Not sleeping through the night?

[remigirl]

Hi,
Thanks in advance for any suggestions! Remi is our 11 month old yellow lab. She is energetic, fun and super stubborn! At night, she sleeps in her crate which is in the family room. She gets a least a 2 mile walk about 8:30 each night, along with long morning walks on the weekend and lots of play time. She is only crated during the day for maybe 3 hours at the most, or the occasional break when she is being sassy.

My husband puts her in the crate about 11:30, and by midnight she is whining to come out. I take her out to pee (which he has just done), and then she crates easily. Then she is up anywhere between 3-5 to poop (which she also poops during her nighttime walk). Any suggestions? She eats dinner consistently at 5:15. I am wondering if she is lonely and just wants company, but then she also does her business each time she goes outside. This has been pretty consistent for several months, we maybe get one night a week where she sleeps all night. Thanks!

[EGrant23]

She certainly could be doing it for the socialization. I really can't add much to that. We stopped crating ours at night when he was about 3 months. He is 9 months now. We weren't getting any sleep at night. It was the best thing we could have ever done. It didn't take him more than a week to learn his and our bedtime routine. He has yet to wake us up in the middle of the night for any reason and has about 5 different places in our room he will sleep.

[SunDance]

Are her stools really solid or might they be going through her system faster than normal (i.e., a bit mushy). It sounds like she should be able to make it longer between poops at her age. If her output seems fine, perhaps try feeding her later in the night and see if that helps.

[smartrock]

I wasn't thinking about the possibility that's she's waking up because she's hungry as I read your post but by 3 to 5 am, that's 10-12 hours since her last meal. She may be waking up because she's hungry but your assumption has been that she's waking up because she has to go to the bathroom, you take her outside, and she figures as long as she's out there, she might as well go. So, it could be that she does wake up to use the bathroom, and since you've been taking her out at that time, she's gotten into that habit. Or, it could be that she's waking up because she's hungry and you've thought it was because she had to go outside. You could try giving her a bedtime snack of some sort. Save 1/2 cup of her daily food allotment for bedtime, give her a couple of biscuits, give her a tablespoonful of yogurt, something like that. See if that helps her sleep any later.

Have you ever just ignored her to see what would happen? By 11 months, she should be able to go longer than 3-5 hours between bathroom breaks as long as she's not sick, having diarrhea, something like that.

[Tanya]

a few thoughts:
- make sure she does her business before bed and then ignore the whining. if every time she whines you let her out she has learned this works. she should be able to hold it in, make sure she does her business before bed and then ignore. it will be hard for a few days but should taper off after 3-4 days of being strict on the ignore.
- are the walks on leash? normal pace? at that age labs need off leash play daily. a good chance to run. some "teenagers" need 30-60 mins off leash play daily. (or more). walks are a great part of a routine but do not at all tire out a "teenage" labrador (or any active breed).
- work her brain. included some mental exercise if you don't already. make her work for her meals (lots of toys that do that, or just do some training). practice training. train new tricks. play games. lots of options.

[soberbyker]

Hi,
Thanks in advance for any suggestions! Remi is our 11 month old yellow lab. She is energetic, fun and super stubborn! At night, she sleeps in her crate which is in the family room. She gets a least a 2 mile walk about 8:30 each night, along with long morning walks on the weekend and lots of play time. She is only crated during the day for maybe 3 hours at the most, or the occasional break when she is being sassy.

My husband puts her in the crate about 11:30, and by midnight she is whining to come out. I take her out to pee (which he has just done), and then she crates easily. Then she is up anywhere between 3-5 to poop (which she also poops during her nighttime walk). Any suggestions? She eats dinner consistently at 5:15. I am wondering if she is lonely and just wants company, but then she also does her business each time she goes outside. This has been pretty consistent for several months, we maybe get one night a week where she sleeps all night. Thanks!

My understanding of crate training is to never use the crate for punishment, if that's what you mean by "occasional break when she is being sassy." Doing so tends to make the dog dislike the crate.

I have always given my Zeke his meals in the crate, he now likes going in the crate, at mealtime he'll be sitting in there waiting for room service. Although just this past week I haven't been putting him in at night, (due to his making it through the night in the crate without problems), when I was I always gave him a treat and praise for going in. It was never a problem. I also made sure a couple of his favorite toys were in with him.

As for the whining, as pointed out already, she may have figured out you come to her when she whines. Zeke tried this at first but we reluctantly ignored it, we learned there was a different tone to his whine when he truly needed to get out for a bathroom break.

Good luck with Remi.

[remigirl]

Actually they do seem to be going through her faster than normal. She poops more than any lab I've ever had! Currently they are pretty solid, but she does have bouts when they are mushy! Hmmm…..something to think about. Thank you!

[remigirl]

Thanks for the reply. She has zero problems with going in her crate, and goes in easily. By the break, I crate her when she gets snippy and aggressive with the kids, and typically she is overtired. She will fuss for a bit in there, and then fall asleep. But I get what you mean about not using it as punishment…thanks :-)