How to get 19wk puppy to sleep without crate

[RedBonnet]

Ok so our 19wk springer refuses to sleep or self settle (yes he can lie on his mat with the settle command but doesn't actually 'settle ', he just lies there until the treats are gone. So still working on this)

Like a toddler he makes himself stay awake. His eyes close and he sits up. Of course no sleep makes him very hyper. So during the day we lock him in his crate and he eventually gives in and naps for 90mins or so.

At bedtime he was always pretty good and slept from 9pm to 6am with a couple of wakes for wees, but straight back to sleep.

This was with us downstairs on a camp bed to make it easier to take him out. He wasn't crated.

Once he was more trustworthy with toileting he came upstairs to sleep on our bed. This was say 14wk old. This past 2 weeks he's started wanting to play when we go up, no matter how sleepy he is.

So the dilemma is, how to get round this? Things I thought of are:

1. Go back to sleeping downstairs and crate him.

1. Take his crate upstairs (which means he won't nap in the day)

1. Buy a 2nd crate (£££)

I have tried going to bed and leaving him asleep but he wakes up immediately and comes up ready to play.

Right now he's asleep on the sofa and I can't face going to bed and having him jumping around and biting 😭 I'd rather sleep downstairs.

Any ideas??

Pic for cuteness obviously 🥰🐶

Crate. Our puppy is 26 weeks old and still sleeps in her crate.

So a 2nd one upstairs

Why oh why would you let a springer spaniel puppy on your bed?!!?

We have one and just like a toddler it needs it's naps, sleep and quiet time away from the family. Sleeps 9pm-6.30am no bother. Lots of activity in the day. Calm evening with a hairbrush around 7 where he lies happily in his crate. Last little walk and wee around 9.

No falaffing about with camp beds and the like. It's an animal! Love it, play with it, exercise it and feed it.

We don't have kids or other pets so the house is very quiet all day

He will happily sleep in his crate all night but I didn't want to get a 2nd one

Hence asking if anyone had any tips/ideas

Is there any reason why you can’t keep the crate upstairs & pup goes up for a nap during the day? Might help him to settle if the upstairs is a strict ‘no play’ zone.

He has severe fomo I think and I'd have to sit up there with him or he'd bark the house down. I work upstairs though so it might work with the crate in the passageway, he can see me in work room and bedroom that way. Certainly worth trying, thanks. (He's only just got used to me going out to the bin or cloakroom for a minute without barking. Improving all the time)

Crate downstairs move the camp bed further away each night until you are out of the room.

Dog in crate downstairs
You in your bed

You all get a good nights sleep (hopefully!)

Surely you just move the crate around the house as needed? Or get a cheap crate off marketplace?

Thanks for the replies

The crate is too big for me to move easily so a 2nd crate would be better.

Thinking of putting it in the spare room upstairs and moving my desk in there. He can roam about and nap in crate. I can sleep in with him and slowly move out.

He's been with us 9 weeks now and seems to have issues missing his dam and siblings bless him.

You need to do the dog equivalent of cry it out. I left mine the first night, he was absolutely fine. By 19 weeks you are making a rod for your back still letting him out in the night.

Your biggest mistake is to stop using the crate. Yes there will be barking etc but you have to treat it like controlled crying in a baby. The crate will become the favoured safe space if you persist with it. My 14 year old dog has never slept anywhere else! Having a dog in your bedroom is the route to madness in my opinion

In all fairness, not all dogs need to be crated, especially once toilet trained. Ours has slept in our bed from day one - he's never had an accident overnight nor has he ever barked or whined and kept us awake.

I also don't know of any adult dog who sleeps in a crate overnight.

Erm. Personally I don't think you can/should do controlled crying with a pup (nevermind a human baby) get yourself over to dog training advice and support on Facebook. You need to take it in tiny steps. Really tiny. If you are not careful you will end up with a case of separation anxiety big time. And a hyped up dog.

Another strong recommendation for the Facebook group mentioned above if you’d like help. This group is run by qualified trainers who advocate positive reinforcement, and vet behaviourists. I’ve attached a pic of what the group header looks like as there’s a group with a similar name which I definitely wouldn’t recommend!

We’ve had 3 dogs over the years who all actively prefer the crate and got stressed if eg we went on holiday without it. Depends on what they are used to

@VanCleefArpels I'm not saying no adult dog sleeps in a crate but many live perfectly happy and contented lives without ever needing one.

My point was that not all puppies need crates or to be crate trained in order to settle and sleep properly.

Thanks guys, I started following Sally's FB page before we'd even got him. My main dilemma was how to get him to self settle and go back to sleep when we go to bed. He's fine sleeping in his crate overnight with the door shut. But, our room is too small for his crate and I need his crate downstairs for naps.

Maybe he will start to self settle as he matures.

But I am going to try putting his crate in the spare room and getting him used to sleeping in there

Get a second crate
look of Facebook market place.
we have one in our lounge and one upstairs as to big to keep moving about

Teach a sleep command. Wait until he’s almost asleep at any point during the day and then say your command. Only use it when he’s actually nearly sleeping until he associates it with being drowsy. Then you can use it to help him settle. My WCS never got ‘settle’ on a blanket - he was always alert and watching the treats though would stay still. He accidentally learned a ‘snuggle down’ command though and now I use that instead of settle.

We had two crates as shifting them around was a hassle - at least until he chewed the zip on the cheap one so it wouldn’t work! By then he was older so we didn’t need to enforce daytime naps so much, so we kept the crate in the bedroom for ages - when he was about 10 months we moved him to the kitchen and transitioned him from crate to bed under the dining table as the crate took up too much space.

We got a 2nd crate for the spare room. He's happy in there with me on the bed but if he doesn't calm down he goes in the crate. He'd rather be on the bed so for the last 2 nights he has stayed calm. Fingers crossed.