Hello all

Well, our now nearly 12 week old pup is making great progress in a lot of ways - picks things up v quickly, toilet training going really well, much better at being left, and was great on the lead for his first outings this weekend!

HOWEVER! The last few nights, he's been much worse at night. Having had a dreadful final night with him in his crate, he now sleeps in his bed in our room. But he's started taking ages to settle either initially and/or after he's been out for the toilet at night. He basically gets in and out of his bed, tries to get in my older dog's bed, tried to chew the bed (mine that is!), chews his bed (he has plenty of toys to chew), or just squirms about and fidgets whilst making little grunty/whiney noises (he's v vocal and does this a lot anyway). Last night I can't have got more than 2-3 hours sleep as although he did settle within 30 mins, an hour at most, he woke up within 2 hours when a house alarm went off, and then took a good 2-3 hours to go back to sleep. Even then he only really properly slept deeply when our older dog got our of his bed and the pup jumped in. By then it was only 30 mins till I had to get up though, of course he was quite happy to sleep longer by then! So not only did our older dog get shoved out of bed, but we were all up nearly all night. Having to come to work after a few nights like that is not good....

I'm going to take him ou for a walk before it gets dark tonight and then try to keep him up till we go to bed, but I'm not convinced even this will work. Was so tired this morning I nearly lost my rag with him and I know it's not his fault, but I really need to get some sleep.....Also v worried that the routine having been messed up at night wil be to the detriment to my older dog's epilepsy, although we are taking all measure to try to prevent this.

Any ideas anyone??

What's the pup's day-time routine?

Hi Lillith

It varies really - during the week he sleeps when my hubby's working in the office, interspersed with play periods and a bit of training, possibly slightly more playing at the weekend when we both around during the day. The general puppy routine of sleep, play & eat in my experience!

I'm pretty much as stumped as you are but I'm trying to think of possible reasons why your pup might not be able to settle at night. 

Can you think of anything that has been different over the last few nights?  Any change in routine?  Has it only been weekend nights where he has been unsettled?

I take it that the pup is fit and well, so there's no medical reason why he might be uncomfortable?

Do you have a cooling off period after your last play session and before you go to bed?  So he's calm when you actually take him up.  It sounds like there's not so much a problem with giving him sufficient interaction (as you say that he has play and training during the day) as with getting him to relax and settle.

Maybe someone else will have more ideas.  What about keeping a diary for a week, to help you spot any pattern to his disturbed nights?  Have slight feeling one of you is going to end up in spare bedroom trying to get enough sleep to make it through work the next day!

Too much stimulation perhaps?  I believe that pups sleep best when there is nothing to do and it could be that to be in a room with another dog, toys and two people, and things going on outside, is just too stimulating for him.

Just a thought.  Have you tried putting a blanket over the top of his cage like they do with budgies!!?!

Yes, I do calm him before bed, did also try him in a crate with a blanket and you wouldn't believe the noise.....

But, I ordered a DAP diffuser yesterday, and then he ended up being great last night! I walked them later, didn't let him sleep afterwards (only about an hour before bed) and he went out like a light. Woke about 4 hours later and went out for a wee, and then went back to sleep within about 10 mins, till the alarm went off at 6am! By then he'd sneaked into our older dog's bed (Rolf having vacated it) and didn't want to get up anyway.

My husband is away at the moment, went Sunday and I hadn't ven thought of it till someone suggested it, but I wonder if that might have been part of why he wouldn't settle that night - would make sense.

With any luck I'll have the DAP diffuser in the next couple of days in case it happens again....