Crying for HOURS in the middle of the night

Hi,
My husband and 14 month old cavalier Madison (blenheim female) recently added a new family member to our family, 11 week old Calvin (ruby male). After an initial "getting to know you period," Madison and Calvin get along well now, though she still jumps on the couch to get away from him during the day while she takes her afternoon nap.

Our problem is this: Calvin cries, screams, and barks for HOURS during the night, usually starting at 3:30 am. Calvin is litterbox trained, thus he does not need to be "taken out" to use the potty. We put him to bed as the breeder suggests (and as we did with Maddy till she got old enough to sleep with us) -- small playpen + crate + litterbox + blankets/worn t-shirts + sound machine/radio on softly. His playpen is in the living room, a door away from our bedroom (where we three sleep). Calvin has no problem going to bed initially, usually not making a peep as Maddy and we have worn him out right before bed. Unfailingly, however, Calvin will wake up around 3 - 4 am and cry his head off! I didn't think a little Cav could make so much noise!

Taking this board's and our breeder's advice, we do NOT get up to go comfort him; we ignore his screams & cries. Still, it goes on for at least an hour...then quiet for 30 + min... then more crying, barking, and screaming till about 6:15 am.

When he "pauses" from crying at 6:15 am-ish, we are ready to get up and start the day. We wait till he's not making a sound - open the door, prompting him to start jumping and making lots of excited noises, then we wait till he calms down and stops making noise before we touch him.

Still, we've been following this pattern for almost 2 weeks now with little/no change in Calvin's ability to sleep through the night. We're exhausted and frustrated. We have house guests scheduled to stay with us in 2 weeks and are concerned that maybe they should get a hotel because Calvin is so loud and incessant. We are starting to get concerned that his behavior won't ever end!

Please --- any advice??

We've tried the worn t-shirt, ticking clock, and the bringing the pen into the bedroom tricks -- nothing has helped.

Any advice??

Thank you!

Sometimes they do well in a crate that is covered with a blanket.

If he were mine, I'd be crating him.
He's very young and probably feels all alone when he awakens.

Our Rosie started off in her crate and at 14 months, is very happy to curl up, at the very back of her crate every night.
We've never had a problem with her making a noise, she might wake up and move about, then goes to sleep again.

Mary Alice, approx. 5 years, used to sleep on the bed but now, she sleeps on an Eddie Bauer dog bed, in our Xpen.

Rosies' crate is right beside her and they're quite happy with that set up.

Have you considered, two crates, side by side as both of your pups are quite young?

Good luck with finding a suitable solution, you must be exhausted.

Is the crate just open, and inside the playpen area? If so, he is probably running around in the pen and panicking because you are not in the room with him. If he likes his crate otherwise, you might try giving him a good walk and excercise before bed, then put him in his crate next to your bed in your room with soft blankets and maybe a worn tshirt. Close and latch the door, turn out the lights and he may be more comfortable knowing you are close by.

Worked like a charm for our girl. She loves going into her crate at night and is very content and quiet there. If we were both to get up and leave the room though, she would make a rukus for sure. They just like to know that you are close to them. Give it a try!

Could he be hungry? My puppies used to have a party in the middle of the night in their pen, with puppy kibble, and biscuits, a lot would get thrown around but a lot would get eaten

Maybe I'm reading your post wrong but do you let Maddy sleep with you at night? and leave the pup in another room??? If so then I suspect that the pup is extremely lonely and believes that you've all abandoned him.
I would put his crate beside your bed and I'm sure he'll settle down very quickly once he knows that the rest of his family are safe and close by.

If I read it wrong then I appologise.

Ha. That's how our first girl, Madison, got herself forever in our bed. But, with all my other dogs that did not sleep with us, it eventually passes. Imagine a Doberman doing the same thing for weeks on end when we brought her home!

We had this problem with Sasha... we really tried the crate, first in the kitchen but she woke up the whole household with crying. Then we moved the crate into our room and she continued crying. Each night got worse and worse until it was every couple of hours she'd be waking up and crying for us. We were falling on our faces from exhaustion.

Finally, after three weeks of sleep deprivation, we couldn't take it anymore & decided to let Sasha fall asleep in our bed with us. She slept for 10 hours straight!!!

This was when she was only 12 weeks old and not really very well trained. However, thankfully, she somehow knew not to have an accident in our bed.

She's been sleeping with us ever since. I guess she just needed to be with us at night (which is fine with us).

I'm another who has raised all her pups in her bed - 5 of them from small breed to large from 8 weeks onward. I'm just a sleep hog and can't stand the night time interruptions and find they are so much more content that way and sleep longer.

They all eventually found their way to the floor or my padded bed step . . . my Cavalier being the one that lasted the longest spooning with me and is still the one that comes up in the morning for an early snuggle.

I hear that this can foster separation anxiety, but it hasn't ever been an issue here. I do crate train during the day so they eventually get the hang of their crate so maybe that makes a difference.

Good Luck. I hope you get some shut eye soon.

Arlene and her three.

Are they crying to go to the toilet or crying for attention? Libby sometimes goes from 11pm til 5am but other times she is up several time. I never know if this is for attention or toilet. I always put her out but am black under the eyes!! She is crated. Question is - should she be left to wimper a bit or taken out? Arond what age can they hold themselves thru the night?

He's just a baby.

When Charlie was a pup, he slept in a crate in our bedroom
(I believe this lasted a total of one night).
After a few minutes of crying and wimpering, my wife said "He's just a baby" and she put him in our bed.
-No more crying.

That was the last time he slept in the crate....

My pup is now 5 months old, and he is crate trained at night. His crate is located downstairs in the family room, and we keep a blanket over the top and sides to make it more like a den for him. We sleep with our bedroom door open upstairs, so if he cries we can hear him and go let him out. He used to get up around 3:00 am each night, but always needed to go potty, so you can't be mad at him for that. He NEVER had an accident in his crate! He now sleeps from 10:00 pm to 6:00 am - pretty much like clockwork. I don't think you have to have them sleep in the bed if you're not into that. My cat would have a fit if she had to share the bed. Good luck to you!