# Vizsla waking us up at night



## cloquinn (May 9, 2011)

Our Vizsla, Rex, is almost 7 years old. For the first year, he slept in a crate in our bedroom. He would whine occasionally during the night but a quick "knock it off" generally quieted him down. Shortly after he turned 1, I started leaving the door to his crate open at night and had a nice bed outside his crate. My husband was deployed at the time, but Rex took to it right away. Some nights he would start on his bed and move himself to his crate. If he woke me up in the middle of the night, I would put him in his crate. After a few months of not putting him in his crate at night at all, and him never going in it, I took the crate out of the bedroom. Then, my husband came home. Starting that night (he was just over 2 years old then), he would go over to my husbands side of the bed in the middle of the night and tap the side of the bed. We thought it was cute at first, he clearly missed his daddy. My husband put him back in his bed with a blanket over his head. Fast forward 4-1/2 years, and Rex has woken us up almost every night at least once since. Is it too late to fix this bad habit?

My thoughts are to bring the crate back into the room. He hasn't been in a crate at all for years. Should I just put him in there with his bed at night? Should we just have it in the room and put him in there if he wakes us up? I don't want the crate to be seen as a punishment. He gets plenty of exercise during the day with a minimum of 2 walks and one of the walks is at least 2 miles. During nice weather he plays fetch outside or goes for long runs with either me or my husband. We need to do something!


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## Ro-Ro (Aug 30, 2009)

Not sure if this is relevant, but our Ziva only wakes me up if she gets cold. She sleeps in her crate in the corner of our bedroom, and to be honest I don't plan on that ever changing. I have always tucked her in with her blankets, but if she is restless and becomes uncovered in the night she will whine till I tuck her in again. Maybe happens once every other month or so.


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## cloquinn (May 9, 2011)

Ro-Ro,
Now that you mention it, we've been in this house for 4 years and his bed is both under the window and next to the vent. In the winter, cold air seeps in around that window and in the summer the vent is blowing cold air all the time. Perhaps we'll try moving his bed to the other side of the room first to see if that helps.
Thanks!


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## DASHAW (Jun 22, 2011)

I never think a dog is too old to be trained. My dog loves sleeping in his kennel and likes having it around as an "escape".


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