# She just doesn't sleep



## Dixiedog (Mar 23, 2014)

Hi, we have a 11.5 week old wire haired vizsla who is the most affectionate and brilliant dog we could have hoped for... In the day. We are putting her in a crate at night and she uses the crate in the day, she goes in happily no problem at all day and night.

She is then waking at between 1 and 2.30 and then stays awake and barks and howls, not just for minutes but literally non stop until we get up at say 5.30 with her. I know there are loads of threads on sleeping but a lot of advice is conflicting so we need some pointers from anyone who has had the same problem.

We are currently getting up to take her to the toilet when we hear her bark at 2ish, sometimes she needs the toilet sometimes she doesn't. We are not sure if getting up with her is making the problem worse but then she will wet her bed if we don't which is something we don't want as we would then expect her to be awake. We will then get up again, sometimes only to reinforce that she is in bed so all in all could be up with her say 4 or 5 times.

So should we, leave her completely, get up with her once and then leave her for the rest of the night, sleep on the sofa next to her crate for a week, get up more than once. We think we are going wrong somewhere, we won't have her in our room, we want her in her crate which she seems happy with, it seems more a combination of sometimes she needs the toilet, other times she needs the company. We are concerned we are creating the problem as she is clever. What do we do?

Thanks


----------



## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Sounds like her sleeping schedule is just off. It could take a few days of keeping her up later to change it.
With mine I always give them potty breaks, but its straight back to the crate. Some pups do better if they can see you at night. Moving the crate to the bedroom might help.


----------



## gem2304 (Mar 7, 2013)

Our wire v cried and howled terrible when we got him. After 3 nights of no sleep and with a lot of advice from people we moved his crate into our room, it was like someone had flicked a switch on him! He stopped crying and if I heard him awake I would take him outside to toilet and then put him straight back into the crate.

I know having the crate in your bedroom isn't everyones cup of tea but I found it great that I could hear when he needed the toilet without all the crying and howling. Also when I turned the lights off I would say 'bedtime, go to sleep' and now if I hear him stirring in the night and I know he doesn't need the toilet I just say the same thing and he goes straight back to sleep.

You can gradually move the crate out of your room as she gets older and a bit more settled.

mine stopped needing to toilet during the night at about 13/14 weeks but before this I would let him out a couple of times during the night but if he woke up more often I would just tell him to go back to sleep and ignore him so he didn't get into the routine of me taking him out when he woke up.

I also put a large stuffed toy in with him which he loved sleeping on although it has since been evicted because there just isn't enough room in the crate for the 2 of them!


----------



## Dixiedog (Mar 23, 2014)

That is really useful and good to hear. Ours has her teddy but most things that go in the crate at night are coming out in bits the following morning, bedding and toys. It is carnage after about 2.30am every night. I think we may have to have her closer to us to calm her, getting up once or twice is fine and what we expected, no sleep is getting tough. We thought we were strong willed until the vizsla arrived.


----------



## gem2304 (Mar 7, 2013)

I do feel for you! the no sleep totally broke me and I only had 3 nights of it.

I think they just get comfort from feeling close to you so I would recommend to anyone to try them in the bedroom (I was adamant he wasn't going to sleep in our room but it was the lesser of two evils - I love my sleep!!!)

Give it a go and let me know how you get on. 

I was only thinking to myself the other night how much Ted has progressed, he is now nearly 5 months but the sleepless nights seem like yesterday. I love my little Wire boy


----------



## MCD (May 4, 2013)

You must stay consistent and DO NOT cave in!
Our girl is 10 months old and has been sleeping in our bed and not being put in her crate hardly ever. My husband has been very soft about that subject and Dharma has crate anxiety that is horrible. We just switched from a large plastic crate to a much smaller metal crate last night. We did put her in for some time last night and then took her out for a bit too. We will have to see how the next few days go. Dharma has to be home alone in her crate today......... I will be happy with small steps but the answer has been all along to do it from the start and be consistent amongst everyone.


----------



## hcrowder (Dec 26, 2013)

Oh man. I just posted about this exact issue two weeks ago. Under the advice we received we did not let our smoothy out for the 2am toilet. We simply ignored her. The first night of this she whined for maybe 5 minutes and then settled in and slept until we got up around 6:30. 

I was shocked. We had been letting her go to the toilet between 2-4 (when she first whined) and then putting her back into the crate. We then ignored her whining but she would howl, bark, whine, etc. until we got up for the day. It was horrible. 

We have only had one trouble since that night two weeks ago where we just didn't let her out. She wet her bedding in the crate (something she has never done) but as she was diagnosed the next day with a UTI I am assuming that was the cause of the bed wetting. As she is still recovering from that we let her out for a pee last night when she whined. She then was upset when she went back into the crate but she never got to the really noisy state she used to achieve. 

Good luck.


----------



## Dixiedog (Mar 23, 2014)

Thanks & I think we will try that tonight and see what happens, we are also trying to disrupt her evening routine as she gets really sleepy about 8ish and Just wants to go to sleep in preparation for her night time antics. It's good to hear that many others have had the same problem but somehow it seems to get better, roll on.


----------



## aliciavp (Mar 14, 2014)

We had Lazlo's crate in our bedroom for the first 4 weeks. He cried and howled the first couple nights, but for shorter stints of time - my talking to him in a soothing voice did wonders for settling him, even though he was locked in the crate. It helped that I could hear him stir so he had 1-2 toilet breaks per night, and went straight back in. As soon as he did a couple 8-hour nights, we moved his crate to our living room.. (about a week ago)

The first couple nights were fine, he didn't wake once, and was always relaxed when I came and got him in the morning.... I thought we were on the home stretch.... but this morning his barking woke me at 5am, and I came downstairs to find a COMPLETELY soiled crate. I mean presents everywhere... Two steps forward then 1 step backwards! 

Moral of this story: try the bedroom, it will help... but be prepared for speed bumps!


----------



## gem2304 (Mar 7, 2013)

Hi Dixiedog,

how did last night go?


----------



## Dixiedog (Mar 23, 2014)

Hi, thanks for asking and this is what we did.

We tried to disrupt her pattern before bed time by keeping her awake more, she then went happily into her crate very tired at 10pm.

We set the alarm for 1.30 am to take her to the toilet, we were too late. She then woke at 2 am and then barked throughout, we went down to shout 'sleep' a few times and then up at 5.30 am so all in all not much better but we know this will take some time. Our plan for tonight is to try and stick to taking her out at a set time and just see how we go. We haven't taken her into our room, we are trying to avoid this.

Thanks again.


----------



## hcrowder (Dec 26, 2013)

DixieDog, When you say you were too late at 1:30 does this mean she wet her bedding? She should be able to hold it longer than 3 hours when sleeping. If she can't hold her bladder could she have an infection?

We did move Penny into our bedroom and that really helped. She liked to be able to hear us moving around. 

What time do you go to bed? We let Penny sleep on the sofa with us from about 9pm until we go to bed. Whenever we go to bed (10:30 on week nights, midnight on weekends) we take her out for the last potty of the night and then she goes into her crate. 

I really didn't believe we would go from a potty break and whining for hours to sleeping through the night in one shot but that what Penny did. One night she whined so long that she lost her voice. Something about not letting her out at all just made it ok. I can't explain it but it worked. Perhaps try it once and see how it goes.


----------



## R E McCraith (Nov 24, 2011)

Please Note - in the word EASY - there is NO V!!!!! that says it all !!!!!!!!!


----------

