My now 13 week old puppy came home to me a little over a month ago crate trained and sleeping through the night at 8ish weeks! Unfortunately last week we had an upset tummy and were up a bunch during the night, and now that we’re feeling better bedtime is a little bit more of a challenge.
Before the upset belly she would start to wind down around 8 or so, snuggle with me for a couple hours, do some light play around 10 (mostly just sniffing around the kitchen she’s penned in or some nylabone chewing), out to potty one last time, snuggle for a minute or two, then crate at 11 with a white noise machine and 3 sides covered. She has a snuggle puppy and two blankets in her crate (her mother one sent from the breeder and another one that smells like me).
Now, we start the night off the same – but when we come in from the last potty all bets are off 😅 she comes in from last potty wiggly and excited, pulls snuggle puppy out of her crate to play, pulls one or both blankets out of her crate to play, sprints around listening to the noise of other people in my house walking around upstairs, barks at her reflection in the window. After about a half hour of this (and me not engaging/just sitting by the crate) she’ll finally come and start to settle in my lap, and then by 11:45 or so she’s calm enough to be put in her crate without fuss.
Luckily once she goes down she sleeps through the night (crossing my fingers as I type this that I don’t jinx myself for tonight 🤞) – but my thoughts are: – I know she’s probably overtired and people might say just put her straight in the crate, but she’s been so good in there I hate to put her in and close the door when she’s THAT wild and cause a negative association. But maybe I should? – Has she outgrown the snuggle puppy and does she not want it in her crate? It’s tough because she always eventually snuggles up against it and uses it as a pillow, but anytime she comes out of the crate and it’s been in there with her she immediately pulls it out to play. I mostly hide it during the day because it’s expensive and she has plenty of other cheaper toys 😅
Anyone else experience this or have any ideas to get bedtime back to a more peaceful routine? I worry that the more this happens the more she’ll associate last potty with wild play 😅
submitted by /u/Brilliant-Prune711
[link] [comments]