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Showing results for tags 'bedtime'.
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Hello, I’m new to the forum and looking for some general advice and/or reassurance! Sorry this post is long... We have a 6 month old border collie, generally things have been going well. He goes to puppy class and is learning well, is house trained and is learning boundaries. He can sometimes be a little anxious and seeks reassurance. He gets plenty of exercise and mental stimulation in the day. He used to be pretty good at going to bed, he sleeps in a crate downstairs and would maybe give a little whine for a couple of minutes before settling down and sleeping all through the night (between about 9.30pm - 6am). He then got an upset stomach one night and woke us up a couple of times. Of course we went down each time to let him out as he was alerting us that he needed to go to the toilet. However since then bedtimes have become a battle. He will cry and bark when put to bed. We tried the tough love approach but that was really unhelpful, he was clearly upset and we have close neighbours so it wasn’t great for anyone. We changed our approach and would put him in his crate and then sit in the room quietly talking. This seemed to help, he would bark/whine on and off for 5-10 minutes and then settle down and sleep. We’ve recently had a really bad storm in the night and this scared him. We went to him when he started barking to reassure him. He also gets an upset stomach when stressed so we let him out for that. Unfortunately he did have an accident in his crate that night. We have now gone right back to the beginning and nighttime’s are even worse then before. Last night we put a camp bed in the room he sleeps in and tried to sleep with him but this really didn’t work. He just stayed awake longer! In the end we left the room at about 3am, he whined for a couple of minutes and eventually fell asleep. It was a particularly hot night so this may have affected him. It has been suggested that we put his crate in our bedroom. We are reluctant to do this as we don’t want him sleeping there all the time and also we have 2 cats, their quiet space is upstairs and we don’t want to invade that. Sorry this post is long... does anyone have any similar experiences and if so what helped? Is this something he will eventually grow out of or should we be concerned we are never going to get a good nights sleep again!! Many thanks in advance, Emily
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Just wondering how it varies from household to household. Xena has acclimated to our schedule, since I work part time second shift a couple days a week I am used to getting up around 9 - 10 AM even on my off days. Xena usually wants to go in her crate to take an evening nap around 6:30 - 7:00 PM but looks forward to coming out again about 10:30 - 11:00 PM for about 30 minutes to an hour to go potty first and then spend some time with us on the bed after which she goes back in her crate on her own and is content to sleep till about 10:00 in the morning. Xena is only about 1 1/2 years old so maybe as she gets a little older she might want to stay up later and not need an evening nap or is that usual for most dogs to sleep that much reguardless of age ? (some evenings she is a little reluctant to go in her crate for an evening nap even though she seems tired enough for one after an active day
