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Crate Training I recommend crating overnight - in the bedroom. If the dog whines you have two choices:
My Dervish learned very quickly that he could signal "potty" to me at night by gently scratching the door to his crate and using a particular vocalization - kind of a low rumble. I always responded to that, even as he was older, with a quick and neutral trip outside lasting a maximum of 3-5 minutes with a treat for potty performance and then rapidly returned him to his crate to sleep. He quickly learned that waking mommy up was not much fun, but if he really needed to potty I would respond. My personal preference here is to clean up a bit of piddle rather than promote Crate Whining, which makes me crazy. You won't "ruin" your potty training. As soon as the puppy is mature enough to make it all night, my experience has been that they will. Your personal preference may vary here, and if you don't mind responding to all that whining, and don't want to chance piddle in the crate - go ahead and get up. I will be sleeping. Dogs have a god send of When Things Happen, and quickly learn to "tell time." Some dogs even manage to differentiate weekend schedules from weekday schedules as they grow older. However, none of my dogs has yet to figure out the bizarre human habit of Daylight Savings Time. Come to think of if, neither have I.... Remember when hushing a dog in the crate that "shh-relax" may work or may be interpreted by the dog as reinforcement for crate whining. If you say, “shh - relax” and the whining stops, the puppy just needed a bit of reassurance. If the whining escalates in duration or intensity - you have successfully reinforced the whining. The dog tells you what it finds reinforcing and what it finds non-rewarding. Ignoring a noisy puppy or using a startle sound (drop a book on the floor) generally work for whining in the crate, particularly if you have also done a lot of positive reinforcement for being quiet in the crate. If you have been perfectly diligent about a consistent reinforcement history after two to three weeks you may begin to see if the dog understands the concept yet. You may at this point be out of the woods - but to many dogs the puzzle may not be solved. Leave the dog past his going out time. Watch it like a hawk. When the dog begins pre-elimination behaviors clap your hands and run with the dog to the door. A well-timed "No - Let's go OUT" may work as well. Just don't frighten the-you-know-what out of the puppy with your verbalizations. Keep it easy folks! Go out with the dog and reward appropriately for Potty Outside. Next Back to the Potty Training Menu | |||
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