Sleeping Through The Night? Remotely possible?

t1chic

Hi all -

Our 10 week old is causing us quite a bit of sleep loss. The problem is that he'll wake up in the middle of the night and want to play. He'll whine and moan and we'll be really afraid that he needs to go to the bathroom, so we get up and run outside, and nope!

He's been sleeping in our bed - maybe this is the issue? We're gonna start crate training him this weekend, but in the meantime, we would really loooove some zzz's!

Reese

Aces-Wild · Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 8:55 am Post subject:

Hmm, I think crate training will help with this issue alot.
My weim sleeps in his crate (with the door open now, but not at first) all nite .
He loves his crate, even just for hanging out. I've never used the crate as punishment, maybe that's why. (?)
Usually I put him in there once a day for a little while when I'm home too for "relaxation time". Try putting your pup in his crate for a minute, give him a treat and then take him back out, making it positive and not scary. Keep doing that for longer periods of time and he should adjust to his den and (maybe if you're lucky) begin to enjoy being in there...He's still pretty little, so he'll catch on before long.
Don't play with him at nite during pee breaks, if he doesn't have any business to do, bring him back inside right away.
Hope that helps a little!

anne · Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 1:16 pm Post subject:

Definitley crate train. He's young so will still probably need to go out at night, and when he does, take him out in a business-like fashion. DO NOT PLAY with him. If necessary even put him on a leash. Give him a few minutes to do his business and if he doesn't, put him back in his crate. He may wake you up again, and you'll just have to deal with this until he learns, but just do the same thing. He'll soon stop the playing thing and just go back to sleep. The first few nights you do this is probably going to be a pain, but a few nights lost sleep sure beats weeks and weeks or even a lifetime of getting up in the middle of the night for no good reason.