Hi everyone. I have been reading through this forum for what seems like forever and just wanted to say quickly how thankful I am for all the great topics and responses! I decided to register today and ask a question! I have a 5.5 month old Siberian husky named Jiada (Gee-ah-dah). We have had her since she was 8 weeks old and we have been very lucky with her. While the usual stubborn, she is also very sweet and loves her routine. My question to you all is what should we do?...all of a sudden she has stopped sleeping through the night and has a hard time going back to sleep in her crate. She is exercised throughout the day and also takes a nice long walk as well. She usually eats twice a day (morning and late afternoon), goes to bed around 8PM and wakes between 5:30 am and 6:30 am to go to the bathroom. Last night and for the last few nights, she is waking around 1am and refuses to settle back down in her crate even after taking her out to potty and letting her cry for a while. If we wait an hour and take her out of her crate downstairs to her dog bed, she will sleep there until 8am! I would much rather continue to keep her in her crate, where I know she is safe. She has had the entire crate since 4 months old, so we know she has plenty of room, and she even has a cooling mat to help offset the radiant floors. Not sure if we are missing something else, or if we should consider changing her feeding routine, etc. When waking at night, she will only pee, and most times doesn't even pee! Any suggestions or thoughts would be appreciated

I hate to say it, but she just trained you to let her sleep outside of the crate at night. Zhukov did the same thing with me, and it took a while to get him back on his crate training regimen. I was very weak when it came to him howling and whining and let him sleep in my room. At 5.5 months, she should be able to hold her pee through the night, with rare exceptions. I had to start taking up the water after 7pm to stop Zhukov from drinking and then needing to pee at 0200.

Now you have to re-train her for the crate. I hated it. I swear that Zhukov makes it sound like he is getting tortured to death in that crate, but I had to just let him howl it out. Sometimes he would howl/yip/whine/cry/scream for 1.5-2 hours. But, after a week, he is back on track and (most of the time) goes right in his crate and sleeps through the night.

Thank you Mark.  We were afraid of this!  Thankfully, we only let her sleep outside her crate once for a few hours early this morning, so I think we are prepared tonight for her to cry and howl and whine a bit.  Guess that is what earplugs are for!  Hopefully we can get her back on schedule quickly.  Thank you again.

I quit crating my husky at 3 months. He outgrew his crate and couldn't stretch like huskies like to do. I slept with him to make sure I can trust him during the night that he wasn't going to potty or chew anything. Once he was good with that it was bye bye crate. this may not work well for everyone but it has worked for both my huskies.

Puppy may need to go to bed later? With the longer days, her "clock" maybe resetting. Maybe a mid-evening play time/romp/walk?

Last night we stuck to the usual routine and come bedtime around 8:30, she went out for her last potty break and into her crate she went. She fussed for about 20 minutes and was out until 6am this morning. I think she's good to go now and we have reset her thinking she can stay outside her crate. I do think in the future when she is older, we could entertain the idea of her staying outside her crate to sleep.

Looking back at the events over the last few weeks, and I think I figured out what triggered all of this. She has been contained to one area of the house since she was 8 weeks old and since then has freedom of the entire first floor now because she hasn't had an accident in months. I think the idea of the crate makes her feel trapped when she has been able to roam freely. We will just keep letting her roam during the day and making sure she knows the crate at night is just for her to sleep in.

Thank you everyone!