Jump to content

A Complicated Nighttime Whining Situation: Long Post, But Please Help&


Recommended Posts

We have one of our two greyts who would whine occassionally at night, even sleeping in our room. He would eventually stop, but then I couldn't get back to sleep without more Benadryl (stopped that when our doctor shared that it is believed to contribute to early onset alzheimers, BTW). The easy solution was to toss him my robe or a pair of pajama pants. He tucked them under his head and all was well. I think anything would work, because if I forget now, he grabs one of my slippers for his security thing. He had a blanket that his foster mom sent with him, but after he was here he didn't really want it after a couple of days. Some days he will have a bed full of toys.

Good luck,

Grant

 

 

This is actually a good idea- I'll try to maybe sleep with a blanket or something for awhile and then hand it to him. Similarly, he does have what he came with from the fosters but he doesn't seem to care/want that anymore.

Have one person sleep next to him (a few feet away) in the main room for a few days and see if the problem resolves. I thinking that he wakes, doesn't see anyone, and then gets anxious. It doesn't fix the problem but, will let you now if that is the issue.

 

It's definitely the issue because he did the same thing at his foster's house for 6 months. :/ Unfortunately, he pretty much had them trained: he whines at 3:00 a.m., somebody wakes up, goes downstairs, sleeps next to him on the couch, he shuts up forever until you actually wake up to start your morning. That's pretty much exactly what he wants here. :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He's worked out that at night when it's quiet and there's no-one moving around and he gets lonely if he whines someone magically appears.

 

I completely agree with this. I think we'll try x-pen, blanket that smells like us, perhaps a housecoat, and a few other small things. But at the end of the day, it really seems like he just needs to understand that the morning starts when we want it to- not when he dictates it. Also, we won't be running to him the second he whines and sleep on the couch for hours. That's honestly not conducive to either of our sleeping and we can't function like that on a daily basis (no idea how his foster's did it but I'm pretty sure they were literally angels). We have accommodated him in pretty much every other way (eliminating all stairs and making him ramps, pretty much altering his diet to what HE wants, etc.) but the sleep issue is something he will unfortunately have to adjust to and learn. :/

 

On a separate note, his diet was a whole other issue we had to tackle. His previous owners pretty much fed him whatever he wanted (ah...what a GRAND idea) so he received melted cups of butter all over his kibble in the morning (EVERY MORNING) and pasta sauce mixed in with it in the evenings, etc, etc. The list goes on. He was pretty impressive with his hunger strikes at our house (goes 4 days pretty easy). We FINALLY have him eating and while we definitely don't do what they were doing, we mix a deeeecent amount of wet food into his food. You know how most dogs get kibble + some wet food mixed in? Yeah. He's the opposite. He gets wet food with some kibble mixed in. I initially worried this was a dental issue (teeth bugging him so he doesn't want hard stuff) but NOPE, he eats every rock hard treat just fine. :) He's going to be 11 in a few weeks and I don't know what impact I can have on getting him on REAL food after 11 years of eating complete junk...so we compromised and he gets wet food and we both were stubborn for a long time...and he ate it. Pick your battles I guess!

 

But alas, the sleep thing is something we will simply have to win, despite it most likely going to take a long time.

Another option you could try vs. setting up a crate is to set up an x-pen. I have an old one that is made of fabric with a cut-out in each panel so dogs can see in and out. Two of the panels have buckle attachments (like on some dog coats) that allows them to be used as the "gate" - and does not have a lip to step over. You can make the x-penned area larger or smaller by simply folding together the panels you don't want to use. A very quick search here to give you an idea. Here is a better one.

 

Honestly, an x-pen is probably a better idea for him than trying to MacGyver our own crate. Thank you so much for the links, going to purchase one today!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've used greysmom's suggestion (gradually setting the alarm to a later time), and it worked very well.

 

I also have a homemade screen door for my bedroom. One of my previous dogs could not be in a small room with a closed door. Easy to make a screen any size you like out of 1x2 finish lumber and plastic hardware cloth (mine has 1"x1" openings).

 

And, one of my dogs sleeps in a soft-sided ex pen. It has a zipper door with a lip to step over, but you can also open up one whole side so there's no step-over. More configurable than a crate.

Star aka Starz Ovation (Ronco x Oneco Maggie*, litter #48538), Coco aka Low Key (Kiowa Mon Manny x Party Hardy, litter # 59881), and mom in Illinois
We miss Reko Batman (Trouper Zeke x Marque Louisiana), 11/15/95-6/29/06, Rocco the thistledown whippet, 04/29/93-10/14/08, Reko Zema (Mo Kick x Reko Princess), 8/16/98-4/18/10, the most beautiful girl in the whole USA, my good egg Joseph aka Won by a Nose (Oneco Cufflink x Buy Back), 09/22/2003-03/01/2013, and our gentle sweet Gidget (Digitizer, Dodgem by Design x Sobe Mulberry), 1/29/2006-11/22/2014, gone much too soon. Never forgetting CJC's Buckshot, 1/2/07-10/25/10.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've used greysmom's suggestion (gradually setting the alarm to a later time), and it worked very well.

 

I also have a homemade screen door for my bedroom. One of my previous dogs could not be in a small room with a closed door. Easy to make a screen any size you like out of 1x2 finish lumber and plastic hardware cloth (mine has 1"x1" openings).

 

And, one of my dogs sleeps in a soft-sided ex pen. It has a zipper door with a lip to step over, but you can also open up one whole side so there's no step-over. More configurable than a crate.

 

I'm so happy to hear that the alarm strategy worked! This gives me hope. The past few sleep-deprived weeks have definitely been rough. We have actually thought of the screen door possibility! Keeps cats out + he can see us. I think we'll try this other stuff first and see how it goes. Can you send me a link to where you bought your ex pen? That definitely sounds like a better idea.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

what a great guy!

Old Dogs are the Best Dogs. :heartThank you, campers. Current enrollees:  Punkin. AnnIE Oooh M

Angels: Pal :heart. Segugio. Sorella (TPGIT). LadyBug. Zeke-aroni. MiMi Sizzle Pants. Gracie. Seamie :heart:brokenheart. (Foster)Sweet. Andy. PaddyALVIN!Mayhem. Bosco. Bruno. Dottie B. Trevor Double-Heart. Bea. Cletus, KLTO. Aiden 1-4.

:paw Upon reflection, our lives are often referenced in parts defined by the all-too-short lives of our dogs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Argh, I can't find the pen I bought. It's been some years. A lot of them are pop-up and have only the step-over opening. I'll keep looking for another where you can open up the whole side.

Star aka Starz Ovation (Ronco x Oneco Maggie*, litter #48538), Coco aka Low Key (Kiowa Mon Manny x Party Hardy, litter # 59881), and mom in Illinois
We miss Reko Batman (Trouper Zeke x Marque Louisiana), 11/15/95-6/29/06, Rocco the thistledown whippet, 04/29/93-10/14/08, Reko Zema (Mo Kick x Reko Princess), 8/16/98-4/18/10, the most beautiful girl in the whole USA, my good egg Joseph aka Won by a Nose (Oneco Cufflink x Buy Back), 09/22/2003-03/01/2013, and our gentle sweet Gidget (Digitizer, Dodgem by Design x Sobe Mulberry), 1/29/2006-11/22/2014, gone much too soon. Never forgetting CJC's Buckshot, 1/2/07-10/25/10.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sammy is precious! What a sweet old fellow. :beatheart Thank you for sharing those lovely pictures.

 

I have an Oriental Shorthair cat as well so I an familiar with their strident squall robust voice. LOL Like Batmom, I built a screen door custom sized for the hallway leading to the bedrooms. It worked well to keep the cat in the bedrooms (with sunshine, windows, litterbox and water) so he couldn't sneak out through the dog door while I was at work. Even my duffer-level skills pulled off a decent looking product. If Sammy can't warm up to the idea of sleeping in you room, I think Chris's (greysmom) advice is going to give you the best resolution in the long run--a dog who can sleep quietly on his own until the household wakes up unless he has a genuine potty emergency. It's a lot of work initially but the payoff in sound sleep will be worth it.

 

Also, though Sammy is an old hand at living in a home, your home and family are still quite new to him and I expect that he's still scoping out and getting the feel of his new people and his new home.

gallery_2398_3082_9958.jpg
Lucy with Greyhound Nate and OSH Tinker. With loving memories of MoMo (FTH Chyna Moon), Spirit, Miles the slinky kitty (OSH), Piper "The Perfect" (Oneco Chaplin), Winston, Yoda, Hector, and Claire.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Just thought I would update everyone on Sammy: it has officially been one month since he adopted us and thanks to all of your suggestions WE ARE NOW SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!

 

I never thought I would feel so refreshed after a standard night's sleep but I feel like I can take on the world!! LOL Amazing! We are so, SO happy he is sleeping through the night now! And we get to be in our room (he is not with us) AND keep the door closed. No cats stomping on our heads either! YAY!

A few specific things we did in case anyone is going through something similar:
-Left lights on. We leave a lamp on for him in the central room AS WELL AS a night light. This boy seems to be rather afraid of the dark.

-Alarm clock training that was mentioned above. I thought this would take months and months. He actually caught on to this WAY faster than I ever anticipated.

-And some straight up ignoring. This was very hard. But my husband and I did the same thing with our Oriental Shorthair cats when we first got them. We can be pretty determined when we want to be! The cats soon figured out how nights were going to go...lol and it seems like Sammy has as well!

Thank you everybody for all your advice and suggestions!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...