Bringing a new puppy into your home can be a lot like welcoming a new baby. Feeding, changes to routine, and playtime all start to take up a large majority of your free time. Luckily, puppies can be trained from an early age to sleep through the night, giving you much-needed rest to play the next day. Getting your puppy into a nighttime sleep routine will increase the time you are able to spend together and make sure your new family member is bringing joy instead of annoyance into the household.
How to Begin Puppy Training
The best time to start this training is as soon as you bring home your new puppy. Therefore, it is wise to plan and set up their bed prior to actually taking them home. A bed space can be a crate lined with soft blankets and pillows, their own area at the foot of the bed, or any place where they can feel safe and secure.
On the day you bring them home, your puppy will have a lot of exploring to do. Being in a new environment should have them sniffing every nook and cranny to get a better sense of their new home. Interact with them throughout the day and play with them to tire them out for the night ahead. Your dog will have a much easier time falling asleep come bedtime if they had a long, productive day of energizing fun.
When bedtime comes around, start gradually easing them into their new routine so that they understand the family’s nightly rituals. Dogs are intelligent creatures that can pick up on habits such as tooth brushing and associate them with bedtime in the future. Even if you were playing with them before to tire them out, you should be calm once bedtime rolls around. You can even create your own nighttime ritual with them; bring them outside to go potty, brush their fur or pet them slowly for a few minutes, then put them in their bed. Creating a calming atmosphere will ease any anxieties they have about sleeping in a strange place for the first time.
Despite the goal being to teach your dog to sleep through the night, this might not be possible for young puppies. Just like babies, puppies might need some assistance throughout the night to go to the bathroom or clean an area in which they had an accident. Take them out to the yard for a quick potty break but do not turn this into a fun experience for your dog. It is essential to differentiate these times from times when your puppy is simply anxious or jumpy at night. It might be difficult, but ignoring your dog’s whines or attempts to play at night should reinforce the behavior that nighttime is only for sleeping.
When your dog is all grown up, it should have a much easier time holding its bladder overnight. At this point, there should be no reason to interact with your dog after bedtime barring an emergency. Going back and forth on training can confuse them, and they may end up whining and wanting to play at bedtime once again. Choosing and not changing your dog’s bed area, such as a crate or dog bed, will help ensure they always associate bedtime with the same early moments of training in their new home.
Gulf Coast K9 Dog Training are experts in puppy training, and we offer puppy classes that will help your dog to acclimate to its new life. Call today for a schedule and obedience class options for puppies.
