Shadow is now 15 weeks (we brought her home at 11) and is having trouble sleeping through the night. We put her down around 11:30 and ideally would like her to sleep until 6:30. She has a pen area in the bathroom - where there is a cage (w/o door) for her to sleep and then an area for her to play and an area for her wee pads. Some nights are great - then others, like last night - are horrible. She barked and cried almost all night. We have a ticking clock, a talk radio, and a sock of ours for scent in her area. Lastly, she has a water bottle, but no food. Is this still normal at 15 weeks? Please help! We need suggestions...and we need some sleep!
Hello, welcome to the forum. Is the only time Shadow in her pen at night? It sounds like she wants to be with you, which is what most Maltese want to do. If you can stand it, only respond to her when she is quiet and give her a positive marker of some kind - a little treat, a toy, or some love. You have to avoid paying attention to her when she whines or barks. Say nothing, do nothing and ignore her ( I know it's hard to do). Don't even tell her to be quiet. Eventually she will learn that whining for attention does not get a response and being "good" does. At least we hope that is the way it will work. Have fun with your new little girl.
Thanks for the reponse... Yes, she is only in her pen at night. When we get home from work, we often will remove the gate so she can go in/out of her pen area...and sometimes she will walk in/out of her cage or grab a toy, but that's about it. When we're home...she follows us where ever we go (thus the name Shadow!).
We've been leaving her alone in her pen when it's time to sleep (she's even on a different floor than our bedroom). Some nights she does really well and pretty much sleeps through the night (with maybe a short whine/cry here and there). But SOME nights... ugh! She just barks and cries all night!
She may sleep better if she is exhausted. Just before bed play with her until she seems tired. With ours this can take 15 minutes to an hour . When we got our pup we tried the crate in another room for bed time, he would cry and I couldn't take it. Soooooo I would make sure he did his "business" before I went to bed and put him in with us. He never had an accident at night and slept through the night from then on. He still sleeps with us and on nights that I am up late he will tell me it's past his bed time by huffing at me and getting in bed.
He will repeat this until I finally give in.
If/when you take her for walks on a leash you may want to do this just before bed to tire her out. If Tiki has had a long walk he will "sleep in" in the morning but on the nights I don't walk him he will wake me at 5:30 am ready to go!
Hope you get some sleep tonight!
Keep us posted,
Judi
"But SOME nights... ugh! She just barks and cries all night!"
You may find that a lot of us have solved the problem by letting our little friends sleep with us.
Thanks for all your feedback... Last night at around 11:30 we put Shadow in our room - in a bigger cage... We put a sleep mat on 1/2 the cage floor and the other 1/2 we put a wee pad down. She did awesome! Slept until 4:30 when I heard her stir a bit and whined for just a moment... then relieved herself on the wee pad and went back to sleep until about 6:15! Yipee!
If this is a sign of the future - I will be a happy girl!
If she keeps this up - maybe we'll reserve the pen for when we have to leave her home alone.
Just an update... things are going well! On Friday, Shadow went her her cage (in our room) at 12:00 and slept till 8:00. On Saturday night she went in at 2:00 (my fiance was up with her watching TV)...and she slept until 9:20! We even got to sleep in! What a treat. I think this just might work out for us! Thanks again for all your response. I'll keep you posted - - especially for any other newbies that may be going through the same thing.
I wonder how long it wil be before the little one is no longer in the crate and up on your bed sleeping with you! lol
Morgan did the same thing when I brought him home and after a week and a half of having to crawl out of bed at 5 in the morning to tend to him wanting to get out, we finally put him in our room, within two nights of that, the crate was gone..down to the basement in the family room to be used only if we had to go out and leave him behind!
I only put our pup in the bathroom, at night, when she is punished. We usually keep her in our room (she has her own bed). There are nights when we will let her sleep with us but if we are in bed (without her) & she starts whining we tell her "sleep" or "shh" and she will go to sleep. I even keep the bed in the crate as her bed during the night so that if we do have to go out with her & need to keep her in the crate then she won't whine. I love my maltese but I don't let her whine & she has learned to be very quiet. She even sleeps in when we do... when I get up, she gets up and when I wake up, she wakes up... she's VERY good about that...
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. When we got our pup we tried the crate in another room for bed time, he would cry and I couldn't take it. Soooooo I would make sure he did his "business" before I went to bed and put him in with us. He never had an accident at night and slept through the night from then on. He still sleeps with us and on nights that I am up late he will tell me it's past his bed time by huffing at me and getting in bed.
