, she's in crate right now snoozing, it's just when we leave. Fingers crossed it works and then we'll cross the bridge of moving her back out once we come to it. Thanks again!

We had the same with our lab. We ended up taking it in turns to sleep downstairs next to him. He was in his crate but with the door open.
It took about three months, but one day we just knew he was ready to be on his own. He would prefer to be with us if he had a choice though.

We did exactly what your doing op. We had pup in a crate next to our bed. If he cried we would say shh and reassure him.
After 3 weeks we started to inch the crate out of our room. Just every few days moved it closer and closer to the door. He too is a 'Velcro' type dog and very attached to us. Fingers crossed you got some sleep last night!

Just wondering how you’re getting on? Did having the crate near help?

Morning! It did, thankfully! We had her in crate in our room for about 10 nights started off with still little sleep but cracked it to just a couple of get ups and she's now back in kitchen. She normally wakes about 4/5 for a toilet and then back to bed till 6ish.
Just got to work on everything else now

That’s fantastic! It’s such hard work isn’t it! We’re on day 6 with our 10 week old and chaos has descended, I don’t think my heart rates come down once since he’s been here! Thankfully he is sleeping (touchwood! Don’t want to jinx it!).

It certainly is! I was expecting it to be tough but it was even harder. Being able to sleep has helped. She's 13 weeks now and about to start puppy classes Saturday. We really need to get the nipping and jumping up sorted.
I swap between what have we done and I love her so much

Same here-it’s a rollercoaster of emotions. When he’s asleep I think how lovely he is but when he’s going bat shit crazy I get a feeling of impending doom in the pit of my stomach and wonder what the hell we were thinking! Feels very much like when I had DS, I had days where I’d have happily given him away just for some sleep and peace! Thankfully that feeling didn’t last long and he quickly became the best thing I’ve ever done. Hopefully pup will be the 2nd!

Good luck with the classes! Ours don’t start until January.