Night Time Crying all of a sudden

Hi,

I haven't been back to this forum in a while as I've been away from my computer however I wanted to write in about Bobby's strange behaviour recently. Bobby has slept the night in his crate since we got him four months ago and we've never had any problem. He goes to the bathroom at 11 and he doesn't wake until morning. However the night before last we awoke at 2am to Bobby crying and barking. I went down to him and let him out to check if he needed to go to the bathroom. Straight away he went outside and pooped (He had only gone a couple of hours ago). Then I put him back in his cage but he wouldn't settle. I tried to leave him cry for a little, then I tried putting him in our bed but he just wanted to play. Then I let him sleep on a rug in the kitchen and he still continued to bark and whine. Finally at 530 he went to sleep.

Next morning I left for work at 930 making sure he had gone to the toilet. I returned at 13.00 to find he had peed and pooed in the house. He never does this.

Then last night, the same thing started again. At 230 he awoke and started yelping. I let him out of his crate and he went to the bathroom but afterwards he wouldnt settle. However after an hour I put him back in his crate and he went to sleep until morning.


Any ideas? He's perfectly healthy. He's eating and drinking and is full of energy during the day. I'm wondering is he trying to tell us something. I'm just confused why this has started all of a sudden.

Can you remind me how old Bobby is? If you got him 4 months ago, I'm assuming he's about 6 months old? If that's right, Bobby's right in the period of development when behavior changes and dogs act like they never learned anything in their early puppyhood. It's also a testing period, much similar to teen years in humans.

It COULD be that Bobby is testing things out. If his nighttime routine is off, his house training will be off. It's often at this age when house training has to go back to basics until the dog outgrows this difficult stage.

If you do let him out at night, it's important to put him straight back into his kennel. Don't let him get into the habit of wanting to play in the middle of the night.

It will also help if you make sure Bobby has a lot of exercise before bedtime. Extra walks, extra play time, etc in the evenings will help Bobby empty his wastes and tire him out for, hopefully, a nice quiet night.

Bobby is just over 7 months old. If he is testing us, what should you do when he wakes like this at night. We can't really ignore him. We live in a semi-detached house and I'm afraid the neighbours will start complaining if we have another nigth of this.

Well, I'd probably get him to a vet to see if there is anything causing the problem. The fact that this happened during the day too indicates to me that he is possibly pretty uncomfortable with something. I'd also try perhaps feeding once a day, in the morning, with no evening meal except something like a small dog biscuit around bedtime, so that he isn't getting a full bowel.

If you cannot ignore him then you will probably have to try resolving this by having him sleep in your room if that helps. You do need to ignore his demands for play. Maybe talk to your neighbours about what you are doing. A lot of dogs are not really happy unless they are in your room. Lucy was like this -- even if she was ignored for weeks, she would still start barking at 5am or earlier. All that stopped as soon as she was allowed to sleep in the bedroom -- she just hated being totally isolated. She is the easiest of all the dogs to have in my room -- she sleeps in one spot all night and doesn't snore!

Are you exercising him at all before bedtime? My pup used to do the same around that age, he woke up too early all ready to get up and start the day. At first I used to take him out keeping it all low-key and boring just to give him the chance to do his business although he rarely ever did and put him straight into his crate when we came in. It didn't really keep him calm so instead I started to increase his late evening walk a little and also added a short and fun training session just before bedtime and that solved the issue completely.

Good suggestions; a physically (brisk, long walk) and mentally (training session) tired dog is a calmer, happier dog that sleeps like a log.

I think you "hit the nail on the head"! I normally walk Bobby around 6 in the evening and before bedtime I just take him out on the lead for a toilet break. However last night I took him out for a second 15 minute brisk walk before he went to sleep. He definitely emptied his bladder allot more than he usually would at this time of night. He hopped into his crate after this and we didn't hear from him until this morning. Bliss!!! THanks for all your help. Fingers crossed this will continue to work :xfngr:.

:xfngr:

Good job! A tired dog is a happy dog (with happy owners, too!).