why does my puppy keep waking up?

[BMJ]

Hey Everyone:
My puppy Ginger keeps waking up during the night and it is random times everyday. We feed her at 7:30 am & pm. We take her food and water away from her by 8/9pm. We take her outside at the same times everyday, and the last time we take her out is at 11 pm. She will wake up during the night anytime between 2 & 6am. When we take her out, then put her back in her crate, after an hour she will start whining and crying again. She sleeps in her crate in our room during the night. Many people have said that we should put her crate in another room (which we will be starting on Tuesday).
Any suggestions on keeping her quiet for the whole night rather than her waking up early mornings?

BMJ

Thanks for ur suggestions/comments

[jokerkitty]

How old is she? The amount of time a puppy can hold her bladder gradually increases with age. On average, for the first 4 months it's about 4 hours, so getting up in the middle of the night can be par for the course. The reason she starts whining an hour later is most likely because she's in the same room with you.

[ejs]

How old is the puppy? If she's still a baby, it could be a number of reasons. She needs to pee. She's hungry or thirsty. She's lonely. She spent most of her young life with her mom and littermates; puppies usually huddle together.

When we would crate our puppy, we would put in a t-shirt or something that smelled like us so she had a familiar scent near her.

[BMJ]

Thanks for suggestions :)
Ginger almost 9 months old now.
We are going to start putting her in another room tonight, to see how she does.
This has been ongoing since we got her. I do not know if we are doing something wrong.
I am a very light sleeper & have difficulties falling asleep, and with a little bit a whine, I get annoyed and take her out to do her business. I do not know if I did something wrong like spoiling her by taking her out every time she makes a sound.

[flygirl]

My Maddy's nine months, too :). I have a feeling if her crate weren't in the kitchen I'd get to hear whining, too.

One thing: smaller dogs usually can't go as long as bigger dogs, but at 9 months, she should be able to hold it 6-8 hours at night. Hopefully kicking her out tonight will help!

[rileyandfredsmom]

If you are giving her attention every time she whines, you are reinforcing the whining behaviour. You need to teach her a command that will signal her to go back to sleep. for my dogs, I tell them to 'settle' whenever they need to lay down and be still. For instance, when we are getting ready to watch a movie, I say 'settle' in a very stern voice and they will both get in their spots on the couch and lay right down.

while your dog is in it's kennel and it begins to whine, simply tell it to 'lay down', 'settle', 'sleep'...whatever you feel comfortable with. Then ignore the behaviour. And the behaviour will get worse before it gets better, just don't give in and get up to take it out. Also, if you move the kennel out of your bedroom, your dog may feel as if it is being kicked out of the pack so the whining and crying will only increase further.

You need to practice the 'settle' command in other environments like your living room as well so that the dog begins to understand exactly what you are wanting.

I have found this to be one of the most useful commands I have taught our dogs.

[jajacobsen]

I agree with rileyandfred's mom. The dog is certainly old enough to hold it all night (assuming no water 2 hours before bedtime) and by paying attention to her when she whines you have taught her that doing so is a very effective way to get attention!

So - what to do now:

Possibly remove her from the bedroom. Thsi is easiest on you but it will be hard on her, as at 9 months she is very used to sleeping in teh same oom as you. You might see how she does if you try this - does she seem okay or unduly stressed.

Or -
Ignoring her. This will take several weeks oof ignoring but you can break her of it.

Good luck! As hard as it will seem now, it will be so much easier than letting this go on and trying to break her of it at say, 18 months.

[BMJ]

well monday was the first night with ginger sleeping in the same room as us. since we have an apartment we had to put her in the living room but far from the bedroom door. She whined and cried for about 15 mins then stopped. I was able to sleep for the first time since we got her for a full night, rather than waking up at 2 in the morning. We did it again last night and she didn't even whine! I'm so happy and hope it continues in this direction :)
Thanks everyone for you comments and suggestions!
I have to figure out what command to use for "settle", she seems to have a hard time understanding.

Another question:
We took her to the park the other day and let her run around without a leash in an open area where there were no people, she runs and seems so happy, but when we call her she doesn't come, and at one point there was a man jogging and she was running with him (or after him). We kept calling her name and telling her to come but she wouldn't (even though she knows that command). I ended up calling out our cat's name (she's jealous of the cat), and she came running back to us.
Is this one of those situations we need treats for, or keep her on the leash for? Since we do live in apartment she does not get that opportunity to play and run around as much in large areas.

[jajacobsen]

I think running off leash is really imprtant for a dog of that age. It wil make her be much better behaved and tire her out and so she will sleep through the night.

With our two, we just always called them back to us every few minutes from teh age of 6 weeks and so they learned to "check in" when we go on walks. We also took them to dog obedience classes which really reinforced sit, stay and come. While my dogs are no angels, people do comment on how DH and I are able to control them in public by voice command only. It is wonderful for us and even more wonderful for them as they are allowed to be off leash so much more.

At this age, you might want to try the treat thing for a reward. Or, you might try to do the obedience training level 1. It really helped us train two over-excited over active weimaraners into two very happy, but controllable pets who are a joy. I'm sure you can get there too, with some consistent training.

[ejs]

Another question:
We took her to the park the other day and let her run around without a leash in an open area where there were no people, she runs and seems so happy, but when we call her she doesn't come, and at one point there was a man jogging and she was running with him (or after him). We kept calling her name and telling her to come but she wouldn't (even though she knows that command). I ended up calling out our cat's name (she's jealous of the cat), and she came running back to us.
Is this one of those situations we need treats for, or keep her on the leash for? Since we do live in apartment she does not get that opportunity to play and run around as much in large areas.

When we got our first puppy, we got a very long training lead, about 40-50 feet long. We'd take him to the park and let him run around, but he was always attached to the lead. He didn't really seem to notice it.

[BMJ]

Thanks for the advice everyone!
We will try the treat thing, when we take her to the park again.
FYI: She seems to be doing well at night....we don't hear her whining or crying at all :) I have been able to sleep at night, except when the cat decides to play with the blinds in our room during the night (different story!)
I wish we did they sooner, I guess I was just worried about her and wanted to make sure she was ok during the night.

Again, thanks for the advice, it has helped me a lot :)