Bringing home a new puppy is exciting and fun, but it's also a learning process for both you and your puppy--especially if you have not had a puppy before. The first thing you must remember when dealing with a puppy is that a puppy is a baby. Babies wake up in the middle of the night, cry, poop and pee whenever and wherever they need to, and they chew on things. Puppies do, too. When a baby wakes up in the middle of the night, you don't holler at him, you check on him to make sure he's OK. You give him love and reassurance. Dogs are not much different. Follow some steps to provide that reassurance while still helping your puppy cry less and less at night.
Things You'll Need
- Dog crate
- Traditional wind-up alarm clock
- Flannel or fleece blanket
Instructions
Prepare your puppy for bed. Creating a bedtime routine for your puppy is essential to getting her in the groove for a good night's sleep. Take her outside to go to the bathroom. Even if she isn't housebroken yet, and even if she just went (on the kitchen floor), it's important to make this nightly journey a part of your routine. After you bring her in, you can play with her for a bit, snuggle with her on the couch and then take her gently to her bed or crate, which is preferably in your room. Don't allow her to sleep in your bed unless your prepared for her to sleep there forever. Make sure her crate has something soft like a flannel or fleece blanket to lie on and perhaps a chew toy to soothe sore teeth and gums.
Check your puppy when he wakes up in the middle of the night. You never know what might be wrong. He most likely needs to go to the bathroom and because even a puppy will try hard not to soil where he sleeps, he will whine and cry to get help. Take him out. Eventually your puppy will stop needing to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, just like a baby eventually does. While you can't put a diaper on your puppy, you can be reassured that by the time he's a few months old he's the equivalent of a 2-year-old child who starts to sleep through the night without going to the bathroom.
Wrap a wind-up alarm clock that makes a ticking sound inside a flannel blanket and place it inside the crate or on the bed with your pup. Your pup has been separated from her mother and doesn't understand where she went. Giving her a snuggly "heartbeat" to listen to will help her get back to sleep.
Ignore him. If, after the first few weeks at home, the crying at night has become a habit and you are sure that your puppy doesn't have to go to the bathroom, you should ignore him or, even as a mother dog would do, growl at him a bit. Growling a little and saying "hush," will give him the idea that you care but that the behavior is unacceptable.