Whiney in the evening

[bluebeetlemom]

I have a 5 month old English/American bulldog/mastiff mix. She sleeps in her crate at night and during the day for about 2 hours midmorning and another 2 hours midafternoon while I am unable to watch her. She has always accepted being put in her crate, but doesn't go in on her own to nap. She rarely falls asleep during the day/evening when she is not crated. The problem is in the evening. She will have been up and out of her crate for hours, been played with, walked, eaten. She then gets whiney. We will be on the couch watching tv, and she will look up at me (not my husband) and proceed to mournfully whine and be restless, and just not settle down and nap (as I'm assuming by then she should be plenty tired). We are guilty of having gotten down on the floor with her in previous months to settle her into a nap (which works), but we would like to stop doing this. She is not allowed on the furniture with us. For a few nights I just let her whine it out, and it went on much of the evening. She would drop off for about 20 minutes, then she would wake and start whining again. Last night, my husband finally just put her in her crate and she was immediately quiet. I don't like putting her in the crate to settle her down at 8pm when she will be going into the crate about 9:30 for the night. But if it works.... Any suggestions?

[dolmod]

where is her crate and is the door always open?

[bluebeetlemom]

The crate she overnights in is in a room away from the living area. It is always open when she isn't in it. We also have a crate set up in the family room. We used this crate when she was very small, but for the last couple months used the overnight crate exclusively. The crate in the family room is open at all times.

[BrodiesMom]

Maybe she is telling you that she is ready for bed. So, let her out one last time and put her to bed.

[bluebeetlemom]

I know she is telling us she is tired, as she will do this during the afternoon if I am home and she isn't already crated, she will get fussy and act relieved when I put her in the crate. In the evening, though, I don't want to crate her for the night at 7:30/8pm or so when she would be crated until 6-7am the next morning. That just seems like too long of a time. I just find it quirky that she won't 'be a dog' and just fall asleep on the carpeting, that she seems to need the crate.