How to Keep a Puppy Awake Before Bedtime?

You can do many things to keep your pup active before it’s time to go to bed. These include going for a walk, playing with your puppy, or taking him outside for potty time.

Doing any of those activities should tire your puppy out enough to promise blissful sleep at night!

This also ensures he doesn’t fall asleep before he’s used to, keeping his sleeping routine stable.

6 Ways to Keep Your Puppy Awake Before Bedtime

As a beginner pet owner, you might be out of ideas on how to prevent your puppy from falling asleep earlier than he needs to. You don’t want to mess with his sleep schedule, right?

Well, thankfully, there are six ways to ensure this doesn’t happen. So, let’s address each one of those right below!

1.   Train Your Puppy

Want to hit two birds with one stone? Well, you can train your puppy before bedtime to keep him awake and teach him some new, cool tricks at the same time!

By the age of seven to eight weeks, your little pup should be ready to learn some basic commands. Sure, his attention span might be short and he could be easily distracted, but it can be a good idea to start training at such a young age.

You can begin teaching him directions like “sit” or “stay” and work your way from there. Use food as a motivator and a lure to make your puppy get into the positions that you want.

When it’s bedtime, you’ll find that your puppy is tired and ready for sleep with no interruptions!

2.   Exercise Your Dog

Why don’t you consider pushing your daily dog walks until before bedtime? This should allow him to explore his surroundings and interact with the outer world, and it’s an awesome exercise for both of you!

Another way you exercise your puppy is by playing fetch or tug-of-war with him. If walking isn’t an option, you can do these two activities in your backyard and enjoy some bonding time.

As long as you get your little guy moving, he should stay active until he finally falls asleep around bedtime. Mission accomplished!

3.   Play With Your Puppy

Don’t underestimate the benefits that your puppy can get from playing with you. Besides offering him plenty of mental and physical stimulation to help him sleep better at night, it also builds stronger connections between you two.

There are many playtime ideas you may want to try to match your little guy’s pent-up energy, including:

• Get him a few puppy toys and encourage him to play with them (this also fulfills his desire to chew on things)
• Consider gifting him with a food-dispensing toy
• Let him chase bubbles around the room
• Hide treats in different places and give him the opportunity to find them
• Encourage your kids to play with the dog indoors or outdoors

4.   Take Him Outside for Potty Time

If your puppy’s head is already drooping on the couch an hour before bedtime, consider taking him to the potty outside.

Not only should that keep him awake for a while after, but it also ensures he doesn’t wake up a few hours later with a nagging bladder!

5.   Give Your Furry Friend a Relaxing Bath

When puppies turn eight weeks of age, their bodies should be prepared for baths. If this applies to your pup, then having a soothing bath before bedtime may be a wonderful idea to keep him up!

Just make sure to dry your dog thoroughly afterward; you don’t want him to feel cold at night. This will surely defeat the entire purpose of the bath, keeping him awake past his bedtime.

6.   Keep His Brain Preoccupied

Physical activity isn’t the only way to keep your puppy awake before bedtime. You can work his brain, too, so that he feels sleepy when the time is right and then has a good night’s sleep!

For example, you could buy him one of those mind-stimulating dog toys on the market. Watch him trying to solve those puzzles for hours!

Another way to provide mental stimulation for your puppy is by allowing him to use his senses to explore textures and smells. This won’t only make him tired by the end of the day, but it’ll also exercise his intelligence.

Here are several ideas to offer mental stimulation for your doggo:

• Take him outside to the backyard and let him smell the grass, flowers, soil, etc. (make sure there aren’t any toxic plants out there)
• Play hide and seek with your pup
• Hide a tasty treat underneath a plastic cup and blend it in with two empty ones, then ask your pup to find the treat

Why You Need to Keep Your Puppy Awake Before Bedtime

You might feel bad about keeping your puppy up until bedtime and not letting him sleep whenever he wants to. Yet, it’s not advisable to allow your puppy to sleep too early in the evening.

For one, this can disrupt his sleeping routine and mess with his waking times. Soon enough, you’ll find your puppy wide-awake and ready to play in the middle of the night!

This might also lead to your puppy sleeping more during the day and not eating or exercising enough. It’s a surefire recipe to either malnutrition or obesity.

In addition to that, if you don’t establish a good sleeping schedule, this can affect the mood of your doggo. Not getting enough sleep or having interrupted sleep at night might cause irritability, mood swings, stress, and more.

What Time Should You Put Your Puppy to Bed?

Ideally, puppies should go to bed at around eight p.m. to midnight. Use your judgment to determine the best time for your dog to sleep while keeping your own schedule in mind.

It doesn’t really matter when your puppy goes to sleep as long as it’s at the same hour every night. This promises a deep, peaceful sleep with good dreams and minimal chances of waking up when you don’t want your puppy to!

Paul S.

Paul has been creating content for the dog niche for many years. The information he shares comes his first hand experience growing up in dog lovers household and then owning multiple dog breeds of his own as an adult. Paul enjoys doing the hard research to collect, analyze and present our dogtemperament.com readers with the best answers to their questions.