Training a puppy to sleep through the night is one of the first forms of training you will want to originate with your new puppy. The fact is - a puppy is a baby, and like a newborn baby he will wake many times in the night for the first few weeks. You do not have to be completely hostage to your puppy's whims however, and it is inherent to slowly train him to sleep soundly through the night. The key is to take a few basic 'common sense' approaches to bedtime and your puppy in order to begin the good habits that will lead to a lifetime of sound sleep.
The first step in training a puppy to sleep through the night is to thought about control his evenings to ensure he is ready to sleep when the time comes. Puppies as a matter of fact sleep a lot, but if you allow him to sleep away the evening then he will awake refreshed and ready to play just as you are getting ready for bed.
Keep him awake with active play, time outdoors, and fun activities - wear him out so he will fall gratefully to sleep when the time comes for bed. Controlling his food and water intake is also important. In normal plan to restrict access to food and water up to 3 hours before bed. Take him out for a potty break just before retiring for the night.
The next key to training a puppy to sleep through the night lies in putting middle of the night potty breaks on a schedule. In normal potty breaks for puppies that are 7-9 weeks old need to be every 2 hours, at 9-14 weeks this stretches to 3 hours, and at 14 weeks and up, it becomes every 4 hours. Set your alarm and take the puppy out on this schedule, then as you have success with no waking and crying, stretch the program by 15 itsybitsy increments.
In this manner you will be incrementally training a puppy to sleep through the night. All the time wake yourself - if your puppy has to cry to wake you they will begin to feel they can wake you as they like with crying. It is also foremost that these night time potty trips are 'all business' - you do not want your puppy to learn that night time potty trips are party time.
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