3 AM potty breaks.......help (yawn yawn)

[Carole Milliman]

When I brought my sheltie pup home at the age of 10 weeks she slept from 10 pm to 7 am. She was a charm! Then after 2 weeks of bliss, she started waking at 3 am, and again at 5 am. Sleeps in a crate in our room, so I hear her when she stirrs and/or scratches around. (She is now 13 1/2 weeks). I am afraid that she will learn to bark, so I get up right away and take her out. I actually carry a flashlight to see if she goes, cause it is so dark (and cold) outside. :( Then after the 5 am pee, she is off to sleep for 2 hours! We go to bed at 10 after letting her out. I am exhausted. What can I do? Or, is this just a stage that will eventually go away.

[aussiesmum]

That is a puppy :)

First, you need to set a schedule. Go to bed/walk her at 10pm. Then get up at 1:45. The at 4:45. This way you wake your dog and not the other way around. And your dog will get used to YOU waking her up and she will learn to wait. Once you have gotten 3 or 4 days of getting her up, bump the time by 10 or 15 min. Then again, go 3 or 4 days.

It takes a while and you will miss your sleep dearly! Some dogs just come home sleeping through the night. others youhave to train to do so. At 13 weeks your pup is still learning to go potty and her bladder is still developing. Just take your time with her. It sounds horrible, but slowly but surely, it will work.

After about 2 months we got Aussie sleeping all night, then with the time change she started getting up at 5:45. So then we started again, up at 5;30. Now we are back to 7am (thank god). Its all normal and is a puppy thing.

[Rebekah Hartman]

I have to agree with Lori. I have a 5-1/2 month old puppy and as of just over a week ago, he was back to getting up around 3 am (after having been sleeping until between 5-6 am pretty reliably). He's back to sleeping until sometime between 5 and 6, which works out okay more or less because my husband and I both get up pretty early. At that point, we can put him back to bed if we want to go back to sleep.

He's had a few schedule changes like that, where I thought we'd finally adjusted to making it through the night and then he started getting up again. One thing I have noticed, though, is that it doesn't seem to matter when he goes to sleep - when we've put him down at 9:30 or as late as 11:00, he still gets up at the same time to go out. I don't know if that's typical or not, but that's how it seems to work for us.

We do stop offering water at about 6:30 pm. It does get better! It all goes with all the other ups & downs of raising a puppy. Hang in there!

[aussiesmum]

I One thing I have noticed, though, is that it doesn't seem to matter when he goes to sleep - when we've put him down at 9:30 or as late as 11:00, he still gets up at the same time to go out. I don't know if that's typical or not, but that's how it seems to work for us.

We do stop offering water at about 6:30 pm. It does get better! It all goes with all the other ups & downs of raising a puppy. Hang in there!

Same goes for Aussie. For a while we tried ot keep her awake as possible until we went to bed, but we discovered it didn't really matter. She gets a good long play/walk session at 6ish, then of course we walk her in the evening, but we don't try to keep her up. Doesn't matter for her.

We also cut back on the water as well. until she was about 6 mo old she didn't get water after 7 or so. Now we make sure she doesn't have a whole lot of water, but she does have access to water now until she goes to bed.

At any rate, it does get better, but it does take time. nice to hear someone else's pup did the get up early at about 5 mo or so as well.

[heathea]

ahhh, puppyhood. There are some definate "low" points. Sorry, it will get better soon, and look on the bright side, when your dog grows up it won't ask to borrow the car. :)

[Krysta Smith]

You're so lucky that you got to sleep through the night for the first weeks you got your puppy!! Lola never slept through the night until she was about five months old :sleep: Now she sleeps from about 11pm until 8am or later. Some mornings she hasn't woken up until I got up at 11am (I'm not a morning person :rolleyes: ) It will get better!!

[Hee Yung Lee]

I agree with Lorie. Set a schedule so she knows that she gets to go out when you wake up. Bogart goes out at 7am, but sometimes he wakes up earlier. He just lays back down until I get up to take him out.

[Monika Lisak]

do you think it's normal for a dog of 6 and a 1/2 mths to be waking up very early andd not being able to hold her urine? She was sleeping through the night until last night where she got up every 2 hours, i don't know if she was hot or bothered by the rainy weather, but she just kept wanting to go out, she has been an outdoor dog until she came to live with me 2 weeks ago and I leave her out during the day which i don't like but until i can get her crate trained it will have to do. I just don't know how to control her bladder??

Does anyone know of anything that can help supress diarhea??

[Eva Horn]

Monika,

maybe she has a uti?....you should catch up some of her urine and take it to the vets to get it checked..