Hi,
i'm hoping some of you can help me find a strategy to deal with this...
Our brand new 10 month old female is very quiet in her crate at night. The first few days she cried a bit at night and i corrected the situation by getting up and giving her zero attention and just bringing her outside for a 2 minute potty break every time she would bark. It seems to have worked because now she is quiet all night but for the past few days she begins barking and whining at 5:50 AM sharp. Now this puts a fork in my "boring 2 minute potty break" because i normally get up at 6:00 am on weekdays and take her for a walk and playtime before leaving for work. I'm scared that i'm reinforcing her behaviour of waking us up every morning.
So what i've been doing is getting up and going to sleep for 10 more minutes on the living room couch. from where her crate is, she cannot see me getting up and cannot see me in the living room but she can hear me walking through the house and that seems to be enough to get her to stop crying. If she picks it up again I'll say her name with a deep, stern voice and she stops again. When she's been quiet for a few minutes i get up and let her out.
Now my question is, am i reinforcing her bad behaviour by letting her know that i'm up? How else would you deal with this? Letting her bark it out is not an option.
thanks!
Chris
i'm hoping some of you can help me find a strategy to deal with this...
Our brand new 10 month old female is very quiet in her crate at night. The first few days she cried a bit at night and i corrected the situation by getting up and giving her zero attention and just bringing her outside for a 2 minute potty break every time she would bark. It seems to have worked because now she is quiet all night but for the past few days she begins barking and whining at 5:50 AM sharp. Now this puts a fork in my "boring 2 minute potty break" because i normally get up at 6:00 am on weekdays and take her for a walk and playtime before leaving for work. I'm scared that i'm reinforcing her behaviour of waking us up every morning.
So what i've been doing is getting up and going to sleep for 10 more minutes on the living room couch. from where her crate is, she cannot see me getting up and cannot see me in the living room but she can hear me walking through the house and that seems to be enough to get her to stop crying. If she picks it up again I'll say her name with a deep, stern voice and she stops again. When she's been quiet for a few minutes i get up and let her out.
Now my question is, am i reinforcing her bad behaviour by letting her know that i'm up? How else would you deal with this? Letting her bark it out is not an option.
thanks!
Chris
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