Night Time/Sleeping Issues

[starkisser24]

Hi everyone!

So, I need help again! hopefully once I get some more experience under my belt I will be able to help someone else!

so here's what is going on! Toby, My 8 month Old Toy Chiuahuah is doing 2 things:

#1. Falling asleep on the couch around 8:30 and then once we pick him up and take him upstairs to bed and put him in his crate he will start whining, barking and bouncing around.

#2. On thursdays and friday nights we come home for about 1/2 hour then have to leave again for bowling and return around 10 pm and Toby is ready to play.

#3. Won't sleep past 5:30 am even on weekends

There is what he has been doing and here is the whole story!

So! since we got him he's always went to sleep on the couch while we watch TV around 8 or 8:30 then we would pick him up and take him upstairs and put him in his crate (about 9:00in our bedroom) and he would go to sleep and would get up at 5:30 (when our alarm goes off), now for some reason he is falling asleep on the couch same as before, but after I put him in his crate he whines and barks and bounces around, so we are quiet but he continues so one of us gets up and takes him out (I do take him out around 8:15 to pee and take his water up around 7:30) he pees then we come back in, we put him on the couch and he will fall back asleep in like 5 minutes, in my experience If we put him in his crate and he is awake, forget it! so I wait until he is asleep again on the couch, then take him upstairs and put him in the crate! (he is covered also). I just don't understand why all of a sudden he is having a problem with just going to sleep and having to cause a ruckus once we put him to bed even though he's done it since we got him at 4 months old. I take him for a walk when I get home, 20 to 30 minutes (this is fairly new for us) on Monday, Tues and Wednesdays then we play ball in the house for about 10 or 15 minutes sometime between 6:30 and 8. he gets fed at 6 and I take his water up around 7:30 if I can remember to. there have bee no major changes to anything in his environment! so cannot understand!


Now on thursday and friday nights we come home from work, eat and change, put him back in the kitchen (he is baby gated) leave the light on and go bowling until 10 pm, up until about 3 weeks ago we could play ball for about 5 or 10 minutes with him and take him up and put him in his crate and he would go to sleep! for the past couple weeks he hasn't been letting us do that! we come home, play ball then try to put him in his crate, only he will bark, bounce around and throw a fit! like I said before, if he's not asleep when we take him up forget it! (he is awake when i'm carrying him up). we are used to going to bed around 9 or 9:30 so when we get home from bowling we are real tired and want to go to bed and he is not! it's bad enough that regardless, he is up at 5:30!!!! even on weekends!

I know he's still a puppy, so I think this is a rough patch and I know he's got a tiny little bladder and I take that into consideration, I just don't know what to do in this situation! he ws doing great up until 3 weeks ago! My Husband and I need sleep!

Any suggestions are VERY helpful! especially since we are going out of town soon and a friend is coming to watch him adn lord knows I don't want her to be stressing out due to this problem!

Thank you in advance!!!

Carrie and Toby

 

[ryleighgirl]

By taking him out of his cage the first time he barked even if it was because he actually had to go bathroom rewarded the barking. He learned that barking got him out of the cage. So now you have to re-crate train him. Just do what you did the first time to crate train him. If you ignore him eventually he will get tired out give up and go to sleep. If you think he actually has to go bathroom wait until the second he stops barking let him outside then as soon as he is done put him right back in the cage. No playing or talking to him.

My puppy who is also 8 months sleeps exactly 8 hours. Always has probably always will. It is like clockwork. She falls asleep at 10 wakes up at 6. If I get her extra tired out before bed I might get an extra half hour of sleep. You could try keeping him up later, but I'm not sure how much it will help. You might get more sleep as he gets older...

 

[starkisser24]

Thanks for the tips! the past couple of nights he's been fine! maybe he just had a bit of a roug patch! he's only crated at night and to be honest, when we got him at four months old, there was no training! the folks who had him before us kept him inside a little "fence" in a back room and we were told he slept most of the night but would howl! once we got him, we put him in the little house or crate at night and NO problems!

I say the only thing we need to work on is the nights we go bowling! I wish I could find something that would keep him awake for the 4 hours we are gone so when we get home he can potty then go to bed! as it is right now, we get home at 10pm then we have to play with him until he's worn out and believe me with him that can take time! so then we aren't getting to bed until 10:30 or 11:00 and getting up at 5:30! friday night isn't that bad, it's thursday night! so any toy suggestions would be great!

I think I'll just have to settle with 8 hours of sleep and at least I know that he will nap during the day so I can nap with him on the weekends if possible!

Thanks again!