Sleepless in NJ

I have an 8-month-old yellow lab named Leo. No matter how much I let him run around and tire him out, he wakes up every night between 3:30 to 4:00 AM. He has been doing this since he was born. I don't know what to do to correct this behavior. My family and I are at our wits end. I need to have a goods nights sleep. Any Suggestions?

Background Info:
I'm no newbie dog parent. I have been a dog lover since birth. My family has always had dogs as family members. And as an adult, I have had the pleasure of continuing this tradition. I have always had multiple dogs usually pairs to keep each other company. I was parent to a Shepard/Dobi mix named Nena who recently passed away at the age of 14; Lola (Jack Russell Terrier age 7) and Bella (Fox Terrier age 11). All well-mannered and trained.

Now my dilemma: Attachment 434
Leo is my 8-month-old Yellow Lab who weighs in at a health 70 + lbs. He is being kennel trained as my other dogs have successfully been. I still have not been able to let him roam the house because he still chews everything around him. For his protection, we have kept him in the kennel longer than I would like. Leo has not been sleeping through the night since I brought him home at 8 weeks. During the initial puppy stage when he got up, every two to 3 hours to go potty and drink water, I would place him back in his kennel as soon as he finished. Fifteen to thirty minutes would go by and he would start whining and crying. I would ignore as much as possible, until I could stand no more. I mainly relented because my kids needed sleep to function during school. He was penned with my middle dog, Lola for company. Even that didn't help.

Now he is bigger and he still whines and now barks loud, if no one lets him out of the kennel. I stopped letting him go outside, because he was playing instead of handling his business. Plus, he started not wanting to come into the house. I have done the water spray every time he start with the whining, and he stops for a little while, but that doesn’t solve my no sleep problem. I have never wanted to surrender a dog before, but he is trying my last nerve. I am severely sleep deprived. HELP!!!

Attachment 435Hi First of all I would try and ensure that not all of Leo's day is spent in his kennel. Imagine how frustrated you would be if you were shut up 24/7 with not much in the way of stimulation. While he may be still too young to be doing huge amounts of exercise, he will still need a decent amount, and also training and play to tire his mind out. It's amazing how much a training session will tire a dog out. Going to your dog when it is barking or whining, will only keep that behaviour going, even if you don't do it aevery time. In fact only doing it occasionally could make the situation worse, as it makes the dog try harder to get your attention. I can understand how difficult this must be for you all, but try and change the way your boy views where he is kept. You could make it a fun place, where nice things happen, like play and treats are put, not a place of punishment.
If his waking is regularly at the same time of night, my first thought was that some outside influence is waking him up. Could that be possible? Perhaps somebody leaving early for work, could your post be delivered this early? or something similar.
Anyway it may be worthwhile checking what is going on outside your house, which may explain why he is waking, although won't solve the problem, of getting Leo to settle again.

One thing that you could try, is altering his feeding routine, so that he has a meal last thing at night. I know that there is a possiblity of it upsetting the toileting programme, but it may help him sleep through after a meal. The other thing is perhaps get a food bowl with a timer attached to it and set the timer to go off for the time he generally wakes up, and then have either a small feed in there, or if you can get a bowl large enough, a stuffed Kong in it, filled with either peanut butter or pate and other food. Freezing it before putting it in there, will make it last even longer. You could again make this part of his food intake for the day. This would hopefully keep him occupied enough to stop him from whining and barking, and then with a bit of food in his tummy, hope he would sleep.
Now talking about food, check what you are feeding him. So many complete dry foods are full of complete rubbish, and are filled with cereals used as cheap fillers, colourings, and artifical preservatives, but which can all cause hyperactivity, skin problems, and many other things. Go as natural as possible and try not to buy anything sold in a supermarket, as these are usually the cheap end of the market.

Also look at Bach or other flower remedies, or herbal remedies which may help with the problem.

I don't think that spraying your dog is going to help much. He will only learn to bark and whine when you are not around, so won't really sort the problem out, and these days 'adversives' are pretty much frowned upon, as there is usually a better way to teach a dog to stop a certain behaviour.

I hope that some of this may be of help, and that your boy Leo soon sleeps through the night and lets his family do so as well.

Regards Jan

Thanks for the advice.

I wish I could break-up his time in the kennel, but unfortunately, he is in there for about 8 hrs, during our work time. I try to come home for lunch as often as I can to let him out for at least 45 mins. I have broken out his feeding. He gets a cup in the morning about 5:30 - 6:00 am. I give him snacks, (only carrots, apples or peanut butter in his chew toy), when I go home for lunch around 1:00pm. The next feeding is 1 1/2 cup around 4:00 pm. From that point, he is out of the kennel and gets to play and go outside until bedtime around 10:00 PM. At 10:00 PM I feed him 1 cup of again, He goes potty, and then to sleep in the kennel. I have made a pallet for him in my bedroom to sleep, to see if the problem was the kennel, but he still woke at the same times wanting to play, and would wake and excite the other dogs in the process. I know that I have to work with him more. My other dogs have spoiled me. I didn’t have to work as hard to train them.

Last night we had a break through.

I took Leo for a long walk after dinner. We jogged and fast walked for about an hour. Anything to tire him out, we actually had a good walk for his first time. I thought it was going to be torture. When we got home, he went straight to his kennel and took a nap. I fed him at 10 pm gave him a cup of Chamomile tea, that was suggested by my vet and let him out and put him back to sleep. He slept until 2:00 AM. He woke up whining and I let him whine for 15 minutes. He kept getting louder so I got up, and let him out. He drank water and went right back to sleep until 5:30 AM. This I can deal with as long as he does not keep waking up through the night and whining. It is not ideal, but I will keep working with him.

It does sound then as though it is his sleep pattern that is haywire for whatever reason, and that he has got into the habit of waking up at that time.

Again I would suggest looking at what the food is that you are feeding him. I guess that it is dry, as you say that you are giving him cupfull's.

The other thing that came to mind is that here in the UK there is a plug in calming aids called D.A.P's, they also now come in collars. This apparantly heps the dog calm down and generally become more peaceful. A friend of mine has one for her collie that is a nervous dog, and swears by it. May be worth investigating. Pet stores and Vets sell them.

Be careful with the exercise, as too lond and too hard can cause damage to growing bones and joints, and you really need to be careful for at least the first 12 - 18 months. I know that you get desperate for anything that will help you get some sleep, but doing hard and long exercise over a long period of time, may harm your dog in the long run. Also make sure that you aren't feeding and exercising too close together, especially if feeding dry complete foods. Bloat/gastric Torsion is a very real threat, especially in deep chested dogs.

Do you have close neighbours? If so, perhaps warn them that you need to get the problem of whining and barking sorted out. Then wait until a weekend when hopefully the kids can lie in and you hopefully haven't got to get up for work, and don't go down to Leo at all. During the day don't respond unless he stops barking/whining, then go to him. he needs to learn that not making a noise is what gets him the attention, and not the other way round. He has learned that he can get you to give him attention this way, and be let out of his kennel, so he really need to know that this is not going to continue to work. I reckon that it would probbly take 2 or 3 days, and he will learn. If you decide on doing it this way, then do not go back even once, otherwise it will set in motion the whole thing again.

I reckon that in time he will outgrow this anyway. Perhaps give him more mind exercising things to do, puzzles for dogs, with treats when they have solved them, will tire your dog's mind out, and then the apprioprate amount of exercise. for his mind and body.

I would love to know how you get on, and good luck with this.

Jan

I will keep you posted on Leo's progress, your advice is much appreciated. You mentioned his diet and yes I give him dry food for the most part. I feed my dogs Verus lamb and brown rice brand or the beef. Leo is allergic to chicken so that's out. I also make a blend of boiled brown rice, lean ground beef with garlic, carrots and broccholi for my dogs. Which they love, the only thing I noticed is that their stool is very loose with this diet. Like I mentioned, their snacks are usually a large carrot (for Leo) and samller carrots for the little dogs or "greenies". Once in a while they get organic beef jerky, plus their chew toys are stuffed with peanut butter. I try to never feed them table food, but I won't say that they don't love bacon and pancakes every Sunday morning.

If you have any recipies you wish to share for their meals, please post. I am willing to cook for my dogs.

Attachment 443I had a golden Retriver that was allergic to the rice in any food given. This was when I started to look into what went into the dry complete foods, and did not like what I found out. I don't cook for the dog's as I am not experienced in the nutrional balancing act of feeding them this way, but I do feed a 'natural' bought cooked food, nothing artificial in it and a good meat source, it is preserved by steam/vaccume, so there is no the artificial preservatives in it. I buy this on-line and it is far more cost effective this way. I don't know what brands are available to you in the States, but if you 'Google' Naturediet, Forthglade or Nature's Menu, you may get an idea of the sort of thing I am going for.

Of course the best would be RAW, and Bill or Steph would be able to help you with this. I have tried it with my dog's in the past, but they didn't get on with it, so I went for what I am now feeding, and my dog now looks amazing on it. The other benefit of feeding RAW/naturally prepared food or home cooked, is that the teeth keep so much cleaner. I have a feeling that something in the dry food coats and stains the teeth, and if they are not cleaned can lead to gum disease as well as filthy, plaque covered teeth. Not something that helps to keep your dog healthy.

If you want to continue on what you are feeding, then try adding a teaspoon of bran (not processed) every day to Leo's food. This will help absorb any water from the gut. But perhaps the food doesn't suit him if his stools are loose, so a change may be beneficial in more ways than one. You could also probably get a good dog food cook book by searching on-line.
My present dog loves all the veg that you feed yours, and though they wouldn't be eating this if they were wild dog's, except perhaps for a little vegetable matter from the stomach of any kill, though this would depend on the rank, why not give them a little veg. if they enjoy it. Things to beware of though, is Onion's which can cause a type of anaemia that can be fatal, Raisins and Grapes which can cause renal failure. I would guess that you are aware of this anyway.
I hope that you get your much needed sleep and I am thinking of you. Stick with it, I'm sure that it will work out soon.

Regards Jan

Leo is finally sleeping until 5:30 - 6:00 am. Whooohooo...... the amazing thing I have learned about Leo, is he is consistant. He barks to be let out at the almost (down to the minute) the same time everyday. I don't need an alarm clock anymore.

Pleased that things are now coming together with Leo. Thought that they would as he gets older. Good luck with him.

Regards Jan