# Need some advice on 10week old night time



## Amber615 (Aug 16, 2015)

Hi 

We have a 9 week old Amber who we have had 1 week today. Night time routine currently consists of her falling asleep on us and then locking her in crate. She wakes every hour or two either for a pee or just for comforting to fall back asleep. We know she can go 3 or 4 hours at a time between toilet breaks but she wakes up more frequently for a stroke and us to settle her. We have a hot water bottle, comfy bed and a big blanket covering the crate and she is good to go back in crate after toilet break. The issue we are having is the waking is every hour. From reading all the posts on here (which I must say are so helpful and make us giggle as we read some and think that's exactly how we are feeling, did we write that?) below is our new plan but I have some questions:

No naps for few hours before bedtime
Take food away around 7pm
Put her in crate which is downstairs and leave radio on
We then plan to only come down every 3 hours to take her for toilet then put her straight back in and repeat 

Our questions are:
She literally wails when you leave her, she sounds like she is in a right state, gets hiccups and sounds like we are murdering her, is it really ok to leave such a young puppy all night wailing (apart from taking her for toilet breaks)
Are we doing the right thing leaving crate downstairs? We tried a few nights sleeping in lounge next to her but feel this makes it worse as she sees us and wants to be on us. We are hopeful leaving her downstairs will also help with the seperatipn anxiety as I can't even take a shower unless she is asleep and I go back to work this week.

Any extra tips or reassurance that's it's ok to leave her crying for the whole night as(longest I have left it so far is 1 hour before giving in as I am convinced she is going to make her self i'll with the yelping.

Thanks
Harriet


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## ksand24 (Nov 21, 2014)

Hey there,
I also have a new V pup. He is 9 weeks old today and I have also had him a week and have been crate training him. The first two nights were bad - he wailed and howled himself to sleep, leaving little sleep for me.
It seems that I have found a solution though.The past 5 nights have been WONDERFUL - he doesn't cry and sleeps all night. 
During the day when she falls asleep to nap, pick her up and take her to her crate with her blanket, leaving the door open. When she wakes up, she can walk out and find you. 
When it is time to put her in for the night, let her fall asleep on her own (while you're in the living room watching TV, working on things, etc), then pick her up and put her in her crate, just as you had been doing all day for her naps and shut the door. 
I started doing this and it made a HUGE difference the first day and every night after. 
I keep my pup's crate in my room. My den is his den. But I don't let him sleep on my bed (as hard as it is to resist) because I don't want him to develop separation anxiety when I have to leave places.

I also throw in a kong with some peanut butter so when he does wake up in the night and its not potty-related, he has something to keep him occupied while I sleep 
It has been great all week. Make her crate her home - comfy, safe, and homey. She will grow to love it


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## gingerling (Jun 20, 2015)

Hi Harriet,

Take the crate and put it in the room with you. The separation is difficult, especially now when she's still adjusting to both her new home and the loss of her constant companions. She'll still stress about being contained, but at least she'll feel your presence, and you can reach over and provide some reassurance. Eventually, she'll settle..it might take more than an hour!...but until then, don't let her out (other than for potty walks) unless you're Ok letting her sleep in the bed with you.

Don't limit her naps or otherwise interfere with biology. Likewise, try to get her on a 3x/day feeding schedule and stick to it. Always allow her access to fresh water.

Their bladders are the about the size of a walnut, so it doesn't take much to fill them up. At 9 weeks, she should go out after every meal, after play, and then probably 2 or three times an hour....even in the middle of the night. If she gets up at night and howls, it's probably b/c she needs to go out. Three hours between walks is way too long.


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## Amber615 (Aug 16, 2015)

ksand24 said:


> Hey there,
> I also have a new V pup. He is 9 weeks old today and I have also had him a week and have been crate training him. The first two nights were bad - he wailed and howled himself to sleep, leaving little sleep for me.
> It seems that I have found a solution though.The past 5 nights have been WONDERFUL - he doesn't cry and sleeps all night.
> During the day when she falls asleep to nap, pick her up and take her to her crate with her blanket, leaving the door open. When she wakes up, she can walk out and find you.
> ...


Thanks for sharing. So how often did you let him out for the toilet the first few nights? You say he sleeps all night now at 9 weeks? I would be worried to leave her howling a whole 8 hours as she goes every 2 hours currently.

Another quick q for you? Have you left him in the house for any punt of time yet and gone out? I can't seem to go upstairs for a shower the wailing doesn't stop. I don't k ow of its just because she is too young to be left yet.


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## ksand24 (Nov 21, 2014)

Amber615 said:


> Thanks for sharing. So how often did you let him out for the toilet the first few nights? You say he sleeps all night now at 9 weeks? I would be worried to leave her howling a whole 8 hours as she goes every 2 hours currently.
> 
> Another quick q for you? Have you left him in the house for any punt of time yet and gone out? I can't seem to go upstairs for a shower the wailing doesn't stop. I don't k ow of its just because she is too young to be left yet.


The first few nights it was 3 times every night like clockwork, and by 5:30 AM it was go time - he was up and ready to start the day. His bladder is stronger than I expected. He no longer cries at night and hasn't messed in his crate once. In the mornings we get up around 7:30 am and he does his business for a very long time, ha. 
If he cries, or were to cry, I would get up and let him out.

I have started leaving for short periods of time and crating him - to go to the gym, grocery store, etc. Before I leave though, I wait for him to fall asleep for a nap then sneak him into his crate.

It could be just a bad introduction to her crate? When you first introduced her, did you let her walk in and praise her, or did you put her in? This can make a difference. Make the crate a fun place. Try keeping her toys in it, leaving the door open so she can go in/out all day as she pleases, and try feeding her in her crate (door open).

Hope this helps! Best of luck


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## Amber615 (Aug 16, 2015)

The first few nights it was 3 times every night like clockwork, and by 5:30 AM it was go time - he was up and ready to start the day. His bladder is stronger than I expected. He no longer cries at night and hasn't messed in his crate once. In the mornings we get up around 7:30 am and he does his business for a very long time, ha. 
If he cries, or were to cry, I would get up and let him out.

I have started leaving for short periods of time and crating him - to go to the gym, grocery store, etc. Before I leave though, I wait for him to fall asleep for a nap then sneak him into his crate.

It could be just a bad introduction to her crate? When you first introduced her, did you let her walk in and praise her, or did you put her in? This can make a difference. Make the crate a fun place. Try keeping her toys in it, leaving the door open so she can go in/out all day as she pleases, and try feeding her in her crate (door open).

Hope this helps! Best of luck  
[/quote]

Thanks! We have just set up another crate in the bedroom to try that. She does love her crate downstairs she always takes herself to bed there in the day and feeds in there an the door is always open during the day. We think the howling is just because she wants us to sit and stroke her to sleep.

We will persist with the noise and just comfort her from outside the crate and only let her out every few hours to toilet. Hopefully she will train her bladder over the week to sleep for longer chunks. The first night we made the mistake of sleeping downstairs with her and she slept on me for 4 hour blocks either side of toilet so I know she can do it. She just really wants comforting and knowing we are there, don't know if us going to the crate to calm her each time is a bad thing and encouraging it?

We really appreciate your help, will keep you posted! Off to bed to get no sleep now


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## gingerling (Jun 20, 2015)

Realistic expectations! She will NOT "Train" her bladder over the next week..it's not a 'Training' or learning thing, it's biology: Her bladder is very small and it fills quickly. So, 'Train" yourself to get up every hour to let her relieve herself.

My V's didn't make it thru the night until about age 3.5 months, you have a ways to go.


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## momofboys (Jun 8, 2015)

Copper is now 15 weeks old so we have just been down this road! For the first couple of nights I had him in our room and took him out everytime he woke up (3-4 times) at night but put him back in his crate right away after going out, I didn't turn on any lights and didn't talk to him to keep him from thinking that it was play time. We have been lucky and he has never had an accident in his crate. After a week we removed him from our room and put his crate in the basement where it is dark as the summer hours were causing him to wake up around 5am. We had several nights of an unhappy V when he woke up and discovered that we weren't within touching distance but still took him out once per night. Now he falls asleep on the couch with us around 9pm and wakes up around 10pm we take him out one last time and then put him in his crate. He's sleeping through the night now but it still an early riser about 5:30am-6am and boy is he ready to play! We us being home in the summer we haven't had to crate him much in the day, its just been in the past week or so that we've started leaving him for an hour or two with a treat filled kong. We usually get home and hear him "calling" for us.


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