All of a sudden, for the last few nights, my puppy wakes up at 11 p.m. and won’t go back to sleep. I made a point getting him plenty of exercise to wear him out today, but nope! Like clockwork, he slept from his normal bedtime of 8 p.m. and whine-bark-whine cranks up at 11. He’s standing in his crate giving me this baleful glare. He’s been sleeping comfortably in his crate all night for months. I’d have to coax him awake for a pee break in the wee hours, then out like s light. Now he develops an antipathy to sleep?!? He’s 7-1/2 months old. Is this a “teen” thing? By the way, I didn’t force a circadian rhythm on him. He came to me with an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. sleep cycle.
allaloneuk
New member
@banneh Many dogs start objecting to sleeping in the crate after about 6 months of age. It's natural for a dog to get up and move to different spots to sleep during the night - cooler, warmer, softer, harder. You don't say what breed you have, but if it's a medium to large breed, their crates generally don't allow the dog to move to a totally new, fresh corner.
My advice would be to puppy-proof your bedroom and start leaving the crate door open. Block your bedroom door with a baby gate if you normally sleep with it open, so that he can't wander out of the room.
If you are too nervous about that much freedom, try leaving the crate door open, but block him somehow so that he is limited to moving to new spots beside your bed.
Crates are great for many purposes and I train mine to accept them (always in a humane way, and for reasonable durations). However, my goal is always to be working toward not needing the crate anymore, and the first place that happens is overnight in my bedroom.
My advice would be to puppy-proof your bedroom and start leaving the crate door open. Block your bedroom door with a baby gate if you normally sleep with it open, so that he can't wander out of the room.
If you are too nervous about that much freedom, try leaving the crate door open, but block him somehow so that he is limited to moving to new spots beside your bed.
Crates are great for many purposes and I train mine to accept them (always in a humane way, and for reasonable durations). However, my goal is always to be working toward not needing the crate anymore, and the first place that happens is overnight in my bedroom.
@allaloneuk Thanks for the excellent advice. However, my bedroom is carpeted and I can’t trust his house training that far just yet. He is still having the occasional and copious accident (he’s 43 lbs and his accidents are…a lot to clean up!) I can provide him with a larger area for night time in a different room, and sad as I am to not have him sleep just by me, that appears to be the better choice now that he’s outgrown the scared baby stage of life. He’s at that tween-almost-teen stage and he’s less dependent. I think it’s harder for me to not have him sleeping right by me than it is for him!
@banneh this may not answer your question but i had a similar experience. my puppy was fine for a month then suddenly started losing his shit from around 11-4am. i tried everything there is, blanket over crate, new toys, music, etc… the only thing that worked is putting his cage in my room. i still keep the blanket over the cage so he cant see me, but he rarely if ever barks in the crate anymore. along with doing this i started to train him not to bark, whenever he would bark i would say quiet quiet sternly and if he listened i would praise him and if he didnt i would knock on the side of the crate, making a noise he does not like. works like a charm
@rbkoreaus Thank you for your thoughtful reply, but his crate has been next to my bed since I brought him home as a baby. I’m beginning to suspect that I am the problem, and he’s objecting to me snoring! 11 to 11:30 is right about when my first round of really deep REM sleep would be kicking in. 