7 Week Old Pomeranian

[vMJv]

Hi,

My husband and I have recently acquired our first puppy, a 7 week old pomeranian - Stewie, last Saturday. My husband's family never had dogs while my family used to have 1. In general, we are not very experienced with dogs.

We are currently having a problem with his barking/wimping/whining in the night time. On Saturday night, we put him to bed at around 11pm and he was barking/wimping/whining for periods of 30 mins to 60 mins before stopping for 30 mins to 2 hrs before the cycle starts again. We ignored him and as we did not want to encourage his barking with our attention. However, last night, he could stop at all. He just went on and on the whole night long...on the top of his voice. It's loud and high pitched and echoed through the whole house.

I had read through several threads in "Puppy Problems" and knew that crying at night is common, but I didn't expect him to get worst instead of better. I read that many puppies take up to weeks before the condition improves. This may be a problem as my husband is a very light sleeper and he had zero sleep since we brought Stewie home. Also, we are very afraid that his barking may disturb the neighbours since it went the whole night long. I think my husband will cook Stewie stew before my neighbours get to it.

Also, Stewie managed to jump over a 60cm tall wood screen which my husband built to barricade his movements within our games room. I think Stewie has tried all night and he managed to jump through at 5am and came running to outside our room, scratching at the door. We had no choice but to open the door and carry him back to "his area". I've read that we need to ignore him when he cries, but we can't possibly ignore him when he's outside our room as we are afraid that he may venture elsewhere in the house where it's carpeted and pee on the carpet since he is not toilet trained yet. Getting him to pee has proven to be another mission impossible.

My husband and I are very tempted to sleep outside with Stewie (perhaps place a mattress near his screen) as he keeps absolutely quiet when we are near him (even if he can't see us from the other side of the screen), but we are afraid he may get into a habit and we will need to sleep with him always.

Although it's only been 2 days since we brought Stewie home, it's pretty discouraging that he seems to have only gotten worst instead of better with the barking. During the day, he is very good if we barricade him and ignore him. He will bark but not lasting 10 mins and he will stop when he knows he is not getting what he wanted. In night time, nothing seems to help. We tried to leave him dimmed lights so he won't be scared or something, but that doesn't seem to help too.

Is there anything we could do to improve the situation? At least my husband can get some sleep even if it's not the usual 5-8hrs sleep. My colleague suggested a clock which I've seen some people suggested here. Does it really work? I'm definitely heading to the shops to get him one.

We are now most concern with the barking than the toileting. We do not want it to get to the stage where neighbours come knocking on our door or screaming at us to get our puppy to keep quiet.

I'm trying not to give in to his barkings as my old dog used to bark and my parents let him into their bedroom, since then, he was never going out of the bedroom for bedtime. And everytime, he would bark to get what he wanted. He won't even go on walks and wanted to be carried. I certainty do not want that behaviour in Stewie.

Any suggestions or experience with young Pomeranians is greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

Edited January 12, 2009 by vMJv

[Mini_M]

Hi,

My husband and I have recently acquired our first puppy, a 7 week old pomeranian - Stewie, last Saturday. My husband's family never had dogs while my family used to have 1. In general, we are not very experienced with dogs.

We are currently having a problem with his barking/wimping/whining in the night time. On Saturday night, we put him to bed at around 11pm and he was barking/wimping/whining for periods of 30 mins to 60 mins before stopping for 30 mins to 2 hrs before the cycle starts again. We ignored him and as we did not want to encourage his barking with our attention. However, last night, he could stop at all. He just went on and on the whole night long...on the top of his voice. It's loud and high pitched and echoed through the whole house.

Is there any reason you are not crating him at night? We put our 11 week old toy poodle in a crate with some toys and a ticking clock, and he's never had a problem.

[WreckitWhippet]

Stewie is a baby puppy that should still be with his mother at 7 weeks. That aside, he's a very small baby in a large area. Crate train him or restrict to him a small areas that becomes his bed/den and comfort zone.

He's tiny and he's alone.

[IZZY]

Congratulations on your new puppy, however 7 weeks is to young for him to be away from his mother and siblings so this may be contributing to the problem.

I would buy a crate and put him in it next to your bed, then if he starts you can place your hand on the crate to let him know you are there, ofcause you will need to get up to take him out for toilet breaks, but at least you will get some sleep in between.

[persephone]

7 weeks is still too young to be away from his family... he will cry

make sure he has had a good play session, a feed,and a toilet opportunity.

get him a puppy kong.. put some treats in.. or leave him with a LARGE bone.

the ticking clock/hot water bottle thing is good too

leave an item of worn clothing from the pair of you... he will then smell that you are 'near'

he will only be able to hold his bladder a short time.. so if he is awake.. he will need to pee .

[Jimmay]

Well if you look at it in his perspective it must be pretty terrifying being a defensless puppy left all on his own. In the wild if a pup ever got separated from their pack they're as good as dead! So realy its kind of like a survival instict to cry out for help.

What ive done when ive have puppies is set up a puppy pen with newspaper and a dog bed right next to my bed, that way the puppy knows he's not alone and feels safe and i can just reach my hand down to reassure him.

Edited January 12, 2009 by Jimmay

[louloud]

I would also suggest crate training him. I have a 7 month old pomeranian puppy and when I first got her she was terrible at settling down for the night (would carry on barking and whimpering). When my pup was nine weeks (when I first got her) she would be put in her crate at 10pm, then I would wake at least once during the night to toliet her then she would sleep through till at least 6am, just ignore any barking or whinging in between. She was sleeping in her crate from 10pm till 6am with no toliet breaks or whingying by 14 weeks old.

[vMJv]

Is there any reason you are not crating him at night? We put our 11 week old toy poodle in a crate with some toys and a ticking clock, and he's never had a problem.

My husband thinks it's very pitiful to confine him to a small area which is why he has put up a barricade in our games room (which is open area to our kitchen, dining and living area, so the area is big and the games area alone is a theatre room size about 4x4).

I must admit we have not bought everything we need for Stewie as we want to see what he need, then buy instead of blindly buying everything. He has some toys and a couple of our old clothes and an old pillow to sleep on which he has pee on in the night before.

I am thinking of buying him a bed which my colleague suggested (I wasn't sure if a crate or a bed would be better, hence we haven't bought him one...it also didn't help when most shops weren't open in Perth yesterday to do some shopping).

Now, I'm not sure about bed or crate...

My old dog used to hate his crate and would chew through the crate wiring which is why I had second thoughts on crate previously. But seems many suggested crating...I should probably give it more tot.

[vMJv]

Stewie is a baby puppy that should still be with his mother at 7 weeks. That aside, he's a very small baby in a large area. Crate train him or restrict to him a small areas that becomes his bed/den and comfort zone.

He's tiny and he's alone.

We hadn't thought that a big area would make matters worst. On Saturday, he was sleeping in the kitchen area as my husband hasn't completed his screen and that area was smaller to screen, but my husband prefered to give him the games area which overlooks our backyard so he has "some scenery" instead of the dishwasher and drawers to look at and chew on.

So maybe we should make his "area" smaller?

Also, I just realised one of my colleague have a pomeranian and he told me pomeranians are good jumpers and his can jump up to a cabinet which is about near waist height. Is that true? In this case, my husband's screen would be useless to keep him zoned anyway...

[vMJv]

Congratulations on your new puppy, however 7 weeks is to young for him to be away from his mother and siblings so this may be contributing to the problem.

I would buy a crate and put him in it next to your bed, then if he starts you can place your hand on the crate to let him know you are there, ofcause you will need to get up to take him out for toilet breaks, but at least you will get some sleep in between.

Putting him in a crate in our room had come to my mind before, but we do not want him in our bedroom in the long run. Would it be a problem if we put him outside later on? We are just afraid it'll be habitual to sleep in our room and it'll be harder later on to put him where we would like him to be.

[vMJv]

7 weeks is still too young to be away from his family... he will cry

make sure he has had a good play session, a feed,and a toilet opportunity.

get him a puppy kong.. put some treats in.. or leave him with a LARGE bone.

the ticking clock/hot water bottle thing is good too

leave an item of worn clothing from the pair of you... he will then smell that you are 'near'

he will only be able to hold his bladder a short time.. so if he is awake.. he will need to pee .

We do play with him during the day (we are able to do during weekends but weekdays both my husband and I are away at work though and we do not have kids at the moment to play with Stewie) and we bring him for walks in the park. We tried to get him to toilet but he doesn't seem to want to pee/poo. Only poo once yesterday (while we weren't looking and preparing dinner) and didn't pee at all during the day. Also, he seems scared of poles which has been marked by other dogs when we take him for his walk (was hoping he would pee since he didn't do so for the whole day)...he refused to go near the pole and would wimp when we tried to get him close.

He has our old clothes though he prefered my husband's clothes comared to mine.

We are trying to "ignore him" during the night. How do we know if he is wanting to pee? We do not want to go out when he is wimping/crying as we are afraid he might be only seeking attention and just wanting to stick to us.

Can we go to him at all during the night if we choose to keep him where he is now for bedtime (maybe smaller the area)? When is it appropriate to go to him? I don't want to go out and pacify him to sleep everytime he wimps/cries as I think if I do so, he won't stop this behaviour.

I'll try the ticking clock tonight. Hope it works.

[crazynia]

congratulations on your new puppy vMJv. the 1st few weeks would be tiring as your puppy gets used to his new surroundings. when i got my puppy, i was grouchy as hell. he would whine, whine, whine... bark bark bark...stop....and the cycle repeats himself all over again. your might try to exhaust your pup just a lil before he goes to bed... tat way, after a while of whinning, he'll get tired soon enough and go to bed.

as much it would seem that the crate is a cruel thing to do, some people believe that dog's love their own space and giving them a crate is like giving them a lil home of their own. and getting them use to it at a young age would help, just in case in the future he need to be placed in one for travel or anything else.. as for the bed, i wouldn't suggest you buying him a bed just yet since he's not toilet trained and may go on the bed.

have patience and soon you'll have a adorable lil boy!!

[vMJv]

Well if you look at it in his perspective it must be pretty terrifying being a defensless puppy left all on his own. In the wild if a pup ever got separated from their pack they're as good as dead! So realy its kind of like a survival instict to cry out for help.

What ive done when ive have puppies is set up a puppy pen with newspaper and a dog bed right next to my bed, that way the puppy knows he's not alone and feels safe and i can just reach my hand down to reassure him.

Would we be able to get him to sleep elsewhere later on? How long would he need to sleep in the bedroom before he can be moved elsewhere?

My colleague asked her vet for some advise...and their advise is IGNORE IGNORE IGNORE. But it's too loud to ignore.

[vMJv]

I would also suggest crate training him. I have a 7 month old pomeranian puppy and when I first got her she was terrible at settling down for the night (would carry on barking and whimpering). When my pup was nine weeks (when I first got her) she would be put in her crate at 10pm, then I would wake at least once during the night to toliet her then she would sleep through till at least 6am, just ignore any barking or whinging in between. She was sleeping in her crate from 10pm till 6am with no toliet breaks or whingying by 14 weeks old.

So before 14 weeks old, she was still whining? Does your puppy cry all night with no stops? I don't mind if he cries, but not all night long please. How long before he will stop the non-stop crying? I think me and my husband are going to start crying all night long if he doesn't improve.

[Danois]

Also, he seems scared of poles which has been marked by other dogs when we take him for his walk (was hoping he would pee since he didn't do so for the whole day)...he refused to go near the pole and would wimp when we tried to get him close.

DO NOT take your 7 week old puppy out on walks!

As it is, he was too young to have left his mother. What injections has he had? If he had his 6 week one then it takes up to 2 weeks before the immunity is there.

You are exposing your puppy to parvo, kennel cough etc. Please find MissyMoo's thread in Health or Show Ring to find out what happens if a puppy gets parvo.

Read up about crate training. Not confining such a small pup at such a young age in a small area is IMO pitiful. My 5 month old 35kg dane gets put into his crate without any problems - it is their secure space.

If he is crying - take him out, do the toilet routine and otherwise ignore him. When he is finished - straight back into the crate.

Just out of interest - was he a spur of the moment purchase or a planned, researched one?

[vMJv]

congratulations on your new puppy vMJv. the 1st few weeks would be tiring as your puppy gets used to his new surroundings. when i got my puppy, i was grouchy as hell. he would whine, whine, whine... bark bark bark...stop....and the cycle repeats himself all over again. your might try to exhaust your pup just a lil before he goes to bed... tat way, after a while of whinning, he'll get tired soon enough and go to bed.

as much it would seem that the crate is a cruel thing to do, some people believe that dog's love their own space and giving them a crate is like giving them a lil home of their own. and getting them use to it at a young age would help, just in case in the future he need to be placed in one for travel or anything else.. as for the bed, i wouldn't suggest you buying him a bed just yet since he's not toilet trained and may go on the bed.

have patience and soon you'll have a adorable lil boy!!

I will speak to my husband about the crate since majority are in favour of a crate.

We thought we have exhausted him on his walk yesterday. But his energy just seems to last forever and the whinning never stopped.

[poodlefan]

Crate him, crate him, crate him. It will help with toilet training, give him a safe place to stay when visitors and children visit, make him a pleasure to travel with and improve his sense of security.

A crate is a a den not a cage or prison. If your husband has no experience with dogs, his thoughts are from a human perspective and not what the dog's needs are. Dogs LIKE small spaces, they don't need scenery when they rest.

You've got a tiny puppy, from a highly vocal breed, suddenly socially isolated at night. Too damn right he's going to scream the house down!!

So you can give him a den and, if you are wise, company when he sleeps. What's the problem with him having a small crate, and eventually perhaps a small basket in the bedroom. It will give you ALL a more comfortable night's sleep.

If not the bedroom, perhaps the kitchen is an option. I'd not sleep any toy breed outside or in a heat sink room like a laundry or bathroom. They simply do not have the body mass to cope well with extremes of temperature.

He's a Toy breed of dog, selectively bred for generations to seek and and prefer the company of people. My advice is to give him company, but on your terms.

Edited January 12, 2009 by poodlefan

[vMJv]

Also, he seems scared of poles which has been marked by other dogs when we take him for his walk (was hoping he would pee since he didn't do so for the whole day)...he refused to go near the pole and would wimp when we tried to get him close.

DO NOT take your 7 week old puppy out on walks!

As it is, he was too young to have left his mother. What injections has he had? If he had his 6 week one then it takes up to 2 weeks before the immunity is there.

You are exposing your puppy to parvo, kennel cough etc. Please find MissyMoo's thread in Health or Show Ring to find out what happens if a puppy gets parvo.

Read up about crate training. Not confining such a small pup at such a young age in a small area is IMO pitiful. My 5 month old 35kg dane gets put into his crate without any problems - it is their secure space.

If he is crying - take him out, do the toilet routine and otherwise ignore him. When he is finished - straight back into the crate.

Just out of interest - was he a spur of the moment purchase or a planned, researched one?

Oh dear, I didn't know that would be a problem. Thanks for the reminder!

We had been planning to buy the puppy since we moved into our new home last April. But apparently we didn't do a good job at our planning. Getting information bits here and there seems to have confused us. Bed or crate. Ignore or let it in our room. We chose to ignore and set the rules but we have probably underestimated how tough it would be to raise a puppy. I didn't have this much problem with my old dog when he was a puppy, but that was probably because we gave him whatever he wanted and he would still pee and poo in the apartment wherever he likes till the day he died.

[Mini_M]

We thought we have exhausted him on his walk yesterday. But his energy just seems to last forever and the whinning never stopped.

Did you get him from a breeder? We were given very strict instructions from ours not to let our walk outside until he's at least had his 12 week vaccinations, preferably 16 week. Lots of nasties outside where other dogs have been.

[Kelpie_Pup]

vMJv.. I think it would be fair to say that the majority of DOLers are very pro crating.. me included. IMO, you will not regret it. Try and find some good literature on it and give it a go.

Ans yes, 7 weeks is still too young. You may end up also with nipping problems soon, so just expect that. (Bite inhibition is something they learn from their mother and littermates up until 8 weeks of age).

No walks for now until vaccd-IMO. At least not big ones around the streets. Maybe up the driveway? Ball games work wonders for energy expenditure.

Ignore the crying. The moment you give into it, he was won. And it will only ever get worse before it gets better-but remember this.. IT WILL GET BETTER

Halle as a puppy used to be so exciteable, bouncy, nipping for a short period and sometimes a little too confident for her own good. She is now 13 months old and has grown to be one of the most well behaved, pleasures of a dog to be around. Do some good reading and make the most of it.. it will all make a difference in the long run

This is the crate we used for Halle for the first 3 months until she was about 5months old. The sides had little gaps for air ventilation but not too much to feel cold or not cosy. Any littl crate would be good, and you can always drape a blanket or towel over the top and sides. As you can see, we used to leave the door open during the day and she would go into her crate every time for a sleep, of her own accord. At night, always shut.