[Drewmangroup]

So scout is just over 11 months now and is still have trouble sleeping through the night. This has been a problem since we got her 9 months ago. We finally moved her into our bedroom and it worked for a short time. For the last 30 days she has slept through the night without waking maybe 6 times. Other times its once or twice and she goes outside for hours for some reason. Last night it really came to a head for me.

We had a doggy friend over after work for about 3 hours. They played hard. After her friend left I also played with her outside. About 8 she gets on the couch with us and starts snoozing. So around 10 we take her out and then put her in her crate. Then at 12 she cries to get up, then 2 she cried, then 4 she cried. We usually get up around 5:15 so all we really ask is for her to sleep from 10-5:15. And she has done it before. And we can't ignore her crying because she is in our room. I am going to move her to somewhere where I can't hear her (I know it sound cruel), but I think she is, i mean she has trained us, to get up whenever she wants. I need to put a stop to this. I know she can hold it. She is done it before.

The baffling thing is her eating and drinking habits. Usually she eats around 6-7 and drinks every so often. And we though some of that timing had to do with the sleeping. But sometimes she would eat and drink right before bed and sleep all night. Other time she would eat 3 hours before bed and whine to get up. I think her internal clock is messed up. maybe from being in a crate while we work. Like that is her "bedtime". Because we usually hear her get up and chew on a toy in the middle of the night, which is fine, but the whining sometimes follows.

Sorry for the length. I just can't get up 2-3 times a night anymore with an almost year old dog. I feel like the best way is to show her that I am not going to get up when she cries anymore and I think the best way is to put her where I can't hear her. Anyone else have trouble with this. As a young puppy I did it because I knew she had trouble holding it, but now I think she can.

 

[BeagleBabe]

Does she sleep better when not in her crate?

 

[Drewmangroup]

Well she does nap on the weekends outside of her crate, but we still don't trust her unattended. Putting her in her crate does clam her down and let her know its bedtime initially but its 2 hours from then that she gets restless. We hear her chewing, which is fine, and sometimes thats enough for her and she will go back to sleep and not whine (and thats becoming rare). So if we did leave her out of her crate at night we aren't sure what she would get in to when she wakes up.

 

[BeagleBabe]

Well, does she sleep better outside of the crate?

I'm trying to figure out if this is a crate issue or another issue.

 

[Murphys Dad]

I have Chloe's crate open at night since she was almost a year old. She is fine with it and I'm fine with it.
If I'm too restless during the night she goes to her crate (as if I did something wrong, hey, it's MY bed to begin with)....

Maybe try one or two nights and see if she is better outside the crate at night. That will give you the answer if it's a crate thing or not.

 

[Java]

Java will cry and sing through the night if I attempt to crate him. I bought a doggy bed for him a few months back and he's slept great ever since. Of course, I'm not 100% sure he won't wander and pee on the walls, so I still leash him close to my bed. He's also serving great as my alarm clock as he wakes up right at 6AM every day to play with nearby toys.

 

[Drewmangroup]

Yeah well she does well in the crate during the day. When I come home at lunch and after work she is stretching as I go to let her out. she also doesn't make a peep when I put her in there before I go back to work after lunch. It also serves as the signal of "its bedtime" otherwise she will just keep going. I don't think its the crate because she has slept through the night before and also woken up and chewed on toys and not cried. I think its a combination of feeding time (we let her eat too late) and her getting used to being let out when she cries. The feeding thing is my fault we let her graze, we were putting it down for 45 mins and taking it back up but she wasn't eating. Now if she doesn't finish before bedtime, she will get up and cry and check her food bowl first thing. So I am going to work on that. We are going to try a couple of things before we have to go to moving her out of the bedroom so I can "ignore" her. Back when she was about 6 months old, I asked the vet about it. I told her she cries in the middle of the night. Her response was "have you tried ignoring her". In our bedroom there is no way I can ignore the screams, so across the house it will have to be. I don't think she will pee in her crate so its going to have to be some re-conditioning that I am not going to let her out every time she starts crying.

Edit : Also she likes to chew up doggy beds so we have to wait on that until she grows out of trying to de-stuff everything she can. We do have blankets in the crate and she seems to like that.

 

[BeagleBabe]

Can you put a bowl of food in the crate?

 

[Drewmangroup]

Yeah I think that might be the next thing to try when she doesn't finish her food. The last resort is banishment from the BR, so we are going to try anything we can.

 

[Zookeeper]

Duke likes to have a little nibble right before bedtime. Not much, just a few bites. He's always slept all night, but he sleeps on the bed, so we've never had to deal with night time crate issues. Good luck.