Where to sleep

[fiona knox]

Hi,

We have a 6 month old labrador/pointer cross bitch. We tried unsuccesfully to train her to sleep in a crate at 8-9 weeks. She went through a stage of sleeping in the kitchen on her bed with the door closed and I let her out during the night to toilet. We had a short spell at about 4 months of going through the night while left closed in the kitchen and thinks seemed to settle down. She then started to whine. I have two young children and she was disturbing their sleep. We reverted to letting her sleep down stairs with kitchen door open and access to kitchen and living room. Next problem was coming upstairs. I took her back down and gave her the option of going out to the toilet which she did. I am back on disturbed nights again for toilet and taking down stairs. In the last week we have allowed her to come up and see us in the morning and then downstairs rest of day and night. There is no door at the bottom of the stairs.

She can be a bit of a winey dog if excluded from somthing you are doing, otherwise generally good in the house.

She is round folk most of the time except when I go to work where she is walked for a good hour in the morning then spends two 2 1/2 - 3 hour spells in the car broken by a walk at lunch for 1/2 - 1 hour. She has settled into this pattern well.

Need help to re-establish routine of sleep at night in kitchen for at least 6-8 hours for the good of my mental health and for the rest of the family.

Thanks for any pointers

Fiona

[MaxHollyNoah]

Hi fiona!

As I read your posting, the first thing came to my mind is that you got outwitted by your dog. Sorry but it made me smile

She was just fine sleeping in the kitchen with the door closed but you have giving her more and more choices, which of course she liked better than sleeping in the kitchen away from the rest of the family.

What you can do is just put her back in the kitchen and ignore her during the night for a few nights. She will probably whine or even bark to get your attention but be consistent and never come to her.

At her age (6 months) she should be able to hold toilet for 7 hours or so. After you let her out just before you go to bed, she should be able to hold it until the morning comes. Once this becomes a routine, she will be just fine.

This can be said for everything else. If you don't want your dog to beg food, you should never ever feed even a piece of bread from the table. If you don't want your dog to get on the couch, don't let her on even once. (except for you have time and passion to train your dog to listen to your "get down" command - which my dogs do).

I think your dog will learn where to sleep fairly quickly. Good luck

[fiona knox]

Thanks for the advice. Have to say when typing email it became obvious what was going on. Had first night properly back in the kitchen last night. Still got up twice to settle her back down but feel we will get there quite quickly as she is not putting up much resistance.

Cheers

Fiona