Sleeping thru the night?

[deannalew]

Our puppy "Patch" is almost 6 months old and was doing so well with housetraining until 3 weeks ago when he was neutered. That is when he began peeing in his kennel at night like he did when he was much younger. He hasn't done that for at least 2 months now, but is doing it since the surgery.

He still is doing very well in the house, he has very few accidents. He is even starting to go to the door when he has to go. He also pees on command.

He is doing a little better about keeping his kennel dry at night but he wakes us up at 4:30 in the morning to go outside. If we don't take him out, he will pee his kennel.

He loves to snuggle with us at night and in the morning, so I am wondering if we let him sleep with us, he will sleep all night and not need to get up so early? He does not ever pee in our bed and can not get down from our bed (it is VERY high). He will let us know if he has to get down from the bed.

My husband and I don't mind if he sleeps with us because he is a real snuggler, but we wonder what we would do if we had someone else take care of him while we went away sometime.

Before the surgery, he would sleep in his kennel from about 11:00pm until about 6:00 am. Still a little earley for our schedule, but better than 4:30 a.m....we are walking zombies now and are desperate for a solution!

If your dog sleeps with you, what do you do if you have to have a caretaker for overnight stays? Also, do you get more sleep or do they wiggle all night long and keep you up anyway?

Sorry this is so long, and thanks for any advice you can offer.

[LisaH]

Patches was doing very well for such a young puppy! Still is, actually. You might want to ask the vet whether his needing to pee more during the night is an after-effect of the surgery and will eventually go away.

Our Annie couldn't make it through the night until she was well over a year old. When she was a puppy we didn't crate her at night, just gated her into a small area with the crate door open and newspapers for her to pee on. Once she was about a year and a half, we locked the crate door and kept her in there all night. She'd be crossing all 4 legs by the time she'd been in there an 8-hour night! Now she sleeps in our bed, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Sometimes she keeps us awake, if there's a thunderstorm, for example, but mostly she just zonks out and we all get a good night's sleep. She comes and kisses my face in the morning when she needs to go out.

It can be a problem if the dog is used to sleeping with you, and you have to leave him with someone who doesn't want a dog in their bed. I'm not sure what to tell you about that one. Luckily we have a dog sitter who will sleep with dogs!

Lisa and Annie

[deannalew]

Thanks Lisa....I did talk to the vet when I took Patch in for his re-check 10 days after the surgery. The vet said that sometimes dogs will "forget" a bit of the housetraining after the surgery and to have patience.

We are trying to have patience, but we really are becoming walking zombies with this 4:30 am thing. I have a very hard time falling back to sleep after I have taken him outside. When I do fall back to sleep, I can't get up in the morning.

Patch does so well when he is sleeping with us that somehow I feel that he will do fine if he sleeps with us all night.

It still comes down to what we do when we ask friends to keep him. ?????

Anyone else have any advice or experience here???

Patch stays in his kennel if we are gone and can stay up to 4-4 1/2 hours without having an accident in his crate. So, he is pretty much "kennel trainied" Should I just stick with what I've been doing at night (kenneling him)?

Patch doesn't cry when I put him in the kennel at night, but BOY does he cry and bark if I put him back in the kennel after his 4:30 am potty break....we put him in bed with us and he will sleep there until we get up the next morning, even as late as 7:30 am.

Maybe I should just hold him off by 10 min. at a time when he wakes at 4:30 until I finally get him to a decent hour of 6 or 7 am. UGH....I am invisioning no sleep for another 6 months. HELP!!!!

[MARTHA]

I can't say what I do is the right thing but this is what works for me...My dashchunds have always slept in the bed with whomever they chose. Right now I have one dashchund, Sadie Mae, and one poodle, Skooter, (that doesn't know she's a poodle, she was raised by a dashchund and has spent most of her life with a dashchund.) I have never had a problem with a wet bed (except when they were sick.) They have all been known to misplace their potty training but never while in bed! - As for when I go away, I have been lucky there too. Usually when I go out of town, I take the "Girls" with me. My relatives are just as crazy about animals as I am so they are welcome where ever I go. ALso many hotels are pet friendly and some will require a deposit. You just have to do a little pre-planning. You have a plus going for you because your Patch is crate trained. A lot of places will waive a deposit if the your pet is crate trained....If you do have to leave your baby with someone, try to make sure it is someone that Patch is familar with. Also let him take his crate with him. Since he stays in his crate some during the day, it will provide a familar place, a place where he is comfortable. He should also take toys, food, treats, and his own water bowl...On a couple of occasions the "Girls" have stayed at home and a neighbor will come over and play with them several times a day, take them home with him, and then take them back. They still got to sleep in a familar place and had human compaioniship as well. The advantage that I have is that I do have two and they always have somebody to talk to, sleep with, etc.

Sadie usually sleeps with me and Skooter sleeps with my son. If, for some reason, Sadie decides to sleep with my son and Skooter I keep waking up looking for her. Dashchunds can be habit forming!!!

Good luck with your decisions!!

Martha (and the "Girls")

[WOTANSMUTTI]

<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm3.gif" border=0> Wotan sez, darned straight for cuttin' off that boyz knads....

Wotan! Off the keyboards! Sigh!<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm25.gif" border=0>

What I tend to worry most about is the high bed. Dachsies can fall out- and boing! Some sad stories have gotten started that way.

A "stiff upper lip" and a pair of good earplugs will help the 4 AM outburst when the pup decides it's time for the world to get up. It might take a week of squealing and barking ( I know- it can wrench a dachsie parent's heart out) and the little boy should know his place in the family again. I always leave a fishtank light and some soft music playing when I lock 4 month Dementia up. Her name is a direct result of how she takes to the crate...<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm23.gif" border=0>

She's trained to WeeWee pads in an emergency, but I still lock her up at night and during times I'm at work.

I'm sure the neutering has had an effect on the pottytraining and I agree, six months is great!

Wotan, my blk/tan 3 yr old, wasn't allowed a full night out on the couch to sleep until he was about 11 months old.

Luckily, he's always been such a pest at night that it was impossible to bed train him. He'd use us as human bed springs all night!<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm43.gif" border=0>

[deannalew]

Thanks for all your great advice!

I HAVE invested in a good set of earplugs and it has worked! I still hear him when he gets up at 4:30 am, but he just whines a little now and then goes back to sleep.

He now makes it until about 5:45 (dry kennel) or so and we will work on making that later, too! http://dachsie.org/ubb/smilies/smile.gif

We did try him in the bed with us one night and after about 2 hours of wiggling, squirming, etc. we couldn't stand it any longer and put him in his kennel. He went right to sleep!

We'll see what happens, but I am hoping that in a few weeks he will be able to stay asleep until about 6:30 and then if we want to move his final bedtime back to 10 pm, that would be nice,too! http://dachsie.org/ubb/smilies/smile.gif

Mommy wants more sleep....more sleep....more sleep......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[WOTANSMUTTI]

<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm3.gif" border=0> Heheheheheh!
Earplugs! Hooooman's secret weapon against the Doxie Sonic Distress Call!

Good resting, Deannalew, soon that pup will be on YOUR time and as I always tell my hubbie, dogs don't own watches...<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm27.gif" border=0>
S<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm15.gif" border=0>