A New Puppy...and No Sleep.

We got a new puppy over the weekend!

He's cute and he's wearing a shirt thanks to Boo which makes him even cuter. However, I'm not getting any sleep at night.

He comes from a pretty large litter of eight puppies. He wasn't exactly 6 weeks when we picked him up, but his mama was weaning them and starting to get short tempered so the owners asked if those who picked out puppies would come and get them a few days early.

At 5:00 a.m. I was researching ways to get him to settle down and be quiet at night. I expect him to wake up some: he's just a baby, but the past two nights have gotten worse, not better. Last night I went to bed at 10 p.m., he woke me up at 11:30 p.m., I got back to bed at 1:00 a.m., he started throwing a fit again at 2:30 a.m., I got back to bed around 3:30 a.m., and he started whining again at 5:00 a.m. Bob was nice that last time and got up and came out and took over for me. He had to be to work at 7:00 a.m., so he just got up and ready for work early. Clone of Bob took over for Bob and I actually got to sleep until 8:45 a.m. This can't keep up though.

The research I was finding was conflicting in some areas, but in one aspect they all agreed: Let the puppy cry because all we are teaching him is that he can cry and get out of his crate. Do you have any idea how LOUD he is? Anyway, here's some of the information I found:

Cesar's Way tells us to make a place in his crate for him to go potty and make sure the crate is large enough for him to have a place to sleep as well. He also says to make sure that your dog gets plenty of exercise. We've been following both of these to no avail...He also said, "If your dog whines or cries during the night, do not react. Cooing or comforting your dog will reinforce his whining and send the signal that your dog can summon you at will." This is hard to do when the dog is whining and barking. With no carpet in the living room, he echoes badly.

Pets4Homes had a similar piece of advice: "If your pup cries when you immediately put them down, wait to see if they settle within a reasonable amount of time. If the crying persists, use the “no” command, but do not pander to crying or reward it with attention (positive or negative) as otherwise your puppy will come to learn that crying gets results!" They also point out that things may not get better for me until Bandit is about 8 weeks old.

I looked at a few other sites, but nothing different or major stood out to me. I may try moving his crate into our bedroom and see if that helps. I may also need to cover the crate so he knows it's time to sleep. I know I can't expect him to sleep through the night, but I've got to find a way to keep him from waking the whole house every 1 1/2 hours.