Puppy won't settle down or fall asleep without me
Young dogs often resist sleeping by whining, chewing on their pens, or getting into trouble if left untethered. While they might drift off in minutes on an owner's lap, making them settle independently can take hours and result in exhaustingly short naps. This inability to self-settle prevents owners from simply lying on the couch to relax or watch a movie.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
Puppy won't settle down or fall asleep without me
- 1Getting inside the pen and letting the puppy fall asleep in their lapDid this help you?
- 2Using wind-down tools like lick pads, filled kongs, and meat bonesDid this help you?
- 3Covering the crate almost entirely to make it darkDid this help you?
- 4constantly tethering the puppyDid this help you?
- 5using enforced naps in a crateDid this help you?
- 6rewarding calm by slowly feeding treats when the puppy lies downDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“recently even after calming down she can't fall asleep - she keep chewing the toys, he goes and chews the metal puppy pen, she whines.”source ↗
“The way to calm her is getting inside and sitting down. The moment I do this, she come to me, sits in my lap and can drift off in a couple of minutes.”source ↗
“It took 2hours!! to make her fall asleep and the whole days she would sleep only about 1h each time. It was exhausting...”source ↗
“I don't want to teach her to rely on me for sleep, but at the same time she's a baby and I know she needs reassurance.”source ↗
“20 week old large breed puppy cannot be anywhere in the house without being tethered. He gets into everything and cannot self settle.”source ↗
“I am worried he is very high energy and will not calm down. We can never just lie on the couch with him to watch a movie, regardless of how much or how enrichment and exercise he’s had during the day.”source ↗
“my dog wasn’t adopted until he was 6 months and he had been in crate reset for 2 of those. But he wasn’t able to settle until at least a year old and even then it wasn’t consistent.”source ↗