Puppy crying at night - Please help

[Kayejacks001]

Hi All,

I just wondered if anyone could offer any help please - we have a 9 week old Chihuaha, who we have had for about a week and half and we seem to be having problems with him crying, whining and yapping through the night, (i understand that this is due to leaving his parents etc). He can cry and yap for about 30 minutes, then goes quiet for a few minutes and then starts again, this goes on for a while until he falls asleep for a few hours and then it starts all over again. He sleeps fine throughout the day.

I have tried putting a hot water bottle in his bed, a ticking clock, one of my dressing gowns for my scent, left the radio on low and the light on and have also just purchased some of the pheremone spray. We have his bed in the kitchen, with a baby gate up to the door.

We have plenty of playtime with him, but cannot walk him until he's had his second jab in two weeks time. We have also been going out everyday for a short time to get him used to us not being there.
We have been using the puppy pads for toilet training, so haven't been getting up to see if he needs the toilet as these are on the kitchen floor - could this be a reason he's crying? I don't want to keep going down to him as people keep telling me that i'm giving in to him and he will keep crying all the more for me.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated for both me and my neighbour i just don't know what else I should be doing.

[Ari_RR]

Hello! I am not sure this is an advice, and this may come across as totally opposite to what you've heard about puppies from people...

But this is how we dealt with a puppy. So, just sharing...
For the first month or so, I slept on the couch downstairs, and he was in his little bed or crate next to me - this way I could hear him during the night, wake up, grab him and run outside without waking up my dearest wife.
This has nothing to do with "giving in" - at this stage the puppy needs to feel safe and comfortable, you are not having a battle with him where he "must not win" and you "must not give in", he is just a tiny puppy in a huge unfamiliar and strange world, look at it through his eyes - it's indeed a bit scary.
And getting him outside when he needs to go is the way to housetrain... Yeah, comes at a price of not getting good sleep, but remember - you get what you pay for, invest into your puppy now - and you will have a dog that you will enjoy for life. I would train him to toilet outside. There ought to be a really good reason to opt for puppy pads, in my opinion (like you if live in a big building and it takes 20 min to get downstairs)

Anyway - good luck with the puppy, exciting times, tell your neighbor to chill or you will get a mastiff next time (just kidding, but jokes aside it's good to have neighbors on your side when having a dog, perhaps bake them an apple pie?)

[JudyN]

I pretty well agree with Ari_RR - though I'd also suggest you consider having him sleep in your bedroom (your chi that is, not Ari_RR ). If this is something you'd be happy with it can be the easiest way of having settled nights and bonding with your dog. Other people also start off with their dog in a crate in their bedroom and gradually move it to where they want the dog to sleep eventually.

We used layers of newspaper rather than puppy pads - it worked for us, and our dog wasn't hard to housetrain - but there is a chance that your dog will be more likely to have housetraining problems and have the occasional 'accident' for a long time to come if he learns that it's OK to pee inside. We were lucky, but it is safer to take him out in the night, and reward when he performs out there.

[gwd]

i'm with the others on this one. like ari's dad, i also opted for the sofa for the first 2+ weeks so as not to interrupt OH's sleep (he had to get up and go to work). when it got to the point where the nighttime outings were down to once a night, i moved the crate upstairs to our room. i've done this with all of my pups. it helps them feel safe and also with the housebreaking.