How Do I Get A Lie In?

[dirtychicken]

When Flora first arrived - blimey, nearly 3 months ago!! - she would pee and poo in her crate overnight. After some experimenting with feeding times she can now wait until morning. However, during the experimentation she got into the habit of whining to let me know she needed to go out and I would fly downstairs to let her out.

 

After further testing, I know that if I let her out at the same time as the boys for the first time on a morning she will go into the garden, pee and poo, then come back in. If I get up and let her out on her own (if it's particularly early and the boys have not yet woken) she will just sit at the back door and cry until I let her back in without doing anything. She will then go back to bed but, after 15 minutes or so, start whining again because the short venture into the garden has stimulated her bladder and bowel If I put her back to bed, or just leave her in the kitchen, with a rawhide chew then no whining occurs

 

So what I need to work out is how to break the cycle of her now having control over what time I get up in the morning. She is now 9 1/2 months old so not an ickle puppy. I don't want to keep giving her rawhide to keep her quiet. I would like her to learn to wait until I am ready to get up and let her out. Is this just going to be a matter of time and riding this particular wave for the time being? Or is there something else that I've not yet thought of that I could be doing to get this wave to break a bit sooner?

 

Anyone have any ideas at all, please?

Edited April 7, 2007 by muckyhen

[Rudi]

Take her back to bed with you

[merledogs]

The only thing I can think of is to ignore her and just let her out the same time as the boys. If you're giving her rawhide to keep her quiet, you're rewarding her so she thinks she's onto a good thing with this whining malarky

[ReikiAnge]

Can you teach her a toilet command so that you can get her to go when you get up to let her out? Reward her with treats when she goes in the right place and she should soon learn. People use different phrases but I use "toilet" for both wees and poos and they know if they do a wee and I say "toilet" again to go to a poo if they need one of those too! She's still pretty young at 9 months, so maybe can't last as long as the boys - but at least if you do have to get up earlier for her, with the toilet command in place you can hopefully go back to bed knowing she's been and avoid her whining?

 

It's the other way around here, the boys are up and out for wees as soon as I ask them to but I have to nag Cass to wake up for a wee sometimes

[dirtychicken]

Take her back to bed with you

 

I have tried that one but it does involve several hours of floor-my bed-floor-my bed-floor-my bed-floor-my bed hence why she's in the crate

 

The only thing I can think of is to ignore her and just let her out the same time as the boys. If you're giving her rawhide to keep her quiet, you're rewarding her so she thinks she's onto a good thing with this whining malarky

 

That's what I've realised which is why I stopped giving it to her and she's now having a tantrum My initial reaction was to just ignore her and let her wait, but then she inevitably messes in the crate and gets upset

 

Can you teach her a toilet command so that you can get her to go when you get up to let her out? Reward her with treats when she goes in the right place and she should soon learn. People use different phrases but I use "toilet" for both wees and poos and they know if they do a wee and I say "toilet" again to go to a poo if they need one of those too! She's still pretty young at 9 months, so maybe can't last as long as the boys - but at least if you do have to get up earlier for her, with the toilet command in place you can hopefully go back to bed knowing she's been and avoid her whining?

 

That sounds like a plan I wasn't sure whether I was expecting a bit much for 9 months or not. It's some years since Bailey was that young and Bear has always been an old man while he's been with me So "toilet" we'll try

Edited April 8, 2007 by muckyhen

[LurcherGirl]

I have tried that one but it does involve several hours of floor-my bed-floor-my bed-floor-my bed-floor-my bed hence why she's in the crate

That's what I've realised which is why I stopped giving it to her and she's now having a tantrum My initial reaction was to just ignore her and let her wait, but then she inevitably messes in the crate and gets upset

That sounds like a plan I wasn't sure whether I was expecting a bit much for 9 months or not. It's some years since Bailey was that young and Bear has always been an old man while he's been with me So "toilet" we'll try

 

Definitely not expecting too much. When we brought our puppy Jesse home at 8 1/2 WEEKS old, I used the word "toilet" immediately whenever he went outside. Within TWO DAYS, he connected the word and went immediately when asked to go "toilet". He is now 15 weeks old and is still the same. I open the back door, ask him to go "toilet", he will do a wee or poo and if I ask again, he will do the same again if he needs to go still.

 

I let Jesse out for toiletting in the morning during the week at 6.30 am (before I take the big boys for a walk) and at week-ends whenever he whines, which is usually around 8 or 9 am. I then put him straight back in his crate (which is in our bedroom) and he goes back to sleep.

 

So, 9 months old is definitely not too young to teach to toilet on command and expect her to go back to bed after the morning toilet break. Luckily, Jesse basically gets up with the rest of them and lets us lay in without problems... I guess he just copied the rest of them and got used to it.

 

Vera

Edited April 13, 2007 by LurcherGirl

[dirtychicken]

There has been a bit of a twist in this tale

 

The day before we went to stay with poppynvader it occurred to me that it might not help that there are no curtains at the kitchen window and so where the crate is would be getting light as soon as the sun arrived

 

Whilst at Jill's Flora is crated overnight anyway so that her night routine is not changed much and so we decided to cover her crate as well and see if it helped. Not once did she wake up whining. Quite often all of the dogs stayed asleep until 8.30/9am and it was never Flora that started the noise-making!! And neither did she mess her crate.

 

And so we returned home. I covered her crate at night. She woke up whining at 6.45am!! At that point I think it finally kicked in that I was being played I came downstairs and told her to quiet and go back to bed and she did She woke me up again - in a panic because I had no idea how long I'd been asleep for - at 9.15

 

This morning I got up at 8.30 and she was still fast asleep So that would appear to be that sorted, but I'm still going to implement the "toilet" command as it must be an incredibly useful command to have.

 

Thank you all for your help and suggestions

[KathyM]

I've trained Dharma to wee and poo on cue. I trained them separately though so she has a cue for each ("Dharma wee" for wees and "Dharma emppptyy" for a poo - if anyone remembers the old Coop milk ads you'll get the gist). I think it's easier having both on separate cues as if you're waiting for them to have a poo and they're doing lots of tiny wees to impress you ("Look Mum, I did a wee!"), it can be very frustrating *lol*.