Hi! We have a 17 week old Golden Retriever puppy, before Christmas/New Year weeks he was doing alright in his crate, he would wake us up to potty at night but then be ok to go back to sleep in his crate.. well over the holidays we started letting him nap on the couch with us during the day instead of putting him in his crate to nap… now every single night he’s going to bed in his crate (around 10:30pm) then waking up between 3:30-4:40am to potty but then will NOT go back to sleep in his crate. If we put him back in his crate he will bark non stop for at least an hour, that was our breaking point plus it seems unhealthy for all parties. If we let him out to potty and then lay on the couch with him he will go right back to sleep on the couch next to us, after he grabs his baby (snuggle puppy) and brings him on the couch too. Did anyone else have this issue? Will he grow out of it? Are we stuck for life waking up at 4 and then sleeping on the couch until we wake up for work? We are open to suggestions!
It doesn’t seem to be an issue with him being too tired since he will fall back to sleep within 10 mins if we lay with him, this seems a bit like an attachment issue but really not sure how to stop it. I’ve tried to carry him to his crate when he fell asleep just so I could go to the bathroom and he was right back to barking until I came back.
We haven’t brought him to our bed yet because we wanted to keep that boundary of it being our bed and him having his own but it feels like that may not be possible forever.
TLDR: our puppy will go to bed in his crate at night but wakes up at 3:30-4:40am to potty and refuses to go back to sleep in his crate but he will instantly go back to sleep with one of us on the couch. SOS
submitted by /u/chemicaleyes
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