My wife and I adopted a 7 month old puppy 3 weeks ago (making her about 8 months now). The puppy came from a rural area but now lives in a big city. This has taken some adjusting (learning stairs, fear of traffic, etc.) but she is coming along and has become a lot more social. She was not a rescue but she wasn't from a top breeder either. She is very friendly and good natured.
However, when we first got her, she slept most of the night. Now things are progressing in the wrong direction. She wakes up 4-6x between 11PM and 6AM.
We made some mistakes:
We let her sleep by our bed not in a crate at first. She started waking up a few times so we switched back to a crate thinking this would work (she was crate trained - we're first time owners). First night in the crate, she was in another room. She whined a bit but was ok. The next night she howled and howled in the crate. We live in an apartment so this didn't work (and I'm a softy).
I read more online and decided to move the crate into our room. This sort of worked but she was still waking up 3x a night. Following advice online, I would get her out, take her to potty, and put her back in (all business no unnecessary attention). She would sometimes potty and sometimes not but she is house trained and can definitely hold it for 6-8 hours so I think it was more attention seeking than needing to go.
Given this, we started to ignore her (not letting her out of the crate at night). She was still making a fuss a few times a night. We ignored most of it but were still awake/low on sleep/grouchy.
I went out of town last week and my wife, not such a softy, put a blanket over the crate and ignored her. The dog then started to sleep most of the night. She made a few peeps but not much by the end of the week. However, this coincided with my wife's family and kids visiting and playing with the dog by day.
I then returned from the trip and despite my wife's new method, the dog woke up 4x. After more online reading, I figured perhaps the blanket was making it too hot or the dog's inability to see us made her feel alone. So I decided to try to leave the blanket off the crate to keep it cool and so she could see me. She woke up 6x last night. I told her to go back to sleep and she did but she was still stirring all night waking us up. Heavy sighs, puppy eyes, etc.
Other stuff:
We stop giving her water at 7PM to reduce the need to go.
We make bedtime calm (as best we can - she tends to get excited, she's a puppy)
We offer a chew toy to sooth her at night per online advice
We've tried some white noise
We try to get her exercise (but she has the energy of an exploding atom)
We're not sure what to do now. We work days so she sleeps and is revved up come evening so we plan to try day care to wear her out. But it costs a lot.
She is not fixed yet (appointment scheduled) which some forums say impacts things.
We're mulling some medication (natural hopefully) or a trip to the vet to see if something is wrong but we went a few weeks ago and everything was aok and endless trips to the vet add up (some vets seem like a bit of a racket btw).
To the dog's credit, we've had a lot of changes. Country to city. Me out of town. In laws in town for a week (shoot me!). And what I read tells me dogs thrive on consistency and things haven't been consistent but hey, that's life.
At this point, we're considering just putting the crate in another room since she seems to stir every time we move when she is on our room. She may go nuts for a few days but either she will simmer down or we will realize we have a dog suited to another lifestyle perhaps.
Any advice will help. Not sleeping tends to increase emotional thoughts.
However, when we first got her, she slept most of the night. Now things are progressing in the wrong direction. She wakes up 4-6x between 11PM and 6AM.
We made some mistakes:
We let her sleep by our bed not in a crate at first. She started waking up a few times so we switched back to a crate thinking this would work (she was crate trained - we're first time owners). First night in the crate, she was in another room. She whined a bit but was ok. The next night she howled and howled in the crate. We live in an apartment so this didn't work (and I'm a softy).
I read more online and decided to move the crate into our room. This sort of worked but she was still waking up 3x a night. Following advice online, I would get her out, take her to potty, and put her back in (all business no unnecessary attention). She would sometimes potty and sometimes not but she is house trained and can definitely hold it for 6-8 hours so I think it was more attention seeking than needing to go.
Given this, we started to ignore her (not letting her out of the crate at night). She was still making a fuss a few times a night. We ignored most of it but were still awake/low on sleep/grouchy.
I went out of town last week and my wife, not such a softy, put a blanket over the crate and ignored her. The dog then started to sleep most of the night. She made a few peeps but not much by the end of the week. However, this coincided with my wife's family and kids visiting and playing with the dog by day.
I then returned from the trip and despite my wife's new method, the dog woke up 4x. After more online reading, I figured perhaps the blanket was making it too hot or the dog's inability to see us made her feel alone. So I decided to try to leave the blanket off the crate to keep it cool and so she could see me. She woke up 6x last night. I told her to go back to sleep and she did but she was still stirring all night waking us up. Heavy sighs, puppy eyes, etc.
Other stuff:
We stop giving her water at 7PM to reduce the need to go.
We make bedtime calm (as best we can - she tends to get excited, she's a puppy)
We offer a chew toy to sooth her at night per online advice
We've tried some white noise
We try to get her exercise (but she has the energy of an exploding atom)
We're not sure what to do now. We work days so she sleeps and is revved up come evening so we plan to try day care to wear her out. But it costs a lot.
She is not fixed yet (appointment scheduled) which some forums say impacts things.
We're mulling some medication (natural hopefully) or a trip to the vet to see if something is wrong but we went a few weeks ago and everything was aok and endless trips to the vet add up (some vets seem like a bit of a racket btw).
To the dog's credit, we've had a lot of changes. Country to city. Me out of town. In laws in town for a week (shoot me!). And what I read tells me dogs thrive on consistency and things haven't been consistent but hey, that's life.
At this point, we're considering just putting the crate in another room since she seems to stir every time we move when she is on our room. She may go nuts for a few days but either she will simmer down or we will realize we have a dog suited to another lifestyle perhaps.
Any advice will help. Not sleeping tends to increase emotional thoughts.
. Dogs are smart like that. The only thing you can do is ignore her. 
