Felt really cruel :-(

Hi all,
have had Summer (6weeks plus 5 days) for 5 days now and she is coming on in leaps and bounds, she's settled in well and even the cats are getting used to having her around, if not always tolerant with her.
Problem: she cries every 3-4 hours during the night, which I expected as she is still tiny and has been taken from mom and her litter mates. Have been getting up to her (she sleeps downstairs) everytime she cries and so has the kids (taking their turn god love em and they wanted to) but by last night we were all snappy and tired, so i told the 2 lads enough was enough, they needed to get a decent nights sleep and no arguing they were not to get up with her and that I would. Well we went to bed about midnight just as she had settled down, so she woke up around 3am and I just couldnt get out of bed I was so tired, so I stayed put listening for her, she was just whining, not in pain or anything like that, she carried on for about 15 mins, then stopped, she then started whining about 5am, again i just waited and she stopped again after 10 mins, she started whining around 6am and this is when i got up, gave her lots of love and gave her her breakfast, which she wolfed down, previously she was only half interested as everytime i had been getting up i had been giving her a small amount of puppy milk. I feel really guilty that i left her whining, have i done the right thing in ignoring her, she has plenty of soft toys and loves snuggling with them and also has access to water through the night.
Thanks

Its not cruel at all and yes you have done completly the right thing by ignoring her. May feel harsh but its the only way she will learn, otherwise you are rewarding the behaviour.

You really do have to leave them. If you give them attention when they are whinning they will learn that if they whine you will come and comfort them and do it even more. If she is in a crate try putting a blanket over it so it will be completly dark.

if you keep getting up every time she whines she is going to start doing it to seek attention, skye did this too! lol .. she would whine at about 1am, 4am, and 6am i started to ignore her whining apart from the one as she obv would need to go to the toilet and i covered her crate over with a blanket so she couldn't see out and crave the need to play around where she can see.
worked like a charm now she sleeps straight through

don't feel like a bad mummy.. you did the right thing. Winston's first night here he cried, howled, whined at all hours...(after we had gone to bed ) Ignored him and the next night he did it less, 3rd night he slept right through, and has ever since! If we kept getting up to him he would probably still be waking us up. You have to ignore the bad behaviour, reward the good. You are doing the best thing, no matter how hard it seems!!

Of course I am a big ol softie and Suki sleeps with us now

You did exactly the right thing. In a couple of nights' time she'll stop whining & will be totally used to night-time!

TOTALLY agree with all of the above advice.

Keep up the good work

Sorry for the delay replying kids got hold of the laptop!
Thanks for all the advice really appreciate it, still feel a bit guilty but I know she has to learn and realise that she wont get attention 24/7. She only woke up once in the night and i ignored her again. She isnt caged yet, getting 1 next week so that she will be caged when i am out and wasnt sure if i was going to do that over night yet.
Overall she is a sweet little thing so fingers crossed this whining will calm down if i keep ignoring it. Just got to curb the biting now lol
Thanks again

It really will stop - probably in just a couple more days. It took Dempsey 4 days to stop whining (well, screaming, actually!), and he's a slow learner!

This post is really relevant to me today as I thought the night time whining with Rhia had stopped and it seemed never ending at the time at least a week before she could go 6 hrs in the crate at night. But the last few nights she has started it again - I cant find any reason for this (when i tried to let her out to pee she wouldnt even go out) and think I made the mistake of coming down to check on her the first 2 nights it happened. Do you think I've just made her expect attention again when she does it?

lauren19 wrote:This post is really relevant to me today as I thought the night time whining with Rhia had stopped and it seemed never ending at the time at least a week before she could go 6 hrs in the crate at night. But the last few nights she has started it again - I cant find any reason for this (when i tried to let her out to pee she wouldnt even go out) and think I made the mistake of coming down to check on her the first 2 nights it happened. Do you think I've just made her expect attention again when she does it?

Been a while since I had a pup but, yes! Patience

I'm afraid it will be tough love for her tonight - trying to get the kids back into a routine for going back to school next week so it'll be strict bedtime rules for everyone including Rhia for adherence from all four of them lol

Bet you can't wait for some peace and quiet in the evening!

I certainly do look forward to some peace and quiet - Rhia is out with OH just now for last walk - I will let you know how tonight goes...

Its not cruel at all and we do the same thing ignore such attention seeking behavior. Last thing you want is for them to realise all they got to do is cry/winge and they get what they want.

We do get up twice in the night currently with our new pup Duke but thats cos he is 7 weeks old and he needs toilet breaks unless we wanna wake up to have to clean his cage out.

But we make a point of if he is crying to not go down till he stops.

If he is in a timeout and he starts crying just put a blanket over his cage till he stops then remove it and let him out when he has calmed down.

Duke cried for the first 2 days when going to bed at 11 (Which was ignored) and cried in the morning to get us up the first 5 days (Which was ignored). But now we are in a good routine he goes to bed till we come down let him go for wee at about 1:30 back in his cage and back to sleep for another couple of hours then out for a wee at 3:30 and back in his cage and to bed till the morning 5:30.

Soon we will adjust it so he has to go longer without toilet break but he is so young at the min and dont want to many accidents. He has only done 1 wee in his cage so far, he has done a few in the kitchen floor though (Breeder encouraged them to go toilet in their kitchen). No number 2 accidents yet though.