Jack (6 mos.) has been with us for two weeks and is adjusting well EXCEPT for one thing: he wakes me up at night when he hears a sound, and then he won't settle down again until he's had a pee. This morning he woke up at 3:51 a.m. and alerted me to a sound from the first floor (he sleeps with us in the master bedroom upstairs, and our 10-year-old son sleeps in a bedroom on the first floor). I think he heard Philip get up to use the bathroom. Anyway, I tried to persuade Jack to go back to sleep, but he kept trying to wriggle out of my arms and dance around on the comforter. I didn't want him to pee on the bed, so I wouldn't let him dance around freely. After about 15 minutes of struggling, I took him down to the first floor, put him down, and shut the door to the upstairs. Ten minutes later he was whining outside the door. He left a big LAKE of pee in the dining room, which I sopped up with a towel. Then we went upstairs and he settled down more easily. I don't want to put him outside at 3:51 a.m. because we an anonymous neighbor registered a complaint about our dogs barking. Does anyone else have a VERY ALERT dog who wakes them up at night to report suspicious noises? How do you handle it? :confused:
Kinda sounds like he had to pee more than anything.
Doggie door? Fenced Yard?
How about investing in some pee pads and teaching him to use them. Or maybe a towel spread out for these middle of the night wee wees.
On that note, Maddie is my up in the morning, every moring at 5:00 or earlier, to get a drink of water! Then while I'm up Mom, I gotta pee too.
We do have a fenced yard, but he's reluctant to go out unless someone (canine or human) goes outside with him.
We had the same trouble with Parker (we got him at 7 months) needing to go out in the middle of the night, and if you didn't take him he would soil the bed. He choose, or perhaps he was not able to hold it. I made the 3:30 outtings were very quick and matter of fact, no treats, no playtime, just a quiet verbal "good boy" and straight back to bed.
May I suggest you just slap on your shoes and just take him out for now. (I am very fortunate that I can fall back to sleep very quickly).
Also, I lift the water dish at 7pm, (his last outting is 9-9:30pm). He can now hold it now until about 6am. (He is about 18 months). If I ignore him any longer, there will be a puddle.
I think we will try the pee pads. Knowing Jack, he'll probably pick up the pad and drag it around, then try to shred it!
Janet
I like the idea of picking up the water dishes after 7:30 or so. Good suggestion!
I should have also mentioned when you pick up the water dish, you need to be confident that Jack is properly hydrated, especially during warm weather. Some days last summer we had to leave it down because it was too hot.
As for the pee pad, Parker uses them when it's minus 30 degrees. He has a bit of a problem aiming for the centre, sometimes they don't soak up the entire puddle. But they do work pretty good.
Fence yard but no doggie door?
Your missing the boat if you don't have a doggie door.