Play to Sleep Ratio

[CMWhite]

Brutus is about 8 weeks. He plays hard for 45 min. to an hour than crashes for about two. I'll wake him up to go potty and try to play some more but he usually just gives me a look and goes back to his crate. Last night I tried to keep him up til 9:30-10p so he could have a good nights sleep but he was up again at 1200a. I thought he just needed to go out, which he did, then decided it was playtime. I put him in his crate and he just fussed and whined. The family need sleep and he had the whole house up at 2am. Am I letting him sleep to much during the day or is this just a normal puppy thing?

 

[JeffDery]

Play sleep ratio

Hi,

I've been there a couple a week ago. The first 2 weeks was not fun at all. Dax did the same, wake up around 12am AND 2am or 3am to go out then she didn't want to go back to the crate to sleep. I avoid the whining thing by sleeping in the same room as her's (in the guess room, where I put her crate). I lied in there an told her shhhhh went she started to whine. It worked for me. I slept in her room about 4 times and that was it. I guess she needed some kind of security. Some nights she woke up like 3-4 times and that was Hell !

Everytime she woke me up whinning, I took her out for a quick pee/poo, it's like 30-35°F at night where I live. I guess the cold did the trick. No play time at night was allowed. I put her back to the crate with some toys. She woke up once, I let her out and she went for the water bowl for a good "slurp! slurp! slurp!", and she ran back into her crate to make sure I didn't bring her out for nothing.

Now she's 11 weeks. She sleep from around 9pm with us on the couch, I wake her up around 10:30pm-11pm to let her out then I put her in the crate with a toy. She sleep until 6am-6:30am. Once, she woke up at 7:30 because she played with a 3 year old boxer the evening before.

The time she wake up in the morning is related to the amount of exercise she got the night before. The more, the later...

Last week, she did not woke up at night.

Anyway, don't give up. You'll get there.

Jeff. (sorry for the english, I'm a french canadian)

________
Dax - Femelle fauve. Né le 14 Juillet 2008

 

[LILYLARUE]

Welcome to puppy world! LOL Not much different than a newborn baby. I remember having many sleepless nights with Lily. The one thing that helped me get thru it was that my vet told me that about 4 mos. of age, dogs will sleep on the average of 14-16 hours a day. Whew!!! Couldn't wait for the catch up of sleep.

You can wear puppies out and two hours later, they be ready to go again! Kinda like eating chinese and being hungry again in no time.

It does get better, I promise! I think they think they are missing out on something if they stay asleep. It will take a little while for him to get his schedule down. It's just us the parents who suffer til then. But those wiggles and wet kisses sure do make up for all of it!

 

[suzyqdogsmom]

Yep - it sounds like normal puppyhood to me (it's been a while since I had one that little). He will soon be on more of a schedule that you can tolerate.

 

[spazsmom]

Spaz, slept almost all day, I think it's a puppy thing. At night he would wake up at about 12:00, 3:00 and 5:30am. By 5:30 he was ready to play. I would always take him outside and say "go Potty". Afterwards I would return him to his crate and if he would start whinning I would say "No Spaz". After a while he seemed to understand. What also helped was that I had a stuffed Elephant (Dumbo)that I picked up from Disneyland years ago, I put it in his crate and he snuggled with it every night. I think he thought it was his mommy.