Need help with sleeping at night! was doing good now is not!

Our puppy has been doing great at night in his kennel. He is almost 5 months old the first week of july he will be. he has been going to bed around 10-1030ish and going till 4ish whenh e wakes and then going back in his kennel for another hour to hour and half or so.

Then baseball season started for my son. he is in his kennel from 530 till about 8 and then around 10-1030 he DOES NOT want to be in his kennel. He will bark and whine. we let him bark and bark one night for 25 minutes and he would NOT calm down. So my husband got up to play with him for an hour or so and hten put him to bed and he did good with that.

well then the next ball game came and he did the same thing. now it just seems likei f he is in his kennel in the evening he doesnt want to go to bed in his kennel. he will sleep on our bed or the floor or any other place. because then if my husband takes him out with him because he is doing stuff on the computer or whatever he will just sleep out whereever he is and then when he puts his kennel a few hours later he barks and doesnt want to go to sleep in there. i think he is just trying to NOT go in his kennel. At that point we just move his kennel from our room to the kitchen where he will bark for a long time.

Since this has been going on he also has been waking early! usually it was 5-530ish (when it gets light out), we could deal with that, or my husband could. but now if he wakes around 4 he barks, we take him out (even if he went to bed around 1130-midnight) and he doesnt want to go back in his kennel. I think i started that as my dh was on a buisness trip and when he was barking at 445-5ish i just brought him into bed with me after letting him out as i like to sleep in and he would sleep on our bed till 7-730ish.

now I feel like this dog has TOO much power! Should we just insist he goes to bed at 10-1030ish in his kennel and let him bark till he doesnt bark anymore even if we move him out of our room?? us telling him No or go to sleep or whatever isnt working.

and then what should wedo uif he wakes at 4-430ish, take him out at then and reput him back in the kennel barking unitl our alarm goes off or just let him bark until 530-6ish when our alarm goes off and then let him out?

I dont know. I just need some suggestions or advice!! my husband and i are fighting about what to do (lack of sleep i think). last night he was in his kennel from midnight till four when my husband let him out and put him in our bed.

We really wanted him in his kennel when we were gone and sleeping so he didnt cause any problems. and then when we went places (travel) he would be use to sleeping in his kennel for when we left him at my moms or whatever. We leave in 3 weeks for vacation and i dont want my mom to put up with no sleeping because of his bad sleeping habits!

on a side note he is getting neutered on July 5th and will be gone early july 5th through mid day july 6th. I feel like we may start making progress if we put something into motion and then back off once his surgery as we will feel bad for him.

one more thing... he has stayed in his kennel for up to 7 hours while we were gone during hte day and kept his kennel clean. it doesnt happen a l ot where we are gone for long stretches but 3-4 hours is common, 6 to 7 hours has only happened a few times but he did well with it, besides being wired and having to go potty really bad when we got home.

OR am i fighting a battle i shouldnt fight? Should i just let him sleep in our room/bed and everyone geta good nights sleep?? and if i do that what do we do when we are on vacation and he stays at my moms??

HELP! Thanks for any advice!

 

Well last night was our first night of retraining him. we decided when it is bedtime he needs to go to bed. if he barks we just move his kennel to the kitchen where it isnt as loud for us. THen if he wakes in the middle of the night he can just bark too as he can hold it for up to 7 hours forsure and probably longer since he is almost 5 mths old. So then we wake up 6.5-7 hours later and we get up so it is US waking him and not him waking us. we figure that way we can move the time back after he gets use to this routine?! not sure if it will work that way or not.

Last night he went to bed around 10:40, he was barking for a good hour as he was barking still when i went to bed. then our son was up at 3 with a nightmare, the dog heard him so he was up barking. we just let him bark and he quieted down after 15 or so minutes. My husband got up around 5 and went out to the living room, Jedi woke shortly after.

So overall it seemed to work although he barked a lot but he just needs to get re-use to the routine. I hope it works.

What do you all think???

Any ideas to make it easier on our puppy for us leaving him for our vacation?????????????????????? He is staying with my mom but i would like it to be easy for her and our puppy!

thanks for any input anyone wants to offer!!!!!!????????

 

Hi,
It just sounds as though the baseball season has disrupted his routine, from what youve written your accurate with the reasons hes playing up and you already know you need to get him back into a routine, I have to say though that even if he was already is a good settled routine, going to another house with another person would disrupt it anyway.

Is there a reason that he starts off in your room and then is put into the kitchen? Can he not start off in the kitchen ?
You need to talk to your mom in how she needs to continue with a routine, even if it is slightly different than yours as long as she is consitent then he should settle after a couple of days. If she gives in to his barking then...as you know, hes smart and it didnt take him long to figure what works to get out of the crate.

There are a couple of things that Ive found helps also, can you leave a radio on, some people prefer talk radio, personally I usually go for easy listening music, its pretty steady with the tones, no sudden outbursts from anything and it will distract from any background noise there might be, when its complete silence dogs pick up on the slightest sound, even a cough during the night can be enough to wake the dog and kick off the desire to get out again.
Also have you tried a kong toy or something that you can put some peanut butter into or something, it will give him something to take his mind of the fact that hes on his own and crated....when he wakes during the night hopefully the scent will preoccupy him and hell start licking at the toy again. Keep in mind though he is most likely still teething so there could be some pain issues that are not helping the situation, does he have some safe teething toys he can have in his crate? its a good idea to rotate them also different toy each night that way he wont get bored with them.

For dogs that are bad for barking in the crate, intially I will ignore them, a lot of the time they will either give up or even tire themselves out and fall asleep, for the consistent barkers I have occasionally brought the crate into the bedroom within reach next to my bed, when they bark I do a quick sharp NO and bang hard on the top of the crate.....most of them dont get to that stage but the idea is the element of surprize, the dog wont see you paying any attention in coming towards the crate but suddenly theres a loud band and a loud 'disapproving' voice....if they still bark then I do it again, after the 3rd time then its a louder and quick "NO NO NO" with 3 bangs on the top of the crate again. you dont want anger or frustration in your voice but you do want the tone to be stern.

Very important....dont EVER let the dog out of the crate when he is creating a fuss....even if he is desperate to go pee just wait for that split second where he backs off or quietens (and sometimes it is literally a split second so you have to be quick).....what I do is when they are barking or scratching to get out I ignore them, if theyre calm until I go to open the crate and that makes them get a little excited then I say NO and back off.....you can also try saying 'no bark' in a steady calm voice.....and if hes not barking then follow it up with 'good no bark....no bark....good no bark' as your opening the crate door....he will learn that the door just doesnt open when hes making a fuss. Your timing in this is very important and like I said when he is quiet thats when he gets praise and gets out.

3 or 4 hours should be fine for him, at night he should be okay for around 6 hours....if its a matter of he really does need to pee every couple of hours you might want to have the vet check for a bladder infection. Do you leave some water in there for him? I dont like leaving a lot of water in crates in case they spill it but Ive found that ice cubes work well....and gives them something to occupy them, they might also help with the teething.

Hope that helps a little.

 

THANKS! we took your advice and put him right next to our bed at night and hit the top of the kennel. it is working great! last night only had to hit it when he was whining a little bit around 230-3ish. He is doing great again! appreciate your advice!

 

Your welcome.