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Originally Posted by Reese Last night was better, she went in her crate around 10PM and at 12:30 she woke up wining and crying, I thought she might have to go to the bathroom b/c she didn't before she fell asleep so I let her out, BIG MISTAKE. The second I let her out she was running around my bed room and didn't need to go to the bathroom. So after a few minutes I put her back in the crate. Of course she was crying and started getting really loud. I was tempted to move her to a different room but we decide to leave her in there and just try to ignore her. She cried for about 10 minutes then stopped and I think she may have fallen back to sleep.
Then later on during the night she woke up crying and we just ignored her again, she stopped after a few minutes. By 5:50AM she was awake again and crying to get out of her crate. At this point I thought since it was so close to 6:00 that I might as well just let her out b/c she didn't seem like she was going to stop this time. I am hoping that by next week she will be able to stay in the crate until 6:30 when I have to get up. I do feel much better today than I did yesterday about the whole process.
Thank you all for your posts and words of encouragement.
KLogan, I think that ignoring him would be the best thing. I noticed last night that if I ignored her she would eventually stop but when I would tell her to be "quiet and lay down", she would just get louder. I would definitely give that a try. It might be worth a shot. I too was considering taking her crate out of our bedroom but in our apartment it almost would not matter where is was, b/c we could still hear her. And I would probably just be getting out of bed to check on her, and then I would never be falling back to sleep. Has he been like this since you got him? Does he wake up throughout the night as well? How long has he been at your house? |
Reese - things got really bad with Stomper. He of course cried the first few weeks we got him, then at about 10 weeks, he would only cry a few times and we would say "No" or "Be quiet" and he would go back to sleep. Then all the sudden about at 17 weeks, he started crying the entire night!!! I was going nuts, very hard to handle when you have to work and you don't get sleep. I actually called my vet and a dog behaviorist. They both said you have to ignore them - even negative attention is good to them when confined to a crate. They suggested I move him to another room. He was still very loud and I was not sleeping even though I was ignoring him. My last hope was to put him in the garage so I could get some sleep. I felt terrible doing this. I mean terrible. I did it for 2 nights. It was now Friday. I told Stomper it was bed time and to go in his crate. That was the first time, he was scared to go in! He fought not to go in and cried/barked when I put him in - probably scared of going in the garage again. I told my husband, why don't we just put his bed down with a blanket and give him a kong with food it in the living room (away from us). We turned on the radio, put up a baby gate and turned on a light for him. Guess what? Not one bark. It will be a week as of tomorrow that he has been doing fine. Stomper is now 20 weeks old (5 months). I still get up all hours of the night because my body is so confussed and is used to getting up because of Stomper! I haven't sleeped very well, but at least he is not crying... Only time can tell. I'm still worried it will start again.
Personally, I don't think it is a problem getting that bark collar. My uncle used it on a smaller dog that barked and it worked just great. You are in a unique situation being in an apartment. Do what you have to do. You need to sleep. You will go crazy. I know how you feel!!!
Please keep me updated.