Puppy Going Mad at Night All of a Sudden

Chavways

Hi All,

Back in mid May my girlfriend and I adopted a rescue puppy from <snip>. He is a Jack Russell/Beagle mix and was approx 3 months old when we got him.

Since day 1, he has been sleeping in the kitchen in a nice comfy bed we bought him. The first few nights were filled with barks and door scratches but after that he was absolutely fine for approx 2 months, sleeping every night from about 11pm until 7am and going to the toilet on a puppy pad whenever he needed to. We left the radio on in the kitchen and gave him some toys and stuff at night to keep him entertained.

Fast forward to the end of July and something seemed to change. His routine going to bed is the same but now he will sleep from approx 10/11pm until 2am and then start scratching the door and whining. We have tried ignoring him but he continues to do it for hours. We have tried for many days in a row to go down to him immediately when we hear him to tell him to stop and put him right back to bed which he does but he starts again a few minutes later (even if I wait in the sitting room for him to start up again!).

We thought he might need to go to the toilet but he is using the puppy pad as he always has done and when brought outside at night, he has no interest in using the toilet/grass. We had been bringing him upstairs at around 6/7am every morning to our bed to play a bit before work but now it seems he wants to come up earlier and earlier. When he is with us, he sleeps without any drama for the few hours.

I suppose one point to note is that we go away camping most weekends and he has been sleeping for full nights with us in close proximity (car or tent) over the course of 2 or 3 nights at a time and then during the week he is back in the kitchen on his own at night. Could this be a factor and being in the kitchen making him lonely and scared?

We had thought about giving him more freedom to go into the sitting room as well at night or as a last resort, put his bed on the floor in our bedroom but this a path I really don't want to go down.

Thanks for your help in advance. I've done a lot of googling so far and we've tried a lot of different things but running out of ideas!

seamus

Teething, maybe?

If he's coming up on six months old then he should be nearly through it, but if he's teething then it could be waking him up at night, and causing him to yearn for some company.

Graces7

Chavways wrote: »

Hi All,

Back in mid May my girlfriend and I adopted a rescue puppy from <snip> He is a Jack Russell/Beagle mix and was approx 3 months old when we got him.

Since day 1, he has been sleeping in the kitchen in a nice comfy bed we bought him. The first few nights were filled with barks and door scratches but after that he was absolutely fine for approx 2 months, sleeping every night from about 11pm until 7am and going to the toilet on a puppy pad whenever he needed to. We left the radio on in the kitchen and gave him some toys and stuff at night to keep him entertained.

Fast forward to the end of July and something seemed to change. His routine going to bed is the same but now he will sleep from approx 10/11pm until 2am and then start scratching the door and whining. We have tried ignoring him but he continues to do it for hours. We have tried for many days in a row to go down to him immediately when we hear him to tell him to stop and put him right back to bed which he does but he starts again a few minutes later (even if I wait in the sitting room for him to start up again!).

We thought he might need to go to the toilet but he is using the puppy pad as he always has done and when brought outside at night, he has no interest in using the toilet/grass. We had been bringing him upstairs at around 6/7am every morning to our bed to play a bit before work but now it seems he wants to come up earlier and earlier. When he is with us, he sleeps without any drama for the few hours.

I suppose one point to note is that we go away camping most weekends and he has been sleeping for full nights with us in close proximity (car or tent) over the course of 2 or 3 nights at a time and then during the week he is back in the kitchen on his own at night. Could this be a factor and being in the kitchen making him lonely and scared?

We had thought about giving him more freedom to go into the sitting room as well at night or as a last resort, put his bed on the floor in our bedroom but this a path I really don't want to go down.

Thanks for your help in advance. I've done a lot of googling so far and we've tried a lot of different things but running out of ideas!

I thunk this holds the answer. Not being scared etc but needing to be near you at night

This came up in a fairly recent thread and trhere were some great ideas. Maybe look back at this?

Bredabe

Could puppy be hearing wildlife that scares or sends them into guard dog mode?
We have this when we had a mouse in the kitchen, it didn't bother then daytimes.

Chavways

seamus wrote: »

Teething, maybe?

If he's coming up on six months old then he should be nearly through it, but if he's teething then it could be waking him up at night, and causing him to yearn for some company.

Possibly yeah. We've bought him a pretty big collection of toys of all kinds and he has destroyed all of them within a matter of hours, even the supposed unbreakable ones we got! We have a kong for him too but would it be a good idea to get him some sort of puzzle toy for night time to keep him busy?

Chavways

Graces7 wrote: »

I thunk this holds the answer. Not being scared etc but needing to be near you at night

This came up in a fairly recent thread and trhere were some great ideas. Maybe look back at this?

Saw that thread alright. It seems that giving the dog more space and clothing items that smell like us might do the trick. That's one thing we haven't tried yet.

Chavways

Bredabe wrote: »

Could puppy be hearing wildlife that scares or sends them into guard dog mode?
We have this when we had a mouse in the kitchen, it didn't bother then daytimes.

He doesn't seem to ever bark at night, just scratch and whine so I feel like its more anxiety than fear/anger because of a threat. We're living in a pretty quiet housing estate so nothing really goes on at night and there is never any noisy wildlife apart from a few birds in the late morning.


No evidence in the house of us having mice either.

Regie93

Chavways wrote: »

Saw that thread alright. It seems that giving the dog more space and clothing items that smell like us might do the trick. That's one thing we haven't tried yet.

Probably it should help. I remember the dog we've adopted for my cousin. He cried all night long until somebody allowed him to stay in the bedroom. It's not an option if you're going to raise a good guardian dog, but I can't judge them for that, because this whining was unbearable. Luckily the local dog trainer recommended them to put an old shirt in the doghouse. Whining has stopped next night.

From what I understood, poor pup was just afraid to stay alone. They need to stay in contact with their pack.

Graces7

Regie93 wrote: »

Probably it should help. I remember the dog we've adopted for my cousin. He cried all night long until somebody allowed him to stay in the bedroom. It's not an option if you're going to raise a good guardian dog, but I can't judge them for that, because this whining was unbearable. Luckily the local dog trainer recommended them to put an old shirt in the doghouse. Whining has stopped next night.

From what I understood, poor pup was just afraid to stay alone. They need to stay in contact with their pack.

That is something I learned that humbles me. Their sheer need to be near us. as much as food or drink.
OP' the puppy so loved the camping and simply needs that all the time..

Mine has never been allowed in my bedroom as the cats need the bed(!) but there is a half door than is always open so she can hear me. at 12 she still gets unhappy when we are apart too long

tk123

Have you thought of maybe crate training him - starting with the crate near you at night and gradually moving it further away as he gets more comfortable. Once he's secure in his den it shouldn't matter where it is in the house. He's a small enough dog that you only need a small crate and you could bring it camping too... That said you'd need to put in some work toilet train him and take him out to the loo during the night so he's not weeing on puppy pads.. He should be able to hold it at this stage - my two were able to go from 11:30 - 6/7 after a couple of weeks..

Chavways

tk123 wrote: »

Have you thought of maybe crate training him - starting with the crate near you at night and gradually moving it further away as he gets more comfortable. Once he's secure in his den it shouldn't matter where it is in the house. He's a small enough dog that you only need a small crate and you could bring it camping too... That said you'd need to put in some work toilet train him and take him out to the loo during the night so he's not weeing on puppy pads.. He should be able to hold it at this stage - my two were able to go from 11:30 - 6/7 after a couple of weeks..

We had considered crate training but decided against it and it was working well for us for the first 2 months. He knows where his bed is and goes if you tell him to and he will let us know if he needs to go to the toilet during the day/evening and if we need to open the door for him to go outside. It seems really only to be the few hours at night after he wakes up once that he goes mad.

Knine

I have done a lot of camping this year and bring dogs. Crate trained dogs make it much easier. He could be screaming because he wants to be closer but also because he wants to toilet.

He should not be using pads at 6 mths. Have you tried bringing him out to the garden & putting a pad in the grass? How does he toilet while camping?

Chavways

Knine wrote: »

I have done a lot of camping this year and bring dogs. Crate trained dogs make it much easier. He could be screaming because he wants to be closer but also because he wants to toilet.

He should not be using pads at 6 mths. Have you tried bringing him out to the garden & putting a pad in the grass? How does he toilet while camping?

Thanks for the suggestion. We have never tried putting a pad in the grass. During the day time he will go out to the garden and go to the toilet in the grass and not ever use a puppy pad if we have happened to leave one in the kitchen. The garden is always his go-to. When we are camping, he will lick out faces and start scratching us slightly to tell us he wants to go out.

cocker5

Can’t help you with the crying OP sorry

But please get rid of this puppy pads - worst method of house training .. he will never be full trained using them