Sleepy dog mom needs advice!

[Cammie Hensley]

One week in with Riggins, and for the most part he is doing pretty great. Our one issue is around bedtime. The first two nights we had him, he was up at 4:15am ready for the day. So we caught on and have done our best to not let him snooze too much before bedtime at night. For a few days he was sleeping from about 10pm to just about 6am (with potty breaks every 2 hours). It was awesome!

The last 2 nights have been 10pm-5am. He wakes up in his crate (which is next to our bed and he doesn't cry in at night at all!) and begins whimpering, chewing on his bedding, and chewing on the crate itself. When we get up with him, all he wants to do is cuddle, maybe gently mouth a toy, and sleep on our laps on the floor. He's doesn't need to potty, he doesn't want to play much, he just seems to want the company. I even tried sticking my fingers into the crate this morning to see if it would comfort him enough to hang out on his own. Nope.

What do we do?? We live in an apartment complex and are concerned his noise-making will wake the neighbors and so are trying to keep that to a minimum but would LOVE a little more sleep! Are we asking too much of a 9-week-old puppy?

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Fudge seemed to get up around 4 or 5 am too. I took her out and brought her back to bed with us and she always went back to sleep. I loved the cuddle time and the extra sleep.

[Wynnie & Jim]

Our 8 month old puppy has slept through the night since we brought her home at 8 weeks. We always fed her at 5 PM, never gave her water after 6:30 PM and took her outside for a poop and pee at 10 pm. As others have suggested, she had a heated snuggle puppy and a blanket with the scent of her litter mates in her crate. Since puppies need a lot of sleep, you might want to consider giving up on trying to keep the puppy from snoozing before bedtime. The puppy may be over tired and may need that pre bed time nap to prepare herself or himself for the deep sleep at night.

Finally, I should add that our girl still sleeps with her snuggle puppy (SP) and blanket at 8 months. In fact, she whines if Snuggle is not in bed with her and will search for the SP if it is not in her crate. She is a sweet girl.