# Puppy doesn't sleep



## hazmat (Dec 12, 2017)

Hello everyone! 

I found a post on here where some people said that their puppies sleep a lot during the day and at night. I was curious if any of you had the opposite problem of the puppy not wanting to sleep at all? I know this sounds incredibly dumb but I feel like my puppy (she is 12wks old and super adorable) acts like a 2 year old who didn't get enough sleep or missed nap time. 
She will bite more and harder as the day presses on and even become more talkative. 
I read a book and searched through this forum on high energy dogs and most of the advice suggests that the dogs need a lot of exercise: mental and physical. But then I also read that at her age, I should limit my walks with her to about 2 walks a day for about 15-20 min. Also, I should limit my training time to about 30 minutes and even then, most people tell me that 30 minutes is too much for her age. 

I've tried to put her in a gated off area of the house that I puppy proofed so that she can be awake with her toys but she screams bloody murder if she is not in the living room or outside. I can have her tethered to me but her bites hurt pretty bad after a while. 

She also has a food puzzle for more mental stimulation.

Now at night is when I have a really hard time. She is okay in her crate and will settle after a few minutes but usually within anywhere from 45min - 1.5 hours she is crying to come out. I wait for her to stop crying then let her out to potty. After she goes, she becomes really playful. I try to make myself as boring as possible and even keep her on a leash so that she cannot run around but as soon as I put her back in the crate, she cries then settles then an hour later, she's back at it. I Feel like she can actually hold her bladder longer than an hour but she knows that as soon as she cries, I will get up and let her out, then she potties and thinks it's playtime. I have a hard time believing that she is doing this on purpose but after the last few weeks of her acting like this, I can't help but let those thought creep into my very tired brain. I had her checked for a UTI just to make sure and she was fine. 

How do I wear out my dog? Is it okay to do longer walks or longer training sessions? Am I a jerk for forcing her to nap in the crate even though she still has energy?


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## Kyrielle (Jun 28, 2016)

No, you're not a jerk. We put our puppy in his crate when he started getting really bitey and antsy. Within about 5 minutes he'd pass out. Was just tired and didn't know how to stop interacting with everything.

I'd stop letting her out of the crate if she's already peed within the last couple of hours. Just ignore her and set a timer on your phone. At 12 weeks, you should only be getting up once in the night. Sounds like she's figured out the following sequence: cry + be quiet + wait + go potty = PLAYTIME!


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## Joys (Nov 6, 2017)

I’m the proud owner of a land shark, too. 
Walks were not enough exercise. Do you have a fenced area where she can run? My darling also loves to play tug. 

I don’t want to tell you how much exercise your dog should have, because I’m far from an expert. 

But my dog was literally pulling up the carpet until I figured out how much exercise she really needed. I’ve never had a dog with so much energy and I was at my wits end.


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## hazmat (Dec 12, 2017)

Kyrielle said:


> No, you're not a jerk. We put our puppy in his crate when he started getting really bitey and antsy. Within about 5 minutes he'd pass out. Was just tired and didn't know how to stop interacting with everything.
> 
> I'd stop letting her out of the crate if she's already peed within the last couple of hours. Just ignore her and set a timer on your phone. At 12 weeks, you should only be getting up once in the night. Sounds like she's figured out the following sequence: cry + be quiet + wait + go potty = PLAYTIME!


I do that too when she gets really rough. I figured that it was because she is constantly stimulated by me moving and her toys. I will try the timer thing again but I did make a big mistake by setting a two hour timer when she was first learning the crate and she peed in the crate. Then I felt bad because she peed and I should have taken her out sooner. I did try picking up her water last night which helped. I am just wondering if there is something else that could be going on that makes her want to just take mini naps and not a full night's rest. 
I Feel better about putting her in the crate all the time now. I thought I was being mean and impatient. Of course, I never put her in the crate as a punishment and I always make the crate a high value place with lots of treats but I did feel bad. 



Joys said:


> I’m the proud owner of a land shark, too.
> Walks were not enough exercise. Do you have a fenced area where she can run? My darling also loves to play tug.
> 
> I don’t want to tell you how much exercise your dog should have, because I’m far from an expert.
> ...


Ahh YES! I do have a fenced yard! She absolutely loves to be in the yard too but she starts pulling up the grass to get to the dirt underneath, then she starts digging, then eating dirt, chewing on rocks and chewing on sticks. I have tried to go out and clear as much as I can find with the rocks and sticks but she always finds one more. Silly dog! Even though I puppy proofed by making sure that anything (pesticides, water hose, tools) were out of her reach, I feel like she probably shouldn't be eating dirt or chewing on rocks. We are looking at other options like getting fake grass to put in or something that she cannot pull up or dig into but still trying to determine the pro's and con's especially if she does decide to try to rip up the fake grass and eat it. 
She is adorable, and I am usually pretty good about redirecting her attention when she gets nippy but after a while that doesn't work and I resort to putting her in her crate. So that we can both have a time out and some down time. I just wanted to make sure that it's the right thing to do when she acts like this or if I should be taking her out for another walk/engaging in a training session.


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## Apex1 (May 19, 2017)

I distinctly remember my puppy never sleeping during the day. He was a monster from 4pm to about 6 or 7 pm. Then he would crash and as soon as his bladder allowed slept a solid 12 hours still does. He just started kinda dozing during the day in the last month. He is now 10 months old.


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## Kyrielle (Jun 28, 2016)

hazmat said:


> I Feel better about putting her in the crate all the time now. I thought I was being mean and impatient. Of course, I never put her in the crate as a punishment and I always make the crate a high value place with lots of treats but I did feel bad.


Exactly. It's not a punishment. It just means time for a nap or time to calm down.

When determining when to put her in to chill out, look for a kind of madness that seizes her. It's not quite like the zoomies. It's as if they're suddenly possessed and start jumping, nipping, biting, ripping/tearing clothes and everything in sight, and being a pest in an almost obsessive and wildly-blind manner. Trying to train is impossible in that condition, because they're not even mentally there. Trying to exercise them only gets them more excited and worse.

That's when it's time to go in the crate and cool off.

Normal rolling around, mouthing, and playing with you/toys doesn't seem quite so crazed as I'm sure you've noticed.


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## Armistice (Oct 12, 2017)

I feel that we are lucky to have my in-law's dogs. Since 8wks, we've been taking my pup over to their house to play. Once a week was enough

However, around 13-14wks, she'd had more energy and once a week wasn't burning off enough energy, so I was going over every other day to let her play for at LEAST 4hrs. That seemed to do the trick and she'd be zonked out

I will put her in her crate for 5min if she starts to do Puppy Races

Now that she's good on her vacc's, I can take her to the park. We did 1.5hrs the other day and she seemed tired enough and then went to the in-laws for a few hrs as well

I started doing more training around 12wks. I could get 5mins out of her and that was it. It was enough time to do a few rounds of sit, down, stand and that was it. Even at 4mos, I feel I can't go too long, maybe 10mins, but I do have her do a lot more commands and try to switch them up to keep it engaging



hazmat said:


> I just wanted to make sure that it's the right thing to do when she acts like this or if I should be taking her out for another walk/engaging in a training session.


I feel she may start to think "going crazy= outside play time!"

You don't want to accidentally train a bad habit


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## NerdicEclipse (Feb 20, 2017)

Kyrielle said:


> Exactly. It's not a punishment. It just means time for a nap or time to calm down.
> 
> When determining when to put her in to chill out, look for a kind of madness that seizes her. It's not quite like the zoomies. It's as if they're suddenly possessed and start jumping, nipping, biting, ripping/tearing clothes and everything in sight, and being a pest in an almost obsessive and wildly-blind manner. Trying to train is impossible in that condition, because they're not even mentally there. Trying to exercise them only gets them more excited and worse.
> 
> ...


Exactly. The crate is a part of life. They need to learn it early. It's not cruel and it should never be used as a punishment. Frankly a puppy doesn't have any business free roaming anyway. What possible use can it serve other than a chance of mischief, damage or even injury to the puppy. If they're not being directly worked with or outside for a potty session or playtime, they need to be in a crate. They'll sleep more than you think. GSDs need structure, and it needs to be learned early on. This helps in the area of biting and rough housing. It simply can't be allowed to happen. There are a lot of parts of puppy nonsense that are normal, but that doesn't mean they're ok and they very rarely just grow out of it. 

Also, a lot of people don't realize that but nonsense in the crate is not ok either and can be corrected. You're not going to give a dog crate issues by correcting bad behavior in it. They shouldn't be tearing up their beds, banging around, barking their head off or screaming. All of that can and should be corrected. It's a 2 second fix 95% of the time.


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## Armistice (Oct 12, 2017)

NerdicEclipse said:


> Also, a lot of people don't realize that but nonsense in the crate is not ok either and can be corrected. You're not going to give a dog crate issues by correcting bad behavior in it. They shouldn't be tearing up their beds, banging around, barking their head off or screaming. All of that can and should be corrected. It's a 2 second fix 95% of the time.


How is this fixed?

My pup's only problem is she'll start going after her tail. It seems that she would get so absolutely bored that no toy was interesting. This was when she was a little younger and was in the crate more... which I found was too much energy and me not able to burn enough off of her

However, at 17wks, she's rarely in her crate. Over the last week I've instituted that Puppy Races= crate time until she calms down. Usually this is after she stops protesting and whining about it and quiets/ lays down. Usually about 5mins, maybe more if she really got wound up and whining

I just ignore the whining. No saying "no" or "quiet." Just let her get it out and calm down. Once she's calmed down, I let her out and give some neutral, non-excited praise and go about my way


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## linbraun (Aug 2, 2018)

hazmat said:


> Hello everyone!
> 
> I found a post on here where some people said that their puppies sleep a lot during the day and at night. I was curious if any of you had the opposite problem of the puppy not wanting to sleep at all? I know this sounds incredibly dumb but I feel like my puppy (she is 12wks old and super adorable) acts like a 2 year old who didn't get enough sleep or missed nap time.
> She will bite more and harder as the day presses on and even become more talkative.
> ...


This is so my puppy too. Not sure how to fix it. She sleeps like 45 minutes and then she's up screaming for you. Not getting much sleep. Did you find anything that helped with your dog?


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## konathegsd (Dec 3, 2016)

You should start crating. Vasko is 12 weeks and spends a lot of time In The crate. He sleeps most of the day lol


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