she won't sleep

[2 better than 1 1]

Wondering if anyone has suggestions on getting puppies to sleep through more of the night. Right now Lyric wakes up about 4 times a night and then wants to stay up for at LEAST a half hour each time, if not longer. Luckily, my husband works nights, so he is able to get up with her and then catch up on sleep by just sleeping in the next morning. We have been trying to keep her up in the evenings by playing with her and bring her for walks around our house to wear her out. She does sleep quite a bit through out the day, but she's only 8 weeks old, so she does need her sleep.

We are running into the problem that if she falls asleep on the floor and we move her to her crate she wakes up and just cries and cries. We try to be firm with her, but you can only let them cry for so long before you can't take it any more... especially if you are trying to go to sleep yourself!

I remember going through this with Pippin, but I don't remember it being quite so bad. Her first few nights with us went pretty well... she would wake up, go potty, play for about 20 minutes and then be ready for sleep again.... but since then it's seemed to have gotten worse. We want to get her into a routine as soon as possible, both for her sake and ours. Any one have anything that worked really well for them? Would appreciate any suggestions.

[MisterMom 11]

I put mine in a crate on the bed and when they wake up at night I open the zipper front and put my hand in there and pet them. Most the time they went back to sleep pretty soon. At 8 weeks, they need to pee every 3 or 4 hours and eat a bite often.

[2 better than 1 1]

Ok, I only received one post in reply to this, but it was a good one! Thanks a bunch for the suggestion! We put Lyric in her carrier on the bed last night and it went really well. Going to do it again tonight and hope for success again! It did make for a full bed though... me, Lyric, Pippin and my husband, all in a queen bed!

[kcsheperd 13]

Payslee was NOT a good sleeper..in the day, or in the night.. It seemed like her batteries NEVER wore down..But (and I know some say not to do this until after all the shots, etc) I started walking her at 8 weeks..The DAY I brought her home.. I knew she needed the exercise to go to sleep at night, and I wanted her to be VERY socialized and not jittery so she would be a good therapy dog..So I wanted to expose her to the sounds of outside as well. I was very careful where I took her, and where she walked, but I did want her to get used to the leash, and be a good walker..It worked perfectly for me. We would walk her late in the evenings, and she would be asleep by around 9.. She would still wake up in the night to pee pee, but it helped her sleep so much better! Hope that helps..

[Dakotah's momma 0]

Dakotah has always been a good sleeper from day 1. He sleeps about 11 hrs every night and does not get up. We just started from day 1 putting him in his hut(crate) and we all give him his nighty nights and that is it. We do put a blankie over his hut and I play classical music or christian praise music for him. He loves music. Not sure it has helped you or not but that is all I got.