we have a 15 week cocker who we have had for nearly 5 weeks. we haven’t made much progress with daytime crate training. he has meals in there and will potter in and out but will protest if we close the door on him.
at night we started with crate in our room, then outside room, then end of landing etc, he is now downstairs in the kitchen. this was ok for a few nights and he just woke up 2 times for toilet trips (he wakes us by barking but we previously didn’t mind as he clearly needed the toilet)
but the last 4 nights he has got into a habit of:
10-10.30 put him to bed, he goes quite willingly and settles quickly
11.30 wake up barking, take him out but no toilet needed
12.30/1.30 ish wake up barking, generally does go for a wee on this trip
3.30 wake up barking, usually does go for a wee or poo
4.30 wake up barking, doesnt need toilet, won’t settle easily, lots of whining and barking, very hyperactive
5.30 same as 4.30 so we generally stay up with him at this point
because we have neighbours and because he does sometimes need the toilet we do go downstairs to him when we hear the barking. We don’t open the crate until there is a moment of calm sitting and silence
are we reinforcing the barking when he doesnt need the toilet by going down to him everytime? The problem is if we don’t go down i worry it will descend into panic barking and not stop, then we will wake our neighbours
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