r/pomeranian

For background, we adopted our Pomeranian puppy Obi in April. The rescue got him from a disreputable breeder that was shut down. We also have 2 other small dogs that we’ve had since way before we adopted him. They all get along.

Since we brought him home we’ve had two major issues with him and we don’t know what to do: he’s been unable (or unwilling) to sleep past 4:30am or so and he also has to potty during the night. We’re at the end of our (very exhausted) rope and are hoping for solutions!

Here’s what we’ve tried so far:

*3 months of crate training, starting from when we brought him home. At first we’d wake up around 2am for a potty break, then gradually stretched that out until he started whining at 4am. After his 4am potty break he was fully awake and wanted to play for the next 90 mins

*Ignoring him at 4am so he’ll stop whining/barking. When we were crate training him he ended up pooping in the crate (yes it’s the correct size for him) so we know he wakes up because he’s got to go

*Ensuring he’s sleeping in a very dark room (in our bedroom with blackout curtains and a blanket over his crate)

*Putting him in a pen in the living room, complete with a pee-pad (he didn’t like being out there by himself and just barked like mad)

*Currently we are putting him and the other 2 dogs in the living room at night and letting them sleep together (he still woke up at 4am to play with the other two for a couple minutes, then would go back to sleep for about an hour, but now he’s back to waking up the whole house at 4am). He has also taken this opportunity to pee and poo to his hearts delight all over the living room, so now we might have to get rid of the rug. Yippee!

*Playing calming music for dogs on the stereo all night at low volume

*Doggy daycare - his first full day didn’t make a difference in his sleep

*Walks morning and evening - also didn’t make a difference

*Enrichment games that include food (puzzles, etc) but he has a sensitive tummy and we ended up with a poo-pocalypse situation and having to give him probiotics

*For the potty training, we take him out multiple times a day so he gets plenty of chances to potty. He has pica (another issue we’re trying to deal with) so he has to be taken out on a leash and can’t use the doggy door (not that we’d want it open at night anyway)

At this point we are at a loss as to what to try. We haven’t had a good night’s sleep in months. Please help!