8.5month old regression?
Hi everyone!
My husband and I have an 8.5 month old rottie. He has been crate trained since the day we brought him home. He always slept through the night and we never had any issues, until maybe two months ago. We tried having him sleep with us while he was still somewhat small, but he kept moving around all night and still whining / crying so we decided staying in the crate is best for now. I know this has probably jerked his routine and we take full responsibility, but we have been trying for so long to get it back to normal and it doesn’t seem to be working.
Ever since then, he whines in his crate before actually going to sleep, it’s usually for maybe 10-15 minutes and then he knocks out. We always make sure all of his needs are met before crating him ( toilet, food, water, play time ) however he just cries. It’s never a high pitched bark or distressed cry, more of a low whistle. And if it does progress, I let him outside for the toilet, but then we repeat the process again of him not settling.
I have noticed that if we crate him, and leave the house to go to the gym of a night, I watch him on the camera and he goes right to sleep - no crying or anything, so for a while I was putting him to bed in his crate, and pretending to walk out the door and then sneaking to the bedroom to make him think we were gone, and it worked - he would go right to sleep… this is what makes me think it is more behavioural than a possible health issue - and I’m anxiety ridden so I am the first person to book in a vet appt if I think something is off, but we can’t do that forever.
We did have a stint of maybe two - three weeks where he went back to going straight to sleep in his crate with no protests, but now it’s back again and I don’t know what to do!!
Unfortunately, we cannot have him sleep with us as he moves around all night, he has his own memory foam / orthopaedic bed in our room, but he doesn’t stay on it, he moves from his bed, to our bed, to the floor..all..damn..night and it keeps us awake.
I don’t want to let him free roam the house yet as even though he has never destroyed anything INSIDE the house, other than the occasional pee here and there, he has eaten and ripped apart his own mattresses / beds that we leave outside while he is un-occupied while we are at work, so I don’t know if I can fully trust him.
I’m also worried that he will be too pre occupied with having free roam that he wouldn’t actually sleep and would get distracted, or once again, cry!
I dread night time because I’m worried I will always be woken up or because I have to listen to him cry and it makes me upset ( I’m also the weak link and give in a lot easier than my husband ) so I’m not sure if it’s adolescence and him seeing what he can get away with, or if there is an underlying issue.
He isn’t too big for his crate yet, and still has more than enough room to stand up, move around and have a bit of give after that. He won’t always be crated but I’m unsure when to start transitioning him into free roaming if all he does is move around all night and keep us awake regardless.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. He gets walked twice a day, he gets enrichment toys, training, lots of attention ( sometimes I worry too much! ) and his food needs are also met.