Waking up in the middle of the night

[Jen & Ember]

Hi DK-ers,

Ember is almost 9 months. At night she has run of the house and alternates between my bed, the carpet, and the cold tile floor in the bathroom. She always goes out around 10 or 10:30 and then settles in.  Every few nights Ember gets up in the middle of the night and rings the bell to go outside. Sometimes it's the middle of the night, sometimes just a few hours after going to bed, sometimes 5am... thankfully I hear it and take her out. She always goes (but then wants to sniff around and I bring her right back in). She of course falls right back asleep but I can't sleep for another hour or so. 

I am wondering if you think this will fade away over time or if there is something I should be doing to help prevent it? I would love uninterrupted nights of sleep... :)

Thanks for your thoughts. 

[John and Finn]

I have a 14 week old and he did the same thing except it was about every 2-3 hours.  I had to crate him and take him out once in the middle of the night.  I still check on him at 3:30 but he is usually sleeping, thank God.

[Stephanie & CJ]

First - what a cutie - he is adorable. Second - you have my every sympathy. My little guy (little being the operative word) wakes up every night without fail an I have to take him out. He is a mini (we think) about 7 months old. He goes in his crate in the bedroom at bed time without any problem but wakes between 2.30 and 5.30 every night. After I take him out he does not want to go back in his crate and whines pathetically until I give in. He has me trained. However, I too would welcome one - just one - night without the interruption. I hope you get some words of wisdom from fellow doodle parents I can share.

[Heather Martinez]

Teddy has gotten progressively better about sleeping (he's 15 months now). He slept through the night at 3 months, but he continued to wake up early. Eventually, he was waking up at 6:30 am and I thought I would never sleep past 6:30 again. That continued until just a few months ago. After he turned one he started gradually sleeping longer, and now he actually can sleep as late as 9:00 am! One thing that changed is he used to bark when he woke up. Just one bark and then another bark every 5-15 minutes until I finally got up. Then he started just whining occasionally after he woke up, or the occasional "yip". Now he only whines if he hears me get up and start getting ready in the morning.

When Teddy was 4 months old and still waking up as early as 5 am, our trainer told us to pick up his water bowl at 8 pm and not give him any food after 5 pm. Maybe this would help with Ember? This way when you take her out at bedtime, you know she shouldn't need to go again until morning. If her schedule is the same there's no reason she should need to ring her bell some nights and not others. You could also go back to basics, getting her up once a night at progressively later times until you are sure she can hold it all night. Once you are sure you can take away the potty bells at night, because you know she can hold it. She might just be waking up and ringing them out of boredom. 

[Jen & Ember]

I really have been wondering about the boredom piece. I had a hunch she might just get up because she's hot and then start to wander around...then realize no one is playing with her...then ring the bells because she knows I'll get up and she'll get at least some attention (though I try to keep it minimal...). Hm. It is interesting how it's just every few nights, not consistently. A couple times she has had runny poop (so VERY glad she rang them and woke me up), but mostly it's just potty and back to bed. 

I've never restricted water but maybe I should think about picking it up at 8. Sometimes in the middle of the night she gets up for a drink then goes back to bed. 

Such a puzzle, raising a dog!