Potty Schedule Question.....

[Bizzymammabee]

Raven is 16 months old and still gets up at night . The only way she won't get up at night is if we go outside and play fetch/catch until she is ready to drop. I have no idea why she still gets up at 3 am to go potty and then she is happy to go out again at say 6 am to go again before I leave for work. I would have thought that by now she would be out of the getting up at night to go potty. I always walk her right before I go to bed which can be around either 10 or 11. She does have water down all day. I know she can hold it because she holds it from 7 am to 3:30 pm every day. What's the deal? Is this just force of habit?

 

[2BullyMama]

Sounds like a habit for her, just part of the schedule. Try not taking her out when she wakes up at 3:00AM... Banks/Cheli sometimes does this around 4:00AM... I just tell them 'no... night, night time' and they lay back down and go to sleep.

 

[Baconator]

Yea sounds like a habit to me too, try ignoring and see what happens.

 

[JAKEISGREAT]

I agree...

 

[Bizzymammabee]

[MENTION=2092]JAKEISGREAT[/MENTION] @Baconator [MENTION=2894]2BullyMama[/MENTION] There are times I hear her scuttling around and I tell her to quit it, it's meme time and she settles down, but I only do that if I know she went out. The thing is she will always, take a sip of water, eat a her kibble and then go outside and pee and poo ASAP. Ooh yeah I forgot to mention, since I put it in another thread, that she seems to want to eat her dinner now at 3 am..any suggestions for that one. For some reason when I put down the food at 5 pm she is ignoring it. She only likes to eat once a day and used to hoover up her food when I put it down.

 

[Baconator]

It sounds like you are allowing her to dictate her schedule vs you controlling it (please don't take that in a condescending tone at all) Does she sleep with you at night or in a crate?

 

[Bizzymammabee]

[MENTION=4688]Baconator[/MENTION] taken with the love and experience I know it was given with. I used to let her sleep on the bed with me but she is a restless sleeper and my environmental allergies have gotten pretty bad. So my eyes get very itchy and the ducts get clogged a lot, so the eye doctor said no more pets on the bed with me . The stinker sleeps in her crate at night or on the floor next to the bed on her doggie bed, but mostly in her crate. Guess it's time to lay down the law?

 

[hnhammond]

Definitely a habit. Matilda stopped pottying in the middle of the night at like 3 or 4 months old!

You'll just have to not take her out then and she'll adjust. I would also recommend restricting her water (no water after 7 or 8 PM), so that she gets used to the new schedule more easily!

 

[Bizzymammabee]

[MENTION=5755]hnhammond[/MENTION] I really don't like restricting her water intake. The grain free kibble tends to make them thirstier. I feel bad doing it.

 

[Baconator]

I wouldn't be concerned with restricting her water at that age, getting her to eat at a normal hour shouldn't take long after she realizes she isn't getting fed at 3am

 

[Bizzymammabee]

I wouldn't be concerned with restricting her water at that age, getting her to eat at a normal hour shouldn't take long after she realizes she isn't getting fed at 3am

Guess it's time to lay down the hammer and pick up her water early again. I used to pick it up early when she was a pup and we wanted her on a schedule. Once she started holding I just figured I let her have what she wanted. The food I think it might be because she is waiting for a little something special on it and not happy that it's not on there. Guess tonight once we are down and in bed for the night I am going to have to let her know she has to hold it because we are supposed to be sleeping. Wish me luck.

 

[hnhammond]

@hnhammond I really don't like restricting her water intake. The grain free kibble tends to make them thirstier. I feel bad doing it.

She shouldn't really have access to food all night anyway. That's probably why her schedule is getting so messed up! Encourage feeding at appropriate times by adding a hard boiled egg, a spoonful of non-fat yogurt, cottage cheese, etc and pick up all food/water by 8PM, and you should see a real difference!

 

[Davidh]

Well I agree with the others, as it is a habit. Our 7 month old pup sleeps through the night like the others do. Plus I agree with you, DO NOT restrict water from her. That should never be done especially with a pup, and it doesn't help with the potty training. That is a myth and is unhealthy for pups. I think just let her stay in her crate and tell her no or go night night or what ever you want to say to her and she will eventually get it, and start sleeping through the night. As far as her eating, we feed twice a day, but if she only wants to eat once a day that's fine. I would offer the food at a certain time in the morning and in the evening, same time everyday, leave the food down for 20 minutes and then pick it up. Another thing you can do to also get her to eat, because she may not like her food, and we do this with Buddy and Diva, is put a little Feta Cheese in her food. They gobble it right up. We do this to keep them on a schedule and I don't want them to start losing weight. We also will use Bil-Jac instead of the Feta cheese to mix it up a little. I now Bil-Jac isn't the best food in the world, but the little bit we put in there doesn't hurt anything. We put about a small handful in their food. We use the one that comes frozen. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Baconator]

We've been adding a little shredded cheese to Bacon's food lately because he is going through another spell of really not being that interested in eating...........cheese makes everything better!!!!!!