WE have had our 12 week old lab Darcy since she was 6 weeks old and since the first night she has slept through the night until 6.30am when I get up.
However the last week or so she has begun howling at any time between 3 and 6am.

Is this normal puppy behaviour.
Why is she relapsing????????

It has been particularly cold the last week or so at night, could it be that as she is still a little pup, she wakes because it is a bit cold, and then gets fretful.

What sort of bedding has she. The best in mine and most long time dog owners is the fleece bedding. You can get a big piece, that even cut in half is still big enough to overlap the sides of a full size labrador size dog bed.

http://www.bedding.demon.co.uk does it mail order, and it is a good heavy quality. The 60 x 40inch piece will just fit into your washing machine, best wahed at 40 degrees!

I would cut it into two.

I dont think it could be that.
She doesnt like bedding at all because she gets too hot. she always chooses either the carpet or the tiles rather than her bed.
If she ever cuddles with us in the evening it lonly lasts 2 minutes before she gets down onto the floor to cool down.
Sometimes she even asks to go outside and goes to sleep on the lawn.

My mal used to howl when we closed the kitchen door at night. We found that playing a game with him just before bedtime worked as all he wanted to do after this was lie down. We also tried giving him a hide shoe which we brought out only at bedtime. This would take his attention away from the sound of us walking up the stairs etc and by the time he got bored with chewing, we had stopped making noises and he was happy to go to sleep.

She may just be testing you. If she's been sleeping thorugh the night, she's proved that she can hold it for that long. Don't give in to her cries -- she'll never stop crying when she wants something. Unless she is going more than usual anyway, then you might want to take her to the vet. But if everything seems normal, ignore her until 6:30.

Oh she has never held it all night. she just goes on those puppy pads.
So I dont think she's crying to be let out to do her business.

Oh well will just have to resign myself to a few sleepless nights until she settles back down.

Maybe she actually is crying to go out to do her business. Maybe she has decided she is a 'big dog' and is supposed to go outside??

Wendy

She should definitely be going outside by now. IMHO, puppy pads are a waste of time once the pup is over 8 weeks -- it just takes them that much longer to become housebroken. We never used pads for our lab, and he was 90% housebroken by 10 weeks. Of course, we were taking him outside constantly (it seemed like a million times a day), but that's the only way they will learn to go outside. I think that by 16 weeks they should be able to hold it through the night, but I could be wrong about this. That might be a little too young, or it just depends on the dog.

she does go outside during the day. she just has the pads at night because she cant hold it in all night yet.

but you could be right that she asking to go out.

should i get up to let her out then???????????????????

We never got up to Bailey in the night and left newspaper down for him and once he started to have the odd clen night we just redued the amount of paper until it was all gone.

We didn't get up in the night as we taught from the start that crying doesn't get attention so if he woke up he didn't bother us to let him out.

Just do whatever works for you.

Tracy :)

At some stage you are going to have to remove the pads to see if she'll wait 'til morning. If you start getting up to her now, you may teach her that you'll come when she barks. Are the pads always used every morning ? If they aren't, then try without.

Daisy

i think its only fair to get up if the dog wants to go out ( if thats what they want )Murphy has been very good at sleeping through the night but even now at 16 mths ( as old as that :D ) if he barks in the night I let him out ,and its usually to wee or poo and then he goes straight back in his bed ( and so do I )
If its just attention then i'd ignore it but the pads may be confusing
Liz :)

I agree with you Liz - having trained my dogs to ask when they want to go out, it seems unfair to ignore them when they're only doing what they've been taught! They still wake me if they've got an upset tummy - and I'd far rather get up and let them out than have to clear up first thing in the maorning!!:)

I would get up and check that she's asking out. Put her out (maybe on lead so she knows it's just to do her business, not to play) then put her back to bed and go back yourself. Don't give her any time for games or anything. If she knows you'll come to let her out if she needs to she's less likely to try it on about other stuff.

Wendy