Suddenly waking up at midnight

[Elizabeth Boychuk]

Hello everyone,

Our 16 week old aussiedoodle, Howard, has made huge improvements with going in his crate and being left alone but now he's reverting back to doing some crying at night. While he took a while to adjust to being left alone during the day, he started sleeping through the night fully at about 10 weeks and has been going to bed without a fuss and sleeping until 7 a.m. since. Over the last four nights, he's woken us up at midnight-ish (about an hour to two hours after we've gone to sleep) crying. The first night, we thought it was because maybe he hadn't done a good pee before bed but then it happened two more times. This all seems odd because we KNOW he can go all night and was doing so for like 6 weeks up until now. 

We've been letting him out each time but now I'm worried that's going to create a habit. Has this happened to anyone else? Do you think this is just some sort of a phase? Should we not be letting him out so he doesn't get used to it? 

Any help would be appreciated!

Elizabeth

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

Where is the crate? is it near you? all dogs want to be near their pack and it is most likely that when he slept through he was very tired and now when he wakes he is alone. If you can put the crate beside your bed then you can just put your hand on him and console him and he should learn to go back to sleep without too much trouble. It may take a few days because he is just a baby.  If you really don't want him in the room with you then you may have to let him cry it out but this is not something that I personally did with either human or furkids myselt.

[Elizabeth Boychuk]

Thanks. We have the crate in the bedroom. We struggled with crying a lot the first 2 weeks but since then he's been a breeze at night. He would go into his crate on his own when it was bedtime, so I'm really not sure why suddenly he's waking up and crying.

[Jennifer Corbly]

Try putting a shirt that you have wore in the crate. I also put a blanket on the out side at the floor so when Gemma lays down she can smell my scent on the blanket. That has helped so much with her crying. She is 8 weeks. We got her at 7 weeks.