# My dog wakes up too early but if I ignore she'll have an accident



## chubby (Aug 18, 2011)

Hello,

My dog is 2 year old Bichon, and gets up at 6:30am (sometimes 5:30 in the winter) every morning like clockwork. I've tried ignoring her, but she'll have an accident in the crate if I do. The trainer suggested I allow her to sleep on my bed as I found she tends to sleep longer when with me, but again, when she does get up, and i don't let her out, she'll pee.

I want to train her to wait for the alarm before getting up. There are a few issues though:
1. Sometimes someone in my family gets up earlier than me, and when she hears them moving around, she wakes up, and then needs to go pee.
2. The water is picked up after dinner, but she still has the urgency to pee in the morning

The picture I'm painting in my head, is I get up at whatever time, 8 or even 9am, and she gets up with me. She doesn't make noises, or growl, or demand to be taken out. She waits until the alarm goes off. Even better, she sleeps until woken (but we all know dogs follow the sunrise/circadian rhythm so that's nearly impossible). 

If I ignore her, she'll just have an accident in her crate, and if I do react to her growling, which I've been doing, then I"m essentially letting her train me to let her out whenever she wants.

Yes, I know how to crate train, she just has a *very* hard time with housebreaking in general. Not my first dog, but definitely posing some challenges I haven't met before.

Thank you for your help!


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## ireth0 (Feb 11, 2013)

chubby said:


> Hello,
> 
> My dog is 2 year old Bichon, and gets up at 6:30am (sometimes 5:30 in the winter) every morning like clockwork. I've tried ignoring her, but she'll have an accident in the crate if I do. The trainer suggested I allow her to sleep on my bed as I found she tends to sleep longer when with me, but again, when she does get up, and i don't let her out, she'll pee.
> 
> ...


That sounds... kind of idealistic to me. If she needs to get up to pee, then she needs to get up to pee.

You could let her out and then go back to bed after?


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

How would you feel if someone told you that you couldn't use the toilet for 3 hours after you woke up in the morning? 

Get up, let her pee, go back to sleep.


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## BubbaMoose (May 14, 2013)

Agree with the other two posts. 

My dog wakes me up at 6:00am every morning and I've never thought of it as anything other than, "I better get up and take him out." 

Basically what you're saying is that you want to train your dog to wake up when she hears the alarm. Not realistic. She's gonna wake up when she wakes up, and its a pretty normal thing to have to go to the bathroom immediately after waking up. 

I think the best thing to do in this situation is to change your mentality. 


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## chubby (Aug 18, 2011)

ireth0 said:


> That sounds... kind of idealistic to me. If she needs to get up to pee, then she needs to get up to pee.
> 
> You could let her out and then go back to bed after?


Yeah, I've been doing that the past 2 years, I think the lack of sleep is just getting a bit rough with me. I'll have to figure something out, go to bed earlier, and change my schedule a bit. Work calls me late sometimes, so it's going to be a challenge, but I guess I gotta make sacrifices!

Thanks for giving your advice in a friendly way  I appreciate it


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## Jen2010 (Feb 12, 2013)

I assume you're taking her out to the bathroom immediately before crating her for the night?

Not being able to sleep in is one of the most annoying things about having a dog! Lol! I get up pretty early during the week so it's not an issue, but Saturday when I want to sleep in a bit (like til 7 or 8) it's frustrating. But it's part of having a dog.

It sounds like your dog has a small bladder or just can't hold it very long. How much room does she have to move around in her crate? Maybe make it a bit smaller for night?


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## chubby (Aug 18, 2011)

Yeah :/ she has a history of being difficult to housebreak. She definitely came a long way but we still don't trust her 100%. The crate is just the right size for her, so I have a theory that the breeder didn't keep the area as well partitioned as it should have been (like elimination on one side with a divider, and then bedding on the other side). He was a SKETCH breeder, so I know it's my fault, but yeah. She'll pee in the crate, and isn't accustomed to 'holding it in'. There was a bit of time though that she was able to hold it in the crate for about 4 hours, but someone would have to let her out at lunch time, and then if she had to hold it from 12-6, there would likely be an accident in there.

During the night, she needs to sleep on her side, so I can't make it smaller unfortunately  It'd be too cramped for her.


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## Happyxix (Aug 18, 2013)

Is she pee pad trained at all? I've trained my 6 month old to pee on pads and outside. Granted housebreaking took much longer than it probably should have (around 4 month old before stop having accidents) but its handy for those times where you might be gone longer from home then normal.

If she is then you can keep her in a pen with the crate on one side and pee pads on the other for sleeping time. 

I guess I am lucky that my dog can be quiet in the crate until around 8am-9am then he will start whining to be let out mainly because he is hungry.


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## squiggles (Feb 22, 2013)

it sounds like a pee pad would be a bad option for you, as I understand she isn't 100% potty trained. 
It sounds like you will just have to come to terms with getting up and going back to bed. Maybe pick up her water dish a bit earlier in the evening. Something I love about having a dog is being kept on a sleep schedule by their insistence on getting up at the same time 7 days a week.

you could try a bit more activity in her life, as a way to really tire her out, and encourage her to sleep longer.


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## Mikeincalgary (Jun 14, 2013)

We usually go to bed at 9-9:30, up at 4:30am. We have to wake the dog up to go pee. Our sleep in is 6:30!


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## briteday (Feb 10, 2007)

I think that anyone having potty problems with their dogs should have them checked by a vet first. We recently found out our puppy has a UTI and struvite crystals. I knew, having raised lots of puppies, that her pattern of urination was weird. There was no rhyme or reason as to when she needed to go right from the start. At the second set of puppy shots visit with our vet I convinced her to run a UA, and that's when we found it. But since she has had it for 4-6 weeks, it is now taking a prolonged dose of antibiotics to clear.

If something doesn't seem right have your vet do a quick check just to be sure. Otherwise, you have to be reasonable about the amount of time a dog can go at night without having to urinate. Even an adult dog shouldn't be expected to go more than 8 hours (not good for bladder health). I've had adult dogs that were bulletproof with house training that would go until their eyes turned yellow, but I wouldn't push it. On the other hand, if an adult dog can't hold it in a crate for at least 6 hours, I would get a vet check.


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## chubby (Aug 18, 2011)

We did a vet check when she was younger and had to go every 2 hours, they didn't find anything unusual. He did try giving her this medication that may help with bladder control, but it ended up giving her mad diarrhea for days


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

Some people use cranberry supplements like Solid Berry (I think that's the name) or regular human cranberry pills from the vitamin section of the grocery for their dogs for bladder support and to reduce UTIs.


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## Flaming (Feb 2, 2013)

Shell said:


> Some people use cranberry supplements like Solid Berry (I think that's the name) or regular human cranberry pills from the vitamin section of the grocery for their dogs for bladder support and to reduce UTIs.


a little bit of apple cider vinegar in the drinking water works as well. We have to do that on occasion for our cat but Manna will drink it too.


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## Hambonez (Mar 17, 2012)

When you gotta go, you gotta go! 

I wouldn't try to push it hours - but what if you tried to make her wait 5-10 minutes? Maybe if you extended the time in very small increments she could gradually build better bladder control?


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