Teaching pup to sleep alone

TheDoc

Mod note: post moved to create new thread

We have an eight week old puppy. Yorkie bichon cross. Absolute heartbreaker love it to bits already . so friendly and playful.

First night it was whimpering all night so I brought it into the bedroom and it slept without a peep. Started in the morning so actually put it in the bed and he slept for hours giving me a lie in. Did the same the next night.

Knew it was then wrong thing to do but was killing me listening. Having the same tonight but staying strong. Just hoping he settles.

We have a crate with some toys and a little treat in it for him. He actually gets in it during the day by himself and lies there while we are watching TV etc.

Jesus lads this would break your heart. I think I'm more concerned about him annoying the neighbours

Ms Tootsie

Getting him to sleep on his own is a process. I would reccomend crate training him.

Start with the crate in the room and each night move it closer and closer to the door. This could take two weeks or more. Eventually move it into the hall / landing leaving your bedroom door open. Do this for a couple of nights. The start moving the crate closer to the stairs. Again do this for a couple of nights. Then move the crate to the bottom of the stairs. Slowly each night start moving it to the room your want him to sleep in.

Also give him something of yours (like a blanket, old hoodie or t-shirt) so he has your scent with him. As he is so young he is most likely missing his mother so wrap a ticking clock (it reminds them of the heartbeat) and you will find he sleeps much better.

Also when putting him to bed perhaps consider giving him a small stuffed cong to take his attention. Half the time they will fall asleep eating it.

We did all this with our guy and now he happily sleeps in his crate downstairs. But my god for the first few weeks we were sleep deprived and exhausted from all the whimpering!

aonb

Poor little pup - I would definately agree with previous poster - yes, an old jumper of yours, with your scent on and we always put a ticking clock near our puppies beds - the silence of an empty room must be pretty deafening to a puppy getting used to sleeping without its litter-mates.
Post a photo of him?

TheDoc

aonb wrote: »

Poor little pup - I would definately agree with previous poster - yes, an old jumper of yours, with your scent on and we always put a ticking clock near our puppies beds - the silence of an empty room must be pretty deafening to a puppy getting used to sleeping without its litter-mates.
Post a photo of him?

O and apologies to the mod, google search brought me there and it was extremely relevant. Read alot of the posts there and I guess what I read was msot of what we knew already. Crate training, some toys, something of ours. We also gave him a hot water bottle underneath to keep the crate warm.

Just seems to freak out when we leave him to go asleep on his own. Today in comparison he has just sat looking at me working from home, getting up every now and again looking for a play

andreac

Are you sure that pup is 8 weeks old??

TheDoc

andreac wrote: »

Are you sure that pup is 8 weeks old??

According to the family we got it from yes. Why?

andreac

It just looks very small. I would be very suspicious that the pup is that age. Where did you find the breeder?

cocker5

would agree with andreaC on this one, I sincerely doubt that wee pup is 8 weeks old... poor old thing should still be with its mother i suspect

ISDW

Did you get a vaccination card with him? That should have his date of birth on

foreversky

So cute .when I got my dog last year.planned to put him in kitchen for the first nite.didt go as planned slept on my bed for 8 hrs.it was like having a hot water bottle.but from then it was tough love .the 2nd nite he cried all nite(the neighbours heard him cry so they knew we got a puppy.),he hast cryed since ,hes 11 mths.had his kennel made for him. ,which he loves now.keep strong

aonb

Keep strong indeed!
That is the cutest little furball - he is going to have you wrapped around his paw - you just dont have a hope!:D

Is he eating solids ok? Might be an idea to give him a meal just before you go to bed, when they're that tiny, their tummies dont take much, so need feeding often - overnight is a long time.

JustAThought

aonb wrote: »

Keep strong indeed!
That is the cutest little furball - he is going to have you wrapped around his paw - you just dont have a hope!:D

Is he eating solids ok? Might be an idea to give him a meal just before you go to bed, when they're that tiny, their tummies dont take much, so need feeding often - overnight is a long time.

Not
Unless
You
Want
Him
To
Be going
To
The
Loo
At
Night
I
Wouldn't
Especially if you're sharing the bed!!!!

TheDoc

ISDW wrote: »

Did you get a vaccination card with him? That should have his date of birth on

Yeah card states March 23rd as birthday

To be honest we have just completely bottled in. We live in an apartment and are extremely conscious of neighbours being annoyed. We have met the neighbours loads and they are all really nice couples and families around us. So we don't want to put them out of joint.

So we had a look at then situation. He is abnormally well behaved for a pup of that age in my view. He knows to go to the toilet on the puppy pads we got, even if he is in another room with us he goes to the living room and paws the door.

We have moved him into the bedroom at night. We have a corner set out for him, and since moving into the room he hasn't made a peep. He goes to the loo on the pads so there is no real issues and he genuinelly isn't making a peep.

And I now have the added benefit of an additional alarm. It is like he "knows" when I need to wake up, as this week he has climbed up the bed, and gave little barks at me just before my alarm is due to go off! I was working from home yesterday and he was good as gold just pottering around the room watching me on the PC.

So alas we have utterly bottled it ( the girlfriend is a well experienced dog owner, I'm the noob here, and I'm getting the blame for being a softy! ) But at the end of the day have to respect the neighbours, so we will see how it goes

Ms Tootsie

Just one teeny tiny bit of advice. Scrap using the puppy pads and move to training him to go to the toilet outdoors straight away. Puppy pads are terrible at giving dogs bad toilet habits. He will end up thinking it is ok for him to go in the house and that is a very hard habit to break. I am speaking from experience on this. I would never use puppy pads again. Work on getting up in the night and taking him out to go. I know it is a pain especially at the start when they might need to be taken out two of three times during the night but if you get him to understand a command for going to the toilet he will go straight away which means you barely have to wake up to take him out.

Cute picture by the way.

ISDW

Lol, don't be too hard on yourself, I have 6 dogs sleeping on my bed every night, and they're a good bit bigger than your pup

DaisyD2

TheDoc wrote: »

According to the family we got it from yes. Why?

My DaisyDawg was smaller & was 11.5wks old when Breeder eventually thought she was "big" enough to leave Mum. I got daily updates for 3wks before & lots of contact after to ensure she was settled - of course she was, I couldn't bear the whimpering & gave in 1st night letting her sleep in with me! Lol, heres the madam, now aged 4.5yrs enjoying the sunshine on my flipflop!

Edit: it won't let me post picture

TheDoc

Thought I'd drop a little update.

So "Alfie" has been happily sleeping away in our room for the last while. Not a whimper out of him at night. And as said before, he is like the perfect alarm clock, wide awake at 7:00am when I need to get up. Another wonderful revelation is how he falls back asleep My girlfriend works around the corner from the house, so she doesn't get up until later. I take him into the kitchen ( well he potters behind me now) and we have a little play before I shoot off to work. I go back into the bedroom and kneel down beside the crate and he climbs in and nestles back asleep, magic!

In the last week though, we have wondered if he maybe would sleep in the living room. He typically lies in his crate here in the evenings when we are watching TV and has little naps during the day sometimes. It is also where he is hanging when we go to work.
So the the last week we have had Alfie here during the night, and to our suprise, not ..a...whimper. He goes straight to sleep and when I come into the kitchen in the morning ( connected to theliving room) he is just propped up waiting for me, but isn't calling out.

So to recap, we took him into the bedroom for 2 weeks a bit fearful of annoying the neighbours with the whimpering, but now he is sleeping in this living room after becoming a bit more comfortable there.

We had planned to let him have the bathroom at night and while we went to work, but maybe the smaller room and well, darker room wasn't the right choice. There is enough ambient light in the living room at night, with some noises of the fridge from the kitchen room that are probably keeping him at ease.

Huzzah!

Ms Tootsie

Great news! That is how we managed it with our guy.