Sleeping Through the night

by Melissa
(Beverly, NJ)

This is Miller at his foster mommy's house

Hello. My name is Melissa. My fiance and I just adopted a puppy from an animal rescue. He was rescued from a high kill, gas shelter in Kentucky.

He came to his forever home last Saturday, so we are still adjusting. We named him Miller. He has all ready received his first round of shots, dewormed, treated for ticks/fleas by our vet and he has been given an antibiotic for a parasite, but the vet says he's in great health.

He is a mutt, we aren't sure his true puppy heritage. He weighs 9 lbs and we expect him to be a medium-large sized dog. We have a large metal wire crate, as you described in your crating section. It's 3 times the size of him. We have placed a nice fuzzy blanket and his favorite (safe) chew toys inside as well.

The trouble we seem to be having..is getting some sleep! We go to bed at 9:30 sunday-thursday, and not usually much later then 11pm on Friday and Saturday. We get up for work at 5:30am usually, and on the weekends, sleep until maybe 8am or 8:30 on a late day. So far since we brought the puppy home saturday I have not slept more then 5 hours a night.

He's dead tired by 8:30, so we take him out for one last romp through the yard and a potty trip, bring him in, get him settled and put him in his crate. We leave a little radio on quietly so it's not totally silent for him. Then we go to bed ourselves. The crate is right in the next room (we cant fit it in our room with us). EVERY NIGHT around 12am or 1am, he is up barking like a maniac, so one of us gets up and let's him out, which he immediately pees sniffs around and then wants back in. So he is doing great with the potty thing...but when will he sleep?

We bring him back in get him settled, put him in the crate, but now he wants to play..I'm not in a playing mood at midnight, so we shut off the lights and go back to bed, he usually cries for about 5 minutes and then he's quiet...5am rolls around and he's going insane again.

My question is...will he ever sleep through the night? Or will he ever sleep past 5am? I know the night time is a long time for him to be in his crate, but we have to get some sleep too! What can we do?

Thank you so much for your help. We are trying to do the best by our new puppy and just want to make sure we do everything that benefits him the most. Hopefully, we too will get some sleep one of these days! Thanks

Melissa, New Jersey


Hi Melissa
It may not seem like it to you right now, but you guys are doing an awesome job with him and are right on track!

For him to be sleeping for 4 hours or so, and then waking to ask to go potty, crying for 5 minutes and going back to sleep until 5am is pretty amazing for such a young puppy. At that age many puppies want out two or more times a night, and cry for much longer! He really is doing extremely well.

Of course, it's enough sleep for him right now, but understandably not enough for you..... and you're exhausted which is to be expected. I promise that as long as you stick to your routine and don't play with him or go beyond basic interaction at his 1am potty break, he will soon be sleeping through the night.

He's waking because he's young and his bladder control is poor, as he gets older and can 'hold it' longer he will eventually sleep all night, as long as he doesn't get into the habit of waking in the night because it's fun and he gets to play!

You also want to encourage him to get used to 'going back to bed' in the morning after his 5am potty break. That way, on the weekends when you want to sleep a bit later it won't be such a problem. He will probably complain for a few mornings, but as with everything else, he'll adjust. As he gets older he'll likely sleep until you wake him, or he hears you moving around.

Raising a puppy is really just like raising a baby, and just like a baby he needs to be able to get back to sleep by himself, amuse himself when awake and stay in his bed when it's sleeping time.

Puppies are creatures of habit, they learn from association, and once the 'connection' is made, it's difficult to break/retrain. That's why it's so important to get it right from the beginning,and start out the way you mean to go on.

You're doing very well with him, and it sounds as though he's a smart and loving little guy. Best of luck with him!