I have a 20 week old Maltipoo who I've been crate training since getting her at the beginning of June. She took to the crate very well, but like any puppy, woke up every few hours to potty and such. She and I moved out of my parents house, and not long after our move, she started sleeping through the night (let's call it mid-July). I was ecstatic! We got on a great feeding schedule that I knew was going to work well with my work schedule. Well, about a week and a half ago, she started waking up earlier than normal. My parents and I thought maybe I needed to give her a touch more food because she seemed to be starving when she woke up. Changed her food amount, and she's still waking up way too early. It's getting earlier and earlier every day. She's only sleeping for about 5 hours a night! I try to let her cry and bark herself back to sleep, but I live in an apartment, and I worry about disturbing my neighbors. Not to mention, she very rarely goes back to sleep. She will cry for an hour straight, until she sees me get up. Then she'll get quiet, and only then will I let her out.

I've always put a blanket over her crate, and she's had a stuffed animal in there with her since day one, her Buggie. I don't know if she's doing this because she's learned if she wakes up earlier, she gets more time with me (I'm a teacher, and I've been spending a lot of time at the school trying to get ready for the school year), or if something else is going on. It was suggested that I let her sleep in the bed with me, but she's nowhere near housebroken enough to do that. I would appreciate any and all suggestions, because school starts next week and I need my sleep!

Thank you!

As a teacher, consider the pup as a 9 - 12 year old human. A huge amount of changes are being dumped on the kid one right after another, including hormone induced changes in her body as she matures.

Have you gotten an appointment to have her spayed yet? That will help an amazing amount with the hormonal changes.

My advice would be working on housebreaking first. She should have this one down pat already, so a very little work should get her over the newness of the apartment.

As for sleeping through the night, she probably does want some reassurance from "Mommy." How much time do you have afternoon/evenings?

She does have an appointment to get spayed in mid-September. I'm so looking forward to it because I hear that will also help to calm her down a bit.

As far as housebreaking her goes, it honestly has not been easy. It's a work in progress. I've only had her about three months, they say puppies are not fully housebroken until they've had no accidents in the house for 6 months. I haven't even had her nearly that long, and then things got interrupted with the move about a month after I brought her home. Factor in the fact that I'm doing this alone, and this is the first dog I've ever owned, and you can probably imagine it's a VERY slow process. I try to take her out every time she scratches at the door, if I see her sniffing around, as soon as she wakes up, after she eats, everything that's always suggested, and she still goes inside at least once a day. And she's so small that she squats, and a second later she's done, so it's very difficult to catch her in the act and correct her.

I've been wondering if her waking up has been a separation anxiety thing. Like maybe she's realized I leave every day, and she's trying to get more time with me by waking me up earlier. Because unfortunately, at least lately with all of my pre-school year training, there have been many days when I leave at 7 or 7:30 and I'm not home until 10 or 12 hours later. Don't worry, she's not crated during that time, she gets the run of the tiled bathroom with some baby gates up in the doorways so she doesn't tear up the doors. I wish I could come home in the middle of the day to check on her, but it's just not feasible with our school schedule. Once school starts Monday, I'll probably be leaving every day at 7, and I'm hoping to be home by 5 or 6 at the very latest. I get no time with her, and it makes me feel like a horrible Mommy.

It would be a rare and wonderful thing if the school would allow your class to raise a puppy. Then there's kids' allergies to worry about. Just dreaming.

Seriously, make some time for her every evening. I'd recommend right before bedtime, but let your schedule dictate. She will need at least an hour daily. Use it to work on training, go for walks, cuddle, etc. but invest the time. It will pay off.

Well that's just it. The only time in the evening I spend on me is when I'm cooking and eating dinner. Even this, being on the computer, is a rarity for me unless I'm at school. I just happened to get home early today, and I'll be taking her up to school with me all weekend, so I figured I could spare an hour on the computer. Typically, when I get home, we go for a short walk to get the mail, then come back and play. Then she eats around 6 or 6:30, we hang out until it seems she's just about ready to do her business (about 15 minutes or so), and then we go for a longer walk. I cook and eat dinner (with her under my feet the whole time, mind you), and then about an hour before bed we go for a pretty long walk, about 20-25 minutes. And the time I'm not cooking or eating dinner, I'm playing with her. She's basically mastered the sit command because of all the playing we do. And all this time together seemed to be fine until a week or so ago.

I have to admit that one morning last weekend, after she ate her normal early morning meal, I wanted to get a little extra sleep, so I put her back in her crate. Well, she started whining, and did so for about 20 minutes. She quieted down anytime I moved, so I took a quiet time (so as to hopefully not reinforce the barking) to let her out of her crate, and I did let her on my bed with me because I knew I was only going to be sleeping for another couple of hours, and she had just been outside. Is it possible that ONE time of letting her on my bed while I was sleeping spoiled her and now that's all she wants, and that's why she wakes up so early crying?

Your puppy sounds exactly like my puppy right now, not that it helps your situation :-(. I am having similar issues with her regressing from sleeping from 6:00 am to now waking up between 2:30-4:00 am every morning, needs to go potty, but then will not go back in her crate. I also live in an apartment and can't not let loud cries go on in the middle of the night. I found some tips on positive crate reinforcement on http://www.thegooddogjournal.com/2008/11/crate-training-without-trauma.html but I am not sure if this will help. I have not tried it yet but am going to start tonight. I also am going to make an apt. with a training specialist possibly because I also am worried I am counteracting the training by letting her out of the crate when she cries but need some other options on what to do. I will write back if I get training advice from the doggy specialist.