We have been having issues with Simon sleeping through the night. He will go to bed just fine and walks into his crate lays down and goes to sleep. Fantastic boy. Then sometime between 1am and 3am he wakes up and decides he wants out of his crate. He will yip, whine, cry, and dig at the bars of his crate. Sometimes for a half hour or more. If you let him out he will go get a drink and happily go outside and go the bathroom. Now this wouldn't be an issue but when he is brought back in 10 -20 minutes later he is doing it again. This can go off and on for hours and we both have jobs we have to get to in the mornings. Now I do have to admit I can sleep through it okay and if I have already let him out I pull the pillow over my head and have some luck ignoring him but the boyfriend just gets frustrated that we aren't getting any sleep and that he is the one waking up first to hear it.

Any suggestions? I mean most not all but most of the time he will at least pee a little so he is not totally being a monster. Part of me thinks he just wakes up and is bored of being in his crate. This theory is supported by the fact that last night boyfriend we getting pissed and I was exhausted and had work at 7am so at 2:40 am Simon and I went to sleep in the spare room. I felt pretty sure he wouldn't have an accident and the only thing to really destroy would be a mattress on the floor or the sheets and pillows. No accidents and he didn't destroy anything but he was a little restless at one point but he would walk around the room and lay down somewhere else.

I know this is a long post but it's really the biggest issue I have with Simon. Please help. I know losing out on sleep sounds like a minor thing but I have been late to work and it is putting unwanted stress on my relationship.

Thought at almost 8 months old sleeping would be something we had down.

Picture of my monster for your trouble.

Can he be out of the crate and be allowed to sleep in the bedroom with you guys? Is his crate in the bedroom with you? They are usually calmer at night if they are able to get enough exercise during the day, and as we all know, Sibes need tons of exercise usually. I know he is still too young to do anything long distance. I know with my Beowulf, I moved his crate right next to my side of the bed, and moved the night stand someplace else temporarily. As I would fall asleep, I would keep my hand up against the crate, so Beowulf could lick and sniff and kiss my hand for comfort, knowing I was right there all night. He no longer whined and cried, and would sleep through the night. I was able to transition him from this to where he felt safe in the crate in his own room with the other dogs, who no longer needed to be in a crate. Now he sleeps outside the crate, but the crate door is always open, and about 50% of the time he'll go back into his crate to curl up and nap. Hope some of this helps!

I wanted to add:

I know it sucks, and I don't think I ever had to take it this far without first finding a better solution, but as a last resort, you might have to get through a few nights without letting him out of the crate at night. If he whines and claws at the crate, and you go and let him out, then you're ultimately training him that, everytime he wants out, you wake up and let him out. That will make it harder to keep him in there all night without letting him out. I think that was the next step I was at with Beowulf before realizing that I could just move the crate from the dog room into our master bedroom. Never had a problem after that.

The way I see it, you have two options. You can either go back to crate training like you did when he was a puppy, just totally ignore him when when he cries (and get your bf some ear plugs), or as Kevin suggested, allow him a little more freedom. When is his last potty break, and when do you usually get up in the morning? At this age he is physically able to, and should be sleeping through the night. I suspect your boyfriend is right, and he gets bored, or he could be thirsty... You mentioned the first thing he does is get a drink...

I'd recommend leaving water and a nylabone out for him. Diz is allowed loose in the apartment at night now, but he generally either sleeps in his crate, or in his alcove on the floor. He only wakes me up if he has an upset tummy (last night at 3 am). When I go to bed, he gets in his crate and goes to bed, but I leave the crate door, and the baby gate that blocks the alcove open. If I can't sleep, sometimes I'll hear him getting a drink or chewing his nylabone. Its not an interesting enough bone that he chews it right away when I give it to him, but its there in case he wakes up bored. I also give him a little snack right before I get into bed so he doesn't wake up hungry.

Btw, missing out on sleep is the worst! It makes you hate life and your puppy!

When I had this issue with Ino the first night i had her, i just let her sleep out and about by the bed. She couldn't stand being alone at night. The only thing i had to put up with was accidents in the night, but that was only for a month or so and then it dissipated as she could hold it through the night.

With Rune and Zoey I had to set a rather strict routine. No matter do they won't let me sleep past 5am. That's not a bad thing as I need to get up anyways. One thing I do at night also is I take them on a walk shortly before bed (maybe 30-45 min before I put them to bed). I do have a cover over their crates to recreate a "cave" basically. When we get home before bed I make sure to do a little brain stimulating games like hide and seek and a little tug o war. Every once in a while they wake me up at 2 or 3 am to go pee then it's right back to bed.

Hope this helps some.

We had the same thing happen when Q was a puppy. He had been sleeping through the night in his crate just fine for a few months, when out of the blue he started waking up in the middle of the night doing exactly when Simon is doing. We decided to ditch the crate for sleeping and allow him to sleep on the floor in our room. He's 2 and a 1/2 now and that's the way things remain for us. He's very happy on his bed on the floor or moving from one corner to another.

My boy Lucian did this when he was too far away from me, his crate used to be in the laundry room but I moved him next to my bed and it stopped! He sleeps a good ten hours when he has an active day! We also live in the south and can't really do a whole lot in the summer except for swimming and late night walks! It can get a little frustrating for us both! Throw two cats into the mix when he has never been socialized with them and you got a lot of tension going on! But Hopefully when you get him situated it will get better, he doesn't have to sleep near me now that he is older but the first 7 months he wanted closeness all the time!

Also Lucian still wants to constantly be wherever I am, he doesn't much care what the kids are doing around the house, wherever I walk he follows. He is very dependent, but I don't mind it! Good Luck

His crate is in our room always has been. We have had mixed results with having him out of his crate mostly just like destroyed some paper towels. But I have rather expensive sleep apnea machine so I am worried if he does decide to be bad he could financially be kind of difficult.

I also thought about it and it recently heated up a fair amount here for us so he has been sleeping more during the day and we have been exercising less because it's just so hot so I took him and we played a ton from 9pm-10pm so we will see if that helps.

His last potty break is around 11pm - 11:30pm and I get up around 6am-6:20am. If I was just me I would do the not let him out at all because I think he should be able to hold it for seven hours but the boyfriend is kind of a light sleeper. Also would having water with him just make him have to pee more?

Finger crossed tonight goes better last night was also not good.

My dogs have access to water all night long and they can hold their pee and poo for 8-12+ hours during the day and/or at night. But of course, each dog is different.

How did the playing an hour do y'all? Hope it worked out!

He has been pretty good the past two nights. And last night he didn't get a lot of exercise so he is weird. I have been leaving a bowl of water in his kennel and he really seams to enjoy that. Tonight is dog class and he is always super tired after an hour of training. I think I am going to do the not letting him out rule but I have been waking up at 5:30-6 and letting him out and then (depending if I have to go to work or not) sleeping in and giving him a few hours out of the kennel and seeing if he can make good choices. This morning he got bored of sleeping in and grabbed a nylabone and chewed on that for about a half hour and then jumped into bed and cuddled with my leg. He normally isn't super cuddly so I always get excited when he does cuddle.

It's amazing how getting a good nights sleep two days in a row changes a situation.

That's great news! Thanks for updating us.

Just got home from training class and he is like super dead also spend the day with grandma ( my mom yes I call her Grandma to my dogs) and she has a big backyard with lots of bushes and a kiddy pool and they played for a few hours and then had an hour long training class if he is crazy tonight I will be shocked. Yay days off.

Playing with the Big Dogs wrote:

Just got home from training class and he is like super dead also spend the day with grandma ( my mom yes I call her Grandma to my dogs) and she has a big backyard with lots of bushes and a kiddy pool and they played for a few hours and then had an hour long training class if he is crazy tonight I will be shocked. Yay days off.

I'm on the other end - I call my son's dog my grand-puppy. And yes, we have a big back yard with lots of bushes and a kiddy pool also (are Grammy's great  ) - the doggies run and leap and splash...and trample the hosta, trash the daylilies   If (when?) they approach my asiatic lilies, they are dead meat! And yes, the boys zonk out completely after a day of this  

Hope you had a good nights sleep - sleep interruption is the worst - my now 25 yr old son did not sleep through the night until he was 3+ yrs old. He's lucky to be alive