Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi Guys
We have a 4 month old german pinscher puppy who is great fun and we love other than every morning from about 4:30 to 6:30am in which he whines and whimpers and drives us mad. We initially sought to crate train our pup, with him sleeping in the living room away from any of the bedrooms. As to be expected he whined and howled most of the night for the first week and settled down a BIT in the following week. After the 3rd and forth week he was still making a lot of noise at night and this was driving us and our flatmates crazy! We decided to move his crate into our room and this stopped him howling but was instead replaced by a gentle whimper. After a few days he stopped whining altogether and would last the whole night until we get up at 6:30! What a relief! BUT, this only lasted two days and he began to whimper again but only in the early morning, anywhere from 4:30-6:30. And this is how it has been for the last 3 weeks or so. I take him out to go to the toilet before I crate him for the night, and I dont think him needing to go to the toilet is the issue. Im pretty sure it is because he is hungry. He is SO motivated by food it is unbelievable, when he eats he doesnt chew his kibble and when he goes for his first mouthful this is usually so violent that most of the food goes flying out of the bowl. When we let him out of his crate at 6:30am he gallops to his bowl and jumps around it whimpering and yodelling waiting to be fed. AFTER he has eaten whats in his bowl and cleaned up the debri left from the volcanic explosion that results from his enthusiastic feeding, he promptly goes outside and does his business. I have tried yelling at him to stop whining and this works for about 5 mins max (sometimes not at all). This is dam hard work once every 5 minutes beginning at 4:30 in the morning and it doesnt seem to be a long term solution. I have tried the water pistol trick but he just whines harder if I squirt him. We have another young dog (15months) who is a mini foxy who sleeps next to him in her own crate. She also had teething problems but settled down a lot quicker than our GP. One other thing is that our GP is a VERY vocal dog. Not so much barking wise, but he whines at pretty much everything, things he likes, things he doesnt like, yawns with a flamboyant whine and makes weird gutteral noises. I guess we could persevere with the ignoring method but it is taking a toll on my and my girlfriends working life, getting 4-5 hrs sleep a night is not really sustanable. Any suggestions you can make would be greatly appreciated, as soon as I get up at 6:30 with him he lightens up my life (which always surprises me given that I have just spent the last 2hrs in bed wanting to kill him), so it would be great if we could sort this out and REALLY start enjoying each others company! Thanks in advance, Matt

My puppy used to wake up early and whine. I started leaving a bowl with about 1/2 a cup of kibble in the crate at bedtime. The puppy would wake up at 4 am, eat, and go back to sleep.

I would also reccomend a long walk before bedtime to really wear the puppy out, in order to encourage the puppy to sleep well.

A chewy toy might be nice in the crate as well, so the puppy has some way to amuse himself quietly.

Just a thought.

Well, there seem to be a few things going no here- 1) I don't believe he's really crate trained. Yes, he goes into a crate, but he doesn't think a crate is a haven or home for himself yet. He's young- it takes a bit of training to make this association. So, for that since you say he's food motivated, I'd feed him in his crate. 2) Has the dog been wormed a second time? Puppies typically do have worms and need multiple doses to get rid of them. 3) DO take the puppy out at 4:30 whe he starts whining the first time. He DOES have to go to the bathroom. Only now, once he's done (and don't make it a party while he's doing his business), go back to bed and put pup back in crate.

DO NOT say or do anything once you put the puppy in the crate at night for bed. It's fine the pup is in the room with you. Just ignore the pup. I know it's hard, but like a human baby that sometimes need to learn the lesson of crying it out, if you know he's fed, watered, has eliminated, and is safe, it's lights out and the job at hand is sleep. Some dogs need to have water restricted from them after 8pm so they can make it through the night without needing to go early. I don't like to do that, but many do. Now, if your pup starts up at 5 am, have the leash on top of the crate, don't say a word to the dog, just take him out, let him go, walk back in and put him back in the crate. Go back to bed. No words are said, keep the lights off if you can. No play time. He'll quickly learn there's no pay off in waking up at night other than jsut to fulfill the need to eliminate.

Another thing- you need to wear this puppy out before bed so he doesn't have energy to put up much of a fight at bedtime. Mental stimulation for a puppy- like training tricks and such- work VERY well. A one hour puppy play session and/or puppy obedience class will wear out a puppy for a whole day. He wont' have the energy to be a pain at bedtime. He'll welcome sleep time in the crate.
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles

So much info in your post above, everyone should save it for when they get a new puppy. Thanks.
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sue, cheyenne-the American bulldog bully, nehi-her long suffering border collie mix, and charlie-our "basic black, white, and brown dog" who is watching from the bridge.