Up at 4am

[Pink-ET]

My 11 week old Bichon Poo sleeps in the bathroom, it on suite and we have a puppy gate across the door. This is where she goes when we go out. Its a good size and her pee pad is in a recess and she has an area for her food/water and her bed.

We put her in there at night also but the problem is she wakes at 4am EVERY morning and howls and yaps the house down!!! I don't just want to leave her in distress so I am currently (4:38am) sitting in there with my computer!

My thinking is that if I come in here for the next few nights at 4am she will realize that she is not going to be allowed to come out until morning and eventually I will withdraw from this.

is this likely to work or what else should I be doing?

[aslan]

unfortunately what she's learning is if i scream and yowl, mommy will come with me..Get a small dog crate for her and set it up next to your bed. put her in there at night. Remember she went from being with her mom and littermates to being alone at night. The crate will also teach her to hold her pee. You may have to get up once a night to let her out to do her business. She can only hold it for so long. If she wakes durring the night and is in your room, just speak to her so she knows you're there but don't get up and let her out or coddle her.

[Pink-ET]

Ok I will try again, I did that the first 2 nights and she had me up 3 times to pee and from 4am onwards howled and screamed (I had like a small pink tent crate with black mesh windows for dogs on the side table next to my bed)

At least with the bathroom set up she was peeing and pooing on her pee pad during the night but still did the 4am thing anyway!!

I am so worried I am going to confuse and upset her chopping and changing the way I do things with her while I am learning.

(having to get up for work these days is getting harder and harder!!)

[aslan]

go to this site it will give you info on proper crate training


http://www.sfspca.org/sites/default/files/crating_0.pdf

[Melinda]

with each pup/foster I get , I usually for the first month, pad a large rubbermaid container, sit it right up against my bed and put the pup in there for the night, if/when they cry during the night I automatically let my arm drop in it and they usually snuggle up to my hand and I pat them back to sleep

[Pink-ET]

My big problem with crate training is I don't want to confuse her. during the day she HAS to be in the bathroom with puppy gate on, I try to make it home for lunch each day but working as a community nurse each day is slightly different as to the time I can pop home. I could not leave her locked in a crate like that.

So can I do both, have her in the crate when I am home and in the bathroom when I am out? when I am out she is poops and pees on her pad in the bathroom and when in she poops on my carpet in the bedroom

[DoubleRR]

Yes, you can do both. My dachshund sleeps in his crate at night and when we are gone for a short time he is either in the crate or in the baby gated porch with my older dog. When I go to work he goes out into the heated garage large dog pen with newspapers at one end to pee on, and he uses them if we are gone longer than a few hrs. He stays clean in his crate even for over 10 hrs at night with no issues.