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Originally Posted by bellajayne  Our Bella was 3 years old when we got her and she wasn't housebroke at all. We had to train her as if she was a puppy, it was difficult considering she was already trained to go wherever. We took her outside frequently like every hour. When we weren't home and at night we crated her. It took a couple months of patience and consistency but she caught on finally. Now she goes to the door when she needs to go and hasn't had an accident in months. I don't crate her during the day when we are at work, we gate her into one room in our home with her bed and toys.
Our problem now though is that she doesn't want to be in the crate at night and yelps til we let her out. I stopped trying because it was waking up my kids and I'd rather deal with one dog then one dog and 2 kids! Now that we haven't been putting her into the crate she whines at my bed for me to get up. She sleeps next to my bed in her doggy bed for the first half of the night but gets up in the night every night wanting to go out but then afterwards does not want me to go back to bed. I usually end up crashing on the couch the rest of the night because if I try to go back to bed she just whines for me to go downstairs. She will lay back down in her bed downstairs but "insists" I stay downstairs with her. Any suggestions on how to break this habit? For the first 6 months we had her she crated at night, all night long without a problem. She whined the first night and because it was out of character for her I got up and let her out, talk about starting a bad habit! This has been going on for about 3 months now...any suggestions? I hate to crate her again, I'd just like her to sleep for the second half of the night like she does the first half. I know she is capable of holding it and sleeping all night as she did for the first 6 months we had her. I fear we have just plain spoiled her out of love! I will keep doing this if necessary, she's such a sweetie  but I would rather have her sleep next to me in her bed the WHOLE night! Any suggestions would be welcomed! |
Its very hard. They whine and your first thought is, what if she really needs to go out! Your know tummy ache or something. But I think you really need to go back to the crate. You did it for six months and now maybe she is a little anxious about the "new" sleeping arrangements.
However, I know you are concerned about the kids. Would you be able to have someone take the kids maybe for a weekend and try a whole weekend of crate training? Just a thought.