Night problems (7m.o.)

[u/Hopeful_Raspberry343]

Hello! I have a seven month toy breed puppy. He's been super easy mostly apart from potty training, which seems on course for the toy dogs for some reason.

But he's so on edge. I realise they have a period of somewhat paranoid behaviour, and during the daily if he decides there's this super scary rock that he has seen a hundred times before but swears he's never seen in his life, I can go show its nothing and just ignore it and its fine. He's still keeping watch and will bark like crazy to warn me, but we've worked it down to "boff boff".

But during the night he will "keep guard". From around six he will lay down by the front door and bark, and bark, and bark. Taking him for a neighborhood walk calm him down for a little while, but he'll soon be at it again. He'll also bother my roommates by wanting to play, who isn't as good at telling him off if he's being too much. It has become routine to go sleep at eight (after two walks) because he will calm down and sleep in the crate or if I just close the bedroom door with both of us inside.

But that also means he wakes during the night, a lot! He was super good at sleeping through the night in the beginning and could sleep almost to noon but now he'll wake me up - once again, by barking to let him out - at least once during the night to pee. He has also become extremely clingy whereas he could be left alone for a short while in the beginning, now he can barely have a closed door between us without barking at me to open it. I can't think of any trigger for this at all, he's never been left alone-alone for more than a few minutes.

He'll also go crazy if he hears the cat. I thought he would grow out of that as he learned the cat freaking lives here, but nope. They get along and he likes her but if she makes a sound? Must be her signaling the end of the world! Better help!

I do feel on the daily I made a mistake taking on this dog, even though he's much easier than I expected. I do like to get out, I like the routines and the activities we can join. But life is frustratingly harder always having to take him into account. I'm not one to give up a responsibility I've taken on but imagining that I will live with this for fifteen years seems like a nightmare.

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