I posted a post on here last night about  our new dog the springer with seperation problems.

We know ways to treat this during the day, but at night we know we should leave him to howl and whin the only problem is the neigbours complaining before long.

I have been going down when it gets bad and not showing any affection and pointing to his bed and he goes in. Is this a big no no as im responding to his whining?

The last 2 nights i have had to sleep on the sofa in the same room.

Any ideas will be great

Thanks for the advice in the last post

i wouldn't go to him it it was my dog but thats just the way i handle things and you could prolonging the problem.
of course thats not easy if the you get complaints about the noise.maybe speak to next door and tell them the situation and your working on the problem.
your new dog has got your dog for company so you'd think he's settle in time but as i said he's used to being with people all the time so this will take a while to sort out.
has he bonded with your other dog really well, as in do they curl up together to sleep? as this will make a big difference to him being comforted at night without you.
think you need to re-enforce the fact that your top dog so he doesn't feel the need to worry about things as your in charge.
make being with you fun at certain times but when you decide but don't let him pester you for attention, in other words anything he gets is on your terms not his.
Apart from a good walk in the evening to tire him out start to have a time when he knows it's time to calm down ie my dogs know at 7pm my daughter goes to bed and they are expected to be calm and sleep in the lounge with us while we watch telly etc but there is a cut of point  for attention. so by the time they go to bed there's no excitement and no talking to them, therefore it's no different if your with them or not. how you deal with this in the day time when their left will have a knock on affect at night if handled in the right way.
i think this is more a case of setting up a routine and you being in charge, with this older dog it will take time but he'll get the message in the end.
you could carry on sleeping down stairs and try and do this at a slower pace but i would rather follow the rules i use.
have they got a small enough space to sleep in that makes him feel secure at night? it maybe worth thinking about that.       

This is much the same problem as I'm having with our very new (since Saturday!) and very gorgeous flat-coat pup. Everyone says not to go down to him after I've put him to bed in his crate but I live in a terraced house and I'm worried about the disturbance. Last night (only second we've had, of course), he went to bed without a problem but, as soon as I was settled in bed he started to howl and cry. I left him for about twenty minutes but there was no sign of abatement so I went down and sat near the crate shushing him gently every time he howled. After about ten minutes he went to sleep and I crept back upstairs. He woke me howling at about 3:20 so I went down and let him into the garden where he had a wee. I brought him back and put him to bed and stayed until he dropped off to sleep. At 5:45 he was off again but I decided to start the day at that point so gave him breakfast etc.  Not quite sure what to do for best tonight as I'm very conscious of the noise and our neighbours will have to get up for work in the morning! Also, I don't want to him to go backwards and lose the very good start he's made on house training. If he needs to go out during the night I'd rather get up and take him but, on the other hand, I can't tell the difference between the "I'm lonely" noise and the "I need a wee" one!

I'd be really grateful for some advice - thank you!

> If he needs to go out during the night I'd rather get up and take him but, on the other hand, I can't tell the difference between the "I'm lonely" noise and the "I need a wee" one!

We had our pup in with us for the first few nights, he was in a crate by the side of the bed.  If he whimpered I'd drop a hand in and shush him, if he made bigger or more urgent noises I'd take him outside.  After a week or so we'd got used to his noises and we had a slightly better handle on his timings so he went down to the utility room with our other dog and there he stayed.

We found it more effective to get to him before he was fully awake as it made it easier to get him back to sleep afterwards (much less noise too if you have children or neighbours to worry about).  We tried not to switch any lights on and made no big noises other than praise and a biscuit with each wee outside.  If he was more awake than I'd like I'd sometimes stay in the same room whilst he fell back asleep - he went into his crate and I'd sit and read for a while.

The key was catching him just before he stirred and from what I remember, we settled into a routine of last wee at 11pm then an outing at 2am and 5am.  Each few days or each week (depends what worked) we moved the timings back to 3am and 6am.  Then we moved the last wee to 12am and shifted the 3am outing back by 15/20 mins each time.  He was nearly 6 months before he could sleep past 6am and until he got the hang of it I'd go and lie on the sofa with him pinned behind my knees, he usually nodded off very quickly with some comfort and we stayed there til the kids got up for school.  Nowadays we sometimes have to wake him up :)

I know some people from the same litter as ours could go right through the night from the beginning but our boy just couldn't.  He was also very happy to pee in his bed, although some people say pups never wee where they sleep.  I guess our chap never read that book!! :)

kanelch

Agree totally with dogs a babe - a few nights in your room so he can be reassured, goes a very long way in lessening distress.

It must be awful to be expected to sleep on your own all night when you've been used to the comfort of mum and your siblings.The pup will still settle eventually if you let him be with you for a few nights.Think of the comfort you'll give him-he'll love you forever!The neighbours will probably like you forever too.