Rescue dog will not sleep thru the night

Bob_the_dog

Hi All,

Need so advice as I need some sleep badly and our Rescue dog won't stay settled at night.

In summary, we have a 11yr old Cocker male and in April we decided to take a rescue cocker from the Carlow Puppy farm place, she is about 4-5yrs. She was very nervous at the start and is gradually coming around at this stage. To complicate matters, 6 wks after she arrived she delivered us a single Cockapoo pup, all fit and healthy so now we have 3 dogs, 11yr, 5yr old and a 14wk old pup.

The problem is the Rescue Cocker will not stay asleep after 3am at night, they all sleep in their beds on the landing outside our bedroom and have a good routine of going up to bed at 11pm and going straight to sleep, the rescue then gets up at 3am like clockwork and starts to walk around and then starts to scratch at our bedroom door, while this is going on the other 2 are out cold asleep. You can tell her to get back into bed which she will do for about 20mins and then is all starts again. Eventually at 5:30ish I get up and bring them out for a pee etc.

We have tried to bring them all out for an hours walk before bed to try tire her out but still no success, we have tried to split their food into morning/evening instead of just mornings as I thought hunger may be an issue but still no change.

Any advice would be very much appreciated. Getting rid of any of them of not an option

maggiepip

Sounds like she wants to be near you, would you try bringing her bed onto your room at night?, I appreciate you mightn't want to do that though!

Raminahobbin

Ah God love her, the poor thing!! I agree with the above poster, she's probably looking for you and still suffering trauma from the puppy farm.

If you don't want her in the room with you, maybe try leaving the door open and a stair gate in the doorway? It might reassure her a bit to be able to see you.

cocker5

OP...

I can only imagine... 3 cockers in the one household !!
fair play to you for giving this girls a new life and her pup too...

she sounds like she is still very much affected by her previous life.. i agree maybe if she can see you guys are there that would give her reassurance.. a stair gate may be the way forward? try that for a few weeks and see how she is then?

stevire

Dog might be afraid of the dark and/or uneasy at the quiet nature of a peaceful house? You could try leaving a small lamp or night light on. Also try Lyric FM at a low volume where the dogs sleep.

I wouldn't try both together at first, see if it's lack of light or quietness that might be affecting your dog.

DBB

I'm inclined to think that her sleep is being disturbed, perhaps by her bladder sending signals to her brain that it needs to empty?!
This is going to be a bit of a pain, but it's temporary...
I'd start setting my alarm so that I'm waking ahead of her. Get up, bring her to the loo, then back to bed,.
I'd do this over a few nights.
Then I'd start stretching the time a bit, getting up just a bit later each night, teaching her to hold on through the night, just like you do with a puppy.
It's likely, given her past, that she was never formally housetrained, and was in a position to pee more or less where she liked, so she never learned to hold it in for any great duration.
It's also possible that if she has been bred from multiple times and not particularly well cared-for, her muscle tone isn't as good as it could be, so she feels the urge more easily?
I would be inclined just to get your vet to check her urine, and if you can stretch to it, take blood samples, just to make sure there isn't an underlying health problem fuelling this behaviour.

Bob_the_dog

Quick update, leaving the bedroom door open appears to be making things easier at night.

Hopefully we can fine tweak the regime over the coming weeks to get a better nights sleep.

cocker5

fair Play OP

she and her pup are lucky to have fallen on her paws and joined your family

maggiepip

As above, very very lucky rescue dogs to have found you!