Challenging Nighttime Sleep Routine

[Omarable]

I currently have a 6 month old English bulldog and our nighttime sleep routine needs to change; I am almost at a breaking point and need your help.
When we first got him at 2 months, he slept in a crate which was in our bedroom at night. He did well but would wake up really early and refused to go back to sleep after 6am in his crate. He would just cry. We realized the only way to get him to go back to sleep was going downstairs and sleeping on the couch with him.

Around 4 months we decided to let him sleep in our bed because it might make him sleep in. That worked great until he turned 6 months and now jumps off the bed and pees on the floor. Again, no way for us to live.

So we decided to go back to the crate. We’ve been at it for 2 nights. He wakes up every hour and just cries and cries. We comfort him, take him outside to pee, and put him back in the crate with his favorite Kong toy. But like clockwork, every hour he wakes up and cries. Some cries last 10 minutes, others last an hour. Last night he started chewing on the metal crate bars.

Has anyone else experienced these problems before? We aren’t sure what to do and we feel lost. We can’t keep losing nights of sleep and want him to have a healthy night sleep as well.

Thank You!
Olga

 

[2BullyMama]

Oh boy did he train you..... keep in mind, puppies can only hold their bladder for one hour more than they are months old. If you can, make sure he has a potty break right before going to bed at night and get him nice and tired too. then he should sleep through the night. As for the crate, it will be a tough time, but you can train him to sleep in there again, but you will have to be patent and wait him out --- once you open tha crate when they cry/whine/bark... they know what to do to get it open.

We also use the 'snuggle puppy' for crate time when we are at work... it has helped some.

 

[bullmama]

Oh boy did he train you..... keep in mind, puppies can only hold their bladder for one hour more than they are months old. If you can, make sure he has a potty break right before going to bed at night and get him nice and tired too. then he should sleep through the night. As for the crate, it will be a tough time, but you can train him to sleep in there again, but you will have to be patent and wait him out --- once you open tha crate when they cry/whine/bark... they know what to do to get it open.

We also use the 'snuggle puppy' for crate time when we are at work... it has helped some.

Excellent advice!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[schimpfy]

I also cover my crate with a sheet/curtain to make it darker that seemed to help keep him quiet and easier to fall a sleep.
Good luck hope you are all rested soon

 

[Enjoimangos]

The advice given by 2Bullymama is golden! Unfortunately it seems like he's trained you to let him out when he cries. The best thing you can do is ensure he's had his potty breaks and ignore his crying throughout the night. It will take time, but he will improve and so will your night time sleeping routine. I don't know if there's much you can do about him waking up at 6am and not going back to sleep though if there is please share! I adjusted my schedule and now wake up when Boris wakes up.

Is there a room he'd be safe in? You can always just move his crate into said room and just leave the door open (on the crate). Which gives him some freedom and you peace of mind knowing he can't do any harm. We used a puppy pen in our living room when Boris was smaller and would just open his crate in the AM and let him do whatever until we got up. Boris has been using pee pads since he was 7 weeks so letting him out in a pen was super easy, but you still may need to let your pup out.