13 Week Puppy Nightly Protest in Crate – 3 hours of protest ??

Never thought I’d post but I’m here every night so I’ll give it a go. Our AmStaff x Bully is 13 weeks tomorrow. We got her at 7 weeks – the first couple weeks she settled into her night crate well enough. There was always a bit of protest but she would soon settle and nod off to sleep. We got to a point of sleeping through the night. No major concerns here. In the past probably two-three weeks she’s decided every. Single. Night. Is a battle. That only seems to get worse every night.

For context, we have a play pen with crate in it down stairs for day time. She loves it down there and takes herself in and out of crate as desired, sleeps easily, plays happily, etc.

Upstairs, in our bedroom, we have another crate, which is her night time sleep crate. Inside of this crate is her bed, heartbeat toy, we rotate old tops that smell like us, a small chew, and a little stuffie that we had let her mum (with the breeder) sleep with to mark her scent on, although this is probably lost now. The crate is covered, the room is dark. It’s summer for us right now so we have a fan going in the direction but not directly on her. The window is open, and the inside temp is 25 degrees (c) (77F) We play YouTube videos on soft volume as my partner and I sleep with videos going, so from day one, this has been part of the routine. We have a structured pre-bed routine, and by all accounts, we are ‘doing everything right’ per every piece of advice on here, from our vet and from our trainer. So the issue now, we take her into the crate, she looses the plot. Bark bark bark bark. Usually with seconds long pauses between outbursts, before more barking. We sit with her every night, sometimes with a few fingers through the crate so she knows we’re there, sometimes not (if she’s really nippy and just attacks them)

It’s at the point where it’s taking sometimes two, sometimes three hours a night to get her to finally settle after long protest.

We have tried leaving the room, staying in the room, giving her treats, lick mats/enrichment, window closed/open, fan off/on. Mostly, we have tried having the same fixed routine/environmental factors so she’s comfortable and knows what’s going on.

I feel like we have tried everything, still every night she’s having these, what I think are “over tired protests” probably worsened by “teething” “heat” and who knows what else.

My partner and I are exhausted, our neighbours hate us, and we are hating bed time.

In just about every other aspect, she’s really good, happy healthy and friendly. She goes to work with my partner each day, well socialised, heaps of training, enrichment, love and play. What the hell do we do Thanks !