# Nighttime Troubles With 8-month-old



## shart33 (Mar 22, 2011)

Our Havanese, Charlie, just reached 8 months and it seems like we're taking some steps backward, especially with nighttime/sleeping.

Basically, Charlie is barking in the middle of the night. He sleeps in an ex-pen on our main floor. When he barks, I take him out and sometimes he does his business, but then he doesn't want to go back in his pen. He starts barking again. Noise carries through our whole house because of the floorplan and wood floors, so needless to say, my attempts at letting him bark it out aren't working. Eventually, I cave and bring him upstairs. 

Then, he tends to want to play in the bed or sits at the edge and barks/whines. Our bed is really tall, so if I let him down, he goes to our girls' rooms and tries to go inside to wake them up. I don't like letting him roam the house because he is not fully trained. 

Last night, my oldest heard him and tried to put him in the bed with her. Once again, he wouldn't settle down. I ended up going downstairs with him and sleeping on the coach so he would at least be on the main floor and quiet. He really doesn't like to be away from me and follows me wherever I go in the house. His potty training has been sketchier lately, too.

Last week when this happened, I put him outside for a while. My husband reminded me not to do this, though, because we live off open space and there are coyotes. 

I'm thinking I need to go back to the crate and actually shutting him in there but am afraid this will stress him out and he won't adjust to it. 

As you can imagine, we are all tired. Last night, I was up on and off all night from 1:30 onward.

I am just wondering if anyone else has had this type of behavior at this stage, and how you got through it? Up until now, he's slept through the night well, although he's an early riser - between 5 and 6:30 a.m. 

I'm thinking I need to step up his exercise in the daytime - maybe take him over to the dog park, too. 

Now, the little stinker is sleeping soundly on the floor and will do so most of the day. It's like he's reversed his schedules.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!


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## pjewel (Apr 11, 2007)

Hi, and welcome to the group. Why not try to move his expen to your room for the night and let him sleep where he can see you. I know there are some members who keep their dogs in rooms other than theirs, but most of us do have ours in our room or in our bed.


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## Lizzie'sMom (Oct 13, 2010)

Hi! That sounds exactly like our house awhile back. I just brought Lizzie to bed with us and the problem was solved. I know many don't agree and feel they should always be crated, but it has worked for us. Letting her bark and cry it out was not an option for us as the kids had school and my husband gets up at 4:45 or 5 am to go to work.


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## DonnaC (Jul 31, 2011)

I agree there's no perfect answer, and you have to figure out 1) your goals and 2) what works for your puppy. Seems to me that's the lesson of the variety of experiences around here -- it's a mix of a unique dog and a unique owner .

If you don't mind him in your room (crated or in bed with you), then that's an option. For us, having Baxter in the room (crated) made it worse. Baxter is an extremely light sleeper, and every time he saw me, he barked, and I felt guilty about dh, so I tried to calm him down. Moving his crate to another room solved the problem. I'd be happy to have him in the bed, but dh doesn't want that, and, frankly, Baxter just doesn't sleep soundly enough for it.

But a more basic problem is whether he's going to sleep if you bring him into the room. I think that will involve some work -- making sure he gets plenty of exercise, watching what time he takes his naps, and taking the water away at some point in the evening. I suspect, even then, there's going to be some waiting it out. If he's used to you getting up when he wants to be up, then it will take a few nights for him to learn that that party is over! I speak from experience on this one -- it took us awhile to decide how to deal with Baxter and, once we made up our minds, we had to live with the consequences of our indecision for awhile!


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## lanabanana (Jul 2, 2011)

You might not like this answer, but we solved this problem by getting another puppy! They sleep together in a crate in our room and have slept through every night since we got the second pup. When we were having trouble with the first puppy at night (we spent the first few of her nights here, sleeping in the ex-pen with her, on the floor of the kitchen!), my sis told me that she could solve the problem 100%......just take her into bed with us! I'm sure she was right, but I really didn't want a dog in our bed. We now have double the fun in our house by having two pups. It worked for us!

Alanna


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## dbeech (Jun 16, 2009)

It sounds like he is not tired. I think more exercise during the day will help.


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## misstray (Feb 6, 2011)

Well, Brody is just over 7 1/2 months and he too is going through (what I hope is) a phase with increased barking. He now barks at the slightest noise. He started this around age 6 months. He used to just ignore extraneous noise, but now he barks, yips or growls at everything. 

At work, I can't have him barking at every person who comes in the door or he'll outwear his welcome there. I have him in a small x-pen set up there with his crate in it. When he starts with the barking there, I put him in the crate and shut the door. This usually settles him down. Sometimes I have to turn the crate around so the door faces the wall. It does slowly seem to be working. Some days are better than others, but we do have days where I don't have to shut him in the crate. He usually sleeps in there anyhow, but I think it's nice for him to have the door open.

At home, I can't have the excessive noise because I live in an apartment. We don't want to wear our welcome out there either so ignoring isn't an option. I find he's more yippy when the apartment is quiet (ie TV/music isn't on). At home I usually call him to me when he starts barking and tell him to 'quiet'. Usually just touching him/distracting him will work for a moment. Again, if he is being persistently loud, then I put him in his crate. If he doesn't settle, I put the crate cover over to block his view. Usually this works. 

At night, well he sleeps in the bedroom with me, at first he was in a crate by the bed and later on he graduated to the bed with me. This time of night it is quiet so he can hear every tiny noise. In bed it's easy because I can just touch him and say 'sssssh, quiet' in a low voice and he will (knock on wood) stop it.

I'm hoping it's just a phase that will pass. He also now is less cooperative about things like grooming and tooth brushing than he used to be and he's taken to hiding.


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## morridon (Oct 2, 2009)

I had a problem like that with my dog around the same age. I realized that I wanted her to sleep downstairs in the crate so I just ignored her and yelled down to her "Holly go back to sleep" she barked a little more and I ignored her. The next night I said the same thing and she never barked again. Just like babies they get into a habit and if we respond they will continue. Unless you don't mind her in your room, I would try that.


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## shart33 (Mar 22, 2011)

*Thanks so much for the suggestions so far*

THanks everyone - you are all very helpful, and it is just nice to know others' experiences. I contacted Charlie's breeder and she suggested trying the citronella anti-bark collar at night, as well as more crating.

I'm also going to step up the exercise.

I look forward to any other suggestions and will also post if I have success resolving this soon.

So glad there is this forum!


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## StarrLhasa (Jun 6, 2010)

It sounds as if you have an adolescent on your hands. Welcome to the party. :biggrin1:

Both of our dogs [approximately 2 1/2 and 1 1/2 years old] have been sleeping in their crates in the room next to our bedroom. We keep the radio on at night on a talk radio or sports station with the volume moderately low.

All was fine until we went on vacation and they stayed at a pet hotel. Since then, they have NOT wanted to go into their crates to sleep. For the first couple of nights, Buffy fussed, whining and barking, while Buster lay quietly in his crate. Then she was fine and Buster started whining and barking repeatedly throughout the night. I took him outside to pee and poop every hour or two.

Tired and frustrated, I finally [at 3:15 am] decided to put Buster in his smaller pet taxi by my side of the bed. He was quiet the rest of the night.

The next several nights were essentially the same. The only way I could get ANY sleep was to allow him to sleep in his pet taxi near me.

Last night I talked my DH into just letting me try the pet taxi when we went to bed instead of being up half the night first, and he agreed. So what happened then? Right! Buffy started whining because she was in her crate in the room all alone. So my DH opened her crate and she walked over to his side of the bed and laid down and was quiet all night, too.

Last night was our first decent night's sleep in a week. I guess they "won" and will sleep in our bedroom from now on.


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## JCChaplin (Oct 2, 2007)

Sounds like your dog wants to be with you. Maybe if he falls asleep in your room in the ex-pen he will stay asleep. He probably is more alert now and when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he realizes you are not there. Then he can't settle down. Our older dog barked whenever we left her downstairs. Once we brought her up to sleep in our room, there was no problem.


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## Suzi (Oct 27, 2010)

yep its the age mine barked about the same age. Try a radio loud enough so he cant hear anything else.


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## Atticus (May 17, 2011)

Exercise may really help. As Atticus gets older he doesn't sleep as much and really needs more exercise. As it can be hard for me to get away from the house sometimes we play alot of ball games even in the house. I just sit on the floor and toss a ball or toy and it really helps!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

shart33 said:


> THanks everyone - you are all very helpful, and it is just nice to know others' experiences. I contacted Charlie's breeder and she suggested trying the citronella anti-bark collar at night, as well as more crating.
> 
> I'm also going to step up the exercise.
> 
> ...


PLEASE find a good, local, positive based trainer to look at you situation, talk about your goals and help you find a way to get over this bump in the road without resorting to something like a citronella collar. First, collars in a crate or pen are VERY dangerous. The puppy or dog can get caught on the wire and strangle. Second, citronella collars have been known to get stuck in the "on" position, and just continue to spray into the dog's face until the citronella is gone. Third, I can't think of a better way to make your puppy NEVER want to be alone in his crate or pen than to use a device like this.

Finally, dogs learn best with positive training methods. There is no need to use punishing methods like this with a little puppy.


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## onemoreokie (Jul 21, 2009)

morridon said:


> I had a problem like that with my dog around the same age. I realized that I wanted her to sleep downstairs in the crate so I just ignored her and yelled down to her "Holly go back to sleep" she barked a little more and I ignored her. The next night I said the same thing and she never barked again. Just like babies they get into a habit and if we respond they will continue. Unless you don't mind her in your room, I would try that.


This is the best advice on here! A similiar thing worked perfectly for us!
Ours trained us to get up at 2 every morning...solved in one night by moving her out of the bedroom and closing the door.

Now everyone sleeps better.


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## gelbergirl (Jun 9, 2007)

please do not put him outside alone.

Is he getting enough exercise before bed? meaning, is he burning off enough energy to sleep through the night? He also might want to be in the same room as you since that is a characteristic of the breed (to want to be with his people).


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