Puppy won't sleep throught the night

by Kristy
(VA)

I have a ten week old Great Dane who sleeps with us in the bed at night. We go to bed around 9 or so, after two hour he is awake and whining moving from pillow to pillow and breathing really fast. I try to pet him to calm him down - we go out to potty and get a drink of water once we get back in the bed it starts all over. It seems he can't get comfortable or something is wrong. This will last for a hour or so.

Then he will go back to sleep for about 5 hours or so. I have been reading and most people say the breathing is normal, but why won't he lay still and stop whining. It's sad to see him like that. I have tried to put him in his crate (he is in a crate during the day so I felt bad) I have put him in a pack-n-play beside my bed but he did not like that, And I have put him on the floor with my other dog beside the bed and he did the same thing. So will he grow out of this with time?




Hi Kristy
Your pup is still very young and he's trying to adjust to his routine, this is one of the reasons why I have never had my dogs sleep on the bed with any of us when they're puppies, they're just too restless.

As long as he seems happy and healthy apart from this, I wouldn't worry that it's health-related, I think it's more stress-related as he's probably not really very tired at that point and doesn't know what to do with himself.

If you can make sure he gets plenty of attention in the evenings, and lots of exercise, then he should be fine in his crate at night. He may be more relaxed that way. Of course, he probably does still need at least one night-time potty break, especially with a bedtime as early as 9pm. So even if he's crated he'll still need to go out when he wakes up and starts to whine.

This is a stage all pups go through, and he will grow out of it as he gets more mature, it's just a matter of time and patience.

Hope this helps, best of luck with your pup.