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I have a night problem.

jgponder

Well-known member
Once I have the 2 settled in for the night in our bed. The 4yr old is starting to get down and want to go out at night. Once I put him out he just wants to run and bark, see if there are any rabbits about or get a drink from our pond. This will go on several times during the night. It is not to relieve himself. I have tried to tell him no and not let him out, but he will keep trying until I let him. I am not sure if I cage him if that will break him from this new habit or not. I hesitate to not let him out as I would never know when he really has to go. Any suggestions?

Jane
Mom to Alex & Emma
 
I'd say crate him. He's just wanting to play and knows that if he makes a big enough fuss, you'll let him out! A few nights in the crate with no exits and he'll learn that going out at night is not allowed.
 
This sounds entirely a learned behaviour. A 4 year old dog does not need to go out at night to relieve itself -- even most puppies can hold themselves through the night by ago 4-5 months. I'd however have him vet checked to make sure he doesn't have some urinary tract problem and if that checks clear then you simply are going to need to learn to ignore him to untrain him from wanting to go out. he's trained you well at this point :) -- every time you have let him out when he asks, the need to get up has been reinforced into a nightly habit (as would any repeated behaviour -- dogs are entirely creatures of habit!). Crating isn't necessarily going to help -- and if he isn't already crate trained, then you actually need to crate train him first, you can't simply lock him into a crate at night out of the blue. There's info on crate training in the Library section and at all the links on training pinned in the main training questions section. Even a crate trained dog is likely to just bark and fuss inside the crate though -- the issue is really gritting your teeth and ignoring his demands til eventually, he learns they no longer get a response and he stops trying. IT may take a while though and some nerve on your part to hold firm. (y)
 
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