Puppy . . . tell me it gets better

[Parkmama]

Labrador pup is 13 weeks, crated and we're up MULTIPLE times a night with her. She does a good stretch 9pm - 3am which feels fairly reliable and then she's barking for us to take her out which we do and she usually does a wee and poo. We then put her back into her crate as it's 3:15am and she just barks and whines until eventually we the neighbours can't take anymore and we get up with her. She soon finds a spot to snooze in and goes back to sleep but this relies on us now being up with her. It's not sustainable, we are so tired. We have an older Lab and she never did this, was a dream sleeper and never barked! It's slowly breaking us to be honest and I'm just not sure what else to try. We tried letting her sleep freely out of the crate with our older girl but she just messes around and starts trying to play fight etc so we have to sit with them to supervise the resting until it's an acceptable time to get up. We feel broken

Forgot to mention, I know you have another lab, but try letting your pup play with other puppies. It’s a different kind of play and more tiring rough and tumble. My dog did this for two years w other pups until she gradually outgrew the need. Now she still plays a little. But the same as when she was a pup.

Oops. I just remembered that there is a period where they can’t play w other dogs. Already forgot how soon that is so you might not be able to do that yet. Before we could do that we carried our dog around outside so she could get
stimulation by looking around, new sights, smells and sounds. Then let her play inside w the the kids and us. That was enough to tire her out and sleep well 😀

Thanks! I'll join other thread too.

Yes still in the unvaccinated stage so can't take him to play with other dogs yet.

Good point about the daytime naps. He does sleep all day. It's definitely a crazy hour of biting and usually at 7-8pm.

See you in the other thread! Thanks again x

We had the crazy 1-2 hours biting in the evening.and oldest dc was getting seriously upset and scared. We put ddog in the crate in a different room every evening as soon as it started and after 3/4 weeks he just stopped

@MrsThaskala our pup was very bitey for the first few months. She had razor sharp little teeth and would go for our feet. Nothing really worked so we ended up wearing shoes and boots in the house for a few weeks/ months until she grew out of it. Once she lost her baby teeth and her big teeth came in she had outgrown it. It really got me down at the time and any time she got excited or playful she would get nippy. I got lots of brilliant advice on the puppy survival thread, so do ask there too.

To be honest I get older rescues as puppies are no fun. They are hard work.