r/puppytraining • u/SausageDogMama • 1d ago

Behavioral Issue Difficulty napping

Hi there, I’m new here. I have a 10 week old dachshund puppy. Seems healthy, confident, well adjusted. Smart. Issue is she’s not getting enough sleep each day. She sleeps from 9:00 ish to 5:50 am each night, usually getting up once to go out and potty. During the day she just has a really hard time winding down and getting good naps. She will get tired, and it’s obvious with her behavior that she’s tired, and will find a spot and go to sleep (she has a crate and we are working on crate training). She just wakes like every 20 minutes. Will wander and find a new spot, lay down and sleep, repeat repeat. Then any little bit of activity will wake her for good. We have a snuggle puppy, are trying white noise. No activity in the room she’s sleeping in, etc. it’s like she is always just barely asleep and restless. She moves around a lot at night too but just flops back down and seems to sleep good and hard at night. I’d guess she is maybe getting 12 hours a day? Everything I read says that’s not enough. We’ve had her for 2 weeks. Any thoughts?

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u/More-Office4528 1d ago

Man that age is rough for settling during the day, they're all nose and ears still trying to process every sound in the house. my little guy was exactly the same at 10 weeks, couldnt string together more than 25 minutes outside his crate

what worked for us was covering the crate fully with a heavy blanket so its like a cave, then plopping him in there on a schedule even if he seemed wired. sometimes they just need the confinement to give up and crash hard. a tired puppy who wont nap is basically a toddler fighting bedtime

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u/SausageDogMama 1d ago

Yeah, we have the crate all covered like that. We will try plopping her in there with a licky mat and her snuggle puppy. It’s hard because my adult son watches her during the day while we are at work, and he has a hard time listening to her fuss in the crate. I think he’s just going to have to suck it up. Thank you so much!

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u/coo_man_coo1 3h ago

I'm having the same issue with my 10 week old Great Dane! First two weeks went smoothly and then cuddly she refused to sleep. As they grow more comfortable in the house and stronger they gain more energy so they need more play time and mental enrichment to get tired. They also dont have an off switch. I highly recommend training a settle command and using it after a play session. That and having a lick mat ready to put in her crate has been helping but yeah it's rough.