How To Get A Puppy To Sleep Through The Night

8 Vet Tips to Help Your Puppy Sleep Through the Night

If you’re just starting out sleep training your puppy, chances are you’re probably wondering what tips are effective in helping your puppy to sleep through the night. Sleep training a puppy isn’t too different from how you go about it with your human babies, except for the fact that puppyhood doesn’t last as long as babyhood.

If your puppy is continuously waking you up at night, or finding it difficult to sleep peacefully in his new home, you have to get a lot of jobs to do. Fortunately, getting your puppy to sleep through the night doesn’t have to cost lots of effort, if you know the simple vet tips to explore.

Why Your Puppy Won’t Sleep?

Before you start to think about helping your puppy to sleep peacefully at night, you need to first understand why your puppy won’t sleep at night. There are a few reasons why your puppy wouldn’t sleep at night including:

A.  Separation from Mother and Littermate Syndrome. Just like human babies, they tend to get used to their mothers more than any other person they see. Your puppy may start to experience isolation distress when there are separated from their mothers or littermates. For example, littermate syndrome can be severe when it comes to isolation distress for your puppy. Littermate syndrome arises when puppies start to bond closely with each other. While this may sound normal when dogs get close to each other, it can lead to major issues down the road. And effects of this could include sleeplessness at night, and isolation distress for your puppy, especially when separated from their littermates.

B.  Change of Environment or Home. A new surrounding can bring about excitement or nervousness in your puppy thereby affecting their ease of settling down or sleeping at night. Depending on the comfort level your puppy is getting from the new surroundings, adjusting to new smells, looks, and sounds can take a very long time for your puppy to achieve.

C. Urge to Pee. Because puppies typically have small bladder, it may be difficult for them to hold it at night when the urge to go comes. Consequently, they‘ll resort to whining or crying in their crate until they get your attention.

Most importantly, how long it takes for a puppy to adjust to a new home depends on a number of factors including the type of puppy, comfort level, and biology.  So you should factor in all these things as you’re trying to help your puppy sleep through the night.

Now that you know why your puppy wouldn’t sleep, let’s talk about how to help your puppy sleep through the night using these vet tips.

8 Vet Tips to Help Your Puppy Sleep Through the Night

1.  Keep a Routine

While it might sound normal to take off straight with developing a routine bedtime for your puppy, it’ll make more sense to first understudy your puppy’s sleeping behavior and how much sleep they need. Typically, puppies sleep around 12 to 16 hours daily, but they do this only in stints throughout the day, which is very unlike humans who sleep throughout the night. So by getting to know your puppy’s sleeping habits, you can then develop a bedtime routine to make it sleep throughout the night. To achieve this, the first thing you want to do is to develop a clear and constant bedtime routine in such a way that you and your puppy will understand when it’s time to go to sleep and then make sure you both sleep at the same time every night.  However, your dog may be waking you up early than you expect, most times because they need to go outside to potty or for some other reasons. You shouldn’t go hard on your puppy or scold it if they do this, as it’s normal during their first 4 to 6 months of age

2.  Practice Bathroom Break Before Bed

If your puppy is waking you up at night, it’s probably because it needs two things: it needs to go to the bathroom, or needs your attention. By inculcating the habit of regularly taking out your puppy for a bathroom break before bed, you’ll likely have a night of whine-free sleep. One of the reasons why you should take it seriously is because little dogs have a small bladder, which means they may not be able to hold it longer than their older counterparts. As part of the efforts to ensure a whine-free night, try to also have a quick bedtime walk with your dog as you’re taking them outside for a bathroom break. 

3.  Give Them Plenty of Exercises

There are so many Pet blogs such as this that offer you helpful tips on what to do with your dog to keep them active, or how to spend quality time with your pet. But if you’re wondering why your dog won’t sleep at night chances are they aren’t getting enough exercise during the day. The bad news is a bored dog tends to become a destructive dog, digging up your garden or even chewing on your furniture. Be sure that you’re providing your puppy physical and mental stimulation to keep them healthy, confident, and socialized. A good exercise you can try, for example, could include taking your puppy for a walk or playing with toys inside. While you shouldn’t overdo workouts – because your little dog’s bones are still growing – you should try exercising your puppy for at least 20 to 30 minutes around 3 times a day. Overall, by ensuring your puppy is getting all these different kinds of physical activities, you can help it sleep better at night without having to be waking you up anymore. 

4.  Consider Mental Stimulation

Just as your puppy needs regular daily physical walkouts, it needs a daily brain workout. You must ensure you balance out the equation.  As your puppy’s cognitive skills are still developing, you need to introduce mental stimulation and play to help it with things like problem-solving and mental development. Mentally stimulating tasks like playing with interactive toys with your dog will be a great way to keep your puppy’s memory or brain active. There are many best pet supplies brands out there with pet stores that offer you quality walkout products and other accessories for your pet.  So you shouldn’t stress much before getting the right walkout kits for your dog.

5.  Crate Train Your Puppy

Creating a comforting crate for your puppy should be another tip you want to try. Don’t just choose any crate for your puppy, as the type of crate you choose can impact the ability of your puppy to sleep peacefully at night. And when you’re ready to a crate for your little dog, be sure to go to one of the best pet stores available in your area. Or you can simply check a few pet blogs or pet products blogs out there for unbiased product reviews to know what past buyers are saying about your proposed crate.  Whichever way you go, make sure you make the crate inviting and comfortable for your puppy by adding toys, a comfy blanket, or a soft puppy bed.  

6.   Give Them Something to Chew On

There are many benefits of chew toys for dogs such as improving dental health, relieving stress and anxiety, gum relief for teething puppies, and enhancing mental stimulation, among many others. When you start to sleep train your puppy, and try giving it a chew toy to keep it active. While there are many pet stores such as Amazon.com or pet products blogs that offer the best chew toys for puppies, some of our top favorite chew toys to try include liver branch, peanut stuffer, Petstages Dogwood calming 2-pack, Dogwood breath 2-pack, Flip and chew, Dogwood Mesquite, Wishbone, and many more.   And if you’re a lover of all things natural, there are several best pet supplies brands to try out when it comes to sourcing high-quality organic pet supplies for your puppy.

7.  Create Time for Midnight Potty Break

Giving your puppy a midnight potty break is essentially needed when your puppy is less than 4 to 6 months of age. At this age, their bladders are still small, which means they can’t hold it for so long. Rather than waiting for your puppy to start whining or scold it, set an alarm ahead of that time and take your puppy out for potty once in the middle of night before they start whining.  

8.  Consult With a Veterinarian and Dog Trainer

With several pet blogs springing up today, it’s easy to learn almost anything online including how to sleep train your puppy. If after trying everything outlined above you’re still having a trouble helping your puppy sleep peacefully at night, it’s time to consult with your veterinarian and dog trainer. Perhaps, your dog may be suffering from one medical condition or another that require an expert’s attention. So don’t hesitate to act fast. 

More so, a certified dog trainer may be able to give you further training tips to help you out. But under no circumstance, should you opt for training collars to train your dog, especially when they’re still less than 6 months of age. 

How Long Does it Take a Puppy to Sleep through the Night?

Most puppies typically wouldn’t start to sleep through the night until they’re about 4 to 6 months old. In other words, if your puppy is still less than 4 or 6 months, you should be ready to take out your puppy once in the middle of the night for a bathroom break. 

What Do I do if My Puppy Wakes up at Night?

If your puppy is waking you up 1 to 2 times per night, this means they probably need to out to pee. But if their whining or fussing continues even after taking them out to the bathroom, they probably want attention or are bored. Instead of scolding them, just ignore the whining.     

How Do You Get a Puppy to Stop Whining at Night?

The first step to getting your puppy to stop whining at night is to understand the why. Typically, puppies whine at night either because they need to go to the bathroom or need attention. By planning ahead of time to take out your puppy for a bathroom break once or twice in the middle of the night, you can easily stop it from whining at night. However, there are times to ignore their whining, especially if you’re sure they don’t need to go to the bathroom. This way, they’ll eventually stop whining without scolding them.