Hi, I'm new to the board, but have read a few posts and am impressed by some of the replies.

I have a 5 year old black Lab, and got a 9 week old Springer on Saturday.

She is lovely, BUT............... is so so noisy at night. She howls, yaps, and squeaks for ages.  She will settle after an hour or so, then all is quiet, for a while.  Then we start all over again.  We do manage to get some sleep in, but then we are woken up by her again.  I take her out for a wee once or twice in the night, and make sure I don't speak to her and put her immediately back to bed.  Then the howling starts again, and she sounds so cross!!  I am leaving her when she is making the noise, unless I think she needs to go out.  Its getting quite hard to ignore the noise though!!  Think I will invest in some earplugs for myself and hubby today.

She has a crate which is in the utility room, and our lab sleeps in her bed in the kitchen (just off the utility room), she has toys in there, and she isn't worried about the crate as she will go in there during the day of her own accord for naps. 

I am not sure about taking her up to our room at night as I worry that we will just go through it all again when she goes back downstairs, and our lab isn't allowed upstairs either, so don't want to put her nose out of joint.

I know we have only just done our third night with her, and I am not expecting her to be perfect.....yet LOL!  I just would like some advice to help her and us get into a more settled nighttime routine.

Cheers
A very bleary eyed Marie!

I have always started my pup in my/our bedroom and gradually after a week or so, moved her out to the landing and then downstairs. It does seem to cut out any howling etc..and in my view gives a pup great confidence in its new home.
Speaking personally i have never had any problems with pups resenting being moved downstairs later :)

It is a quandary as to what to do about the Lab though if you do gou  through this route; perhaps she could come up too, or if she is very calm she may be happy to stay downstairs and get away from that pup!

Alternativelu, you could sleep downstairs with them for a couple of weeks....

Good luck
Lindsay

I did the same as Lindsay with my last two pups.  Had them with us in the bedroom at night (the other dogs were downstairs) whilst getting her used to being on her own at night.  In the past, I've always ignored the yipping etc but it took a while.  Will definitely have them in the bedroom to start off with in the future.

Helen who also has a Holly springer.

I am now wondering where on earth her cage will fit in my bedroom!!

Another thing, I have read about stuffing Kongs, what sort of things can I stuff them with?  I put some peanut butter in one this morning, and she seemed to have a bit of fun with it, but would like to try other things so I find something she really loves and can't put down!

What about her own meal?  At this age you need to be careful that whatever you put in the Kong doesn't fill her up in preference to her proper diet.

Hi
I'm no expert but we just got our 8 week old Welsh Springer pup and like you have no room in the bedroom for a cage - so I slept downstairs for the first few nights which seemed to help her settle. Have now moved upstairs again after a week and she is only waking once or twice for a wee now - much better!
Good luck!
Helen.

Well, I am feeling loads better today!!!

I had a good think about how it was for her at the breeders, and remembered that she was in a wooden box with all sides covered at the back, with a run out the front into the garden.  So I thought I would try a blanket over the top, sides and back of her cage. 

Yesterday lunchtime I popped her into the cage while we had lunch, and there was not a peep out of her!  Straight to sleep.  An hour later I pre-empted her waking up and went to wake her, telling her she was a good girl and had a fuss of her.  She then went back to sleep in the cage with the door open.

So, after her last meal and a good play and done her business at 10pm I put her to bed in the cage and shut the door.  I switched off downstairs and went up to bed, holding my breath!!  NOTHING!!!! :-)  I was absolutely amazed, and soon relaxed enough to settle myself down.

She made some noise at 11.15pm but nothing compared to the last few nights, and it was all over within 10 minutes and she was quiet again.

Hubby not up yet so have yet to ask him if he heard her at other times in the night, but I woke up to her at 5.50am, and waited until she was quiet before going downstairs to let her out and have a good play!

I am much more awake this morning!!!!!!! YAY!

Marie
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