Jethro is 6 1/2 months old now and doing great, was recently neutered and I had thought we were moving upward with his behaviors, give or take the normal puppy stages. Recently however Jethro has been waking up in the middle of the night and going on my floors instead of alerting me to needing to go out, more annoying however is that since around 4 months he used to sleep completely through the night not needing to go out. He is/was a clock and we had a routine, now he's thrown me for a loop.

He is crate trained and starts his night in the crate, but around 5 months he regressed a bit and wouldn't sleep past 5-6am and would whine for the hour or two hours until 7am wake up time (I would wake up and take him out to potty then back in his crate when he would first wake up) all because he didn't want to continue sleeping in his crate any longer. When I would wake up to let him out and give up rest he would promptly go to his favorite nap spot and resuming sleeping until 9am. I was furious and exhausted for a month, changing everything about our evening routine, giving dinner later, pushing back bed time, making sure he excercised and went before bed, all that did was make me more tired as bed time would be 11-12am and he'd get up five hours later. We made the decision to change our morning routine, Jethro has been able to unlatch the bottom of his crate and, if really wanting, would sneak out making a huge fuss and loads of noise. When we put him to bed at night we only latched the bottom, so when he is tired of being in his crate he lets himself out and resumes his sleep on the bottom step or couch. We are completely fine with this because for the last 4-5 weeks we've all slept until 7am peacefully and happily, that is until recently.

My biggest question is how long will he continue to go in the middle of the night when I go back and start crating him through again to fix the behavior, my fear is that he will wake me up again at all hours begging to be allowed out and I'll go back to being the miserable exhausted person I once was. Someone please tell me that after a few nights he will re learn that nighttime is for sleeping!

Also I never ran to him when he whined, and he knows that he doesn't get out unless he is quiet, but he continued to whine anyway for hours, even after going outside to potty. I chose sleep and sanity over trying to out stubborn him because it literally would be hours straight of him whining and thrashing about in his crate and me sitting upstairs ignoring him unable to sleep because he was being so loud

How long ago was he fixed? A week or two, or just days ago? For the most part being fixed shouldn't make a difference in his potty schedule at all but the upset of being left at the vet may cause some regression, especially if you had to leave him there over night. What the neuter could do though is cause a UTI and I would make sure he doesn't have one first and foremost. If all is clear I would go right into retraining him. No more letting himself out where he can just go without anyone knowing. Have you ever crated him in the room with you at night to see if that won't keep him quiet longer? He is also at that age where the terrible teens start kicking in and you are going to have to tough love him more than ever. It won't be fun and there will probably be some sleepless nights because of the routine you have going with him that he is going to try and take advantage of. He's also at that age where he just needs more exercise and you will have to get creative on how to give it to him since he's still too young for major work.

He was neutered over 2 weeks ago, so no UTI or anything like that, I'm sure it's just the teen years so it's annoying. We've tried crating him in our room with us, but he would whine the whole night wanting to be out and explore, we don't allow him in our bedroom any other time so it's a treat if he gets in. He really does better sleeping on his own except for this last bit. I'll increase his excercise as much as I can, he does get a 2 Mile walk every morning and lots of outdoor play time, and on weekends we take him to the park and trails and hike for 4 miles at least, I'm just hoping we can nip this quickly because I would really hate to go back to so many sleepless nights! Here's hoping lol

Does your days break up in a manor that would let you do the 2 mile at night before he goes to bed? Or split it with a mile in the morning and a mile at night? Mine get really restless at night during the summer and spring because there's more critters out moving around. It's frustrating. They can hear them or smell them and so they wander. Have you noticed him drinking more in the evenings?

I am home with him all day, I'll try breaking up his walk, he's been pretty good about stopping eating and drinking in the evenings, is usually done around 7pm and will sometimes nap until I put him to bed, which is why I'm so flummoxed. I have been leaving his water bowl out, since it usually is fairly low at that time and I have noticed him emptying it by morning, but it's not a significant amount, I'll go back to removing water completely. We haven't had a problem with any of his routine until a few days ago, so it's all just been a nuisance because I know he knows better

I do have to throw in this twist - is there anything different about your routine. One of our members recently came up pregnant (now how'd that happen?) and her pup knew it about as soon as she did - he started acting, if I remember the phrase correctly) "odd".

Other minor changes can upset a pups routine. Things like suddenly finding a new TV-serial that you've started watching that puts his evening walk off for a bit. Simple things ....

Anything ????

My husband and I have been trying to get pregnant for a while, but it's too early for human ways to know if I am, so unless he is super sensitive and all knowing I have no way of knowing lol.

Other than that our routine is exactly the same, he's never had an evening walk, I usually do his rigorous excercise in the morning because it keeps him comfortable and fairly mellow the rest of the day so I can clean do laundry etc without a hyperactive pup demanding my attention, he does get plenty of indoor and outdoor play throughout the day too. No new TV programs, I'm baffled and can only say that he's being a teenager and testing his place to see where he stands

lynnroth wrote:

My husband and I have been trying to get pregnant for a while, but it's too early for human ways to know if I am, so unless he is super sensitive and all knowing I have no way of knowing lol.

Other than that our routine is exactly the same, he's never had an evening walk, I usually do his rigorous excercise in the morning because it keeps him comfortable and fairly mellow the rest of the day so I can clean do laundry etc without a hyperactive pup demanding my attention, he does get plenty of indoor and outdoor play throughout the day too. No new TV programs, I'm baffled and can only say that he's being a teenager and testing his place to see where he stands

Excuse me, but I'm LMAO!! Hopefully you're in for a pleasant surprise (pleasant, morning sickness aside).

Maybe he's getting old enough that he wants / needs more organized exercise in the evening to help him make it through the night.