Our 6-month puppy has started whining at night

We have an easy-going and generally secure Finnish Lapphund puppy, soon to be 7 months. She sleeps in a cradle at the end of our bed in our room, which has worked perfectly until now. She has always slept all night long, but for the last two weeks, she has started to wake up and whine at night (1-3 times per night). If we ignore her she eventually starts barking, but if we say a harsh ‘No’ she stops immediately and falls back to sleep.

We have tried the following:

• Letting her out of the cradle to sleep at the floor of our bedroom (no discernable effect).
• Taking her out for a walk at night (not very funny and no discernable effect; she does not seem keen at all to go out, even though she eventually follows).
• Saving some of her dinner portion for a late night ‘snack’ to ensure that it is not hunger that makes her wake up (no discernable effect).
• Taking a longer walk in the evening to ensure that she is not physically restless (no discernable effect).
• Making the room pitch dark so that it is not the spring light that causes here to wake up (no discernable effect).

As you can tell, nothing works so far. She does not seem especially restless, since she stops whining after a hash ‘no!’, but she still does this on average two times a night, and it drives us mad, especially since we cannot figure out what is going on. That, and since we really value our night sleep.

Any advice and general words of wisdom appreciated.

Is her season due?

We have never ever let a dog sleep in the same room as us during the night, and we have had dogs since 1973 several at any one time from puppies to oldies. Yes initially they do cry at night but soon learn that they sleep all night and stay quiet.

My dogs have always slept in my bedroom but that doesn't help answering your question. Taking her out will only wake her up more. Try doing a few minutes training before bedtime. This tires the brain more. Exercise just tires the body but makes the brain more active. So, recalls, playing fetch, hiding something for her to find, heelwork etc. All can be done indoors. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the advice. Our guess is that she is approaching her first season, and that we basically have to ride it out, being very clear in our response to her whining that this is bedtime, not activity time.

That said, we will try whatever you may throw at us (within reasonable limits, of course), so any advice appreciated. Adding training before bedtime sounds like a good piece of advice, we will try that.