Toilet Training With Doggy Door

[tiff-689]

Hi guys, new here but a long time reader The problem I'm having is with my 5 month old staffy pup called Buckley.

We recently got a doggy door installed on the laundry door, which has been great for us! Buckley only has access to the laundry and hall way when we are out. Have never come home to an accident inside, so that's been great.

We initially toilet trained him (this in itself was very challenging for him) using the lounge room door on the opposite side of the house but he knows how to get to the doggy door perfectly fine. If I walk outside through the lounge room door, he races over to the laundry to meet me outside and visa versa. He will still walk to the lounge room door when he wants to go to the toilet but most of the time it's enough for me to say "no, doggy door" and he'll kind of give me a "oh do I have to!!" look and then race out through his door.

We used to crate him at night when he was younger, but now he just sleeps at the foot of our bed on his bed. We gave up on the crate because he was making too much noise in there, where as he is happy to lie on his bed all night.

The problem is, he wakes up at any time between 3-5am every morning wanting to play/have breakfast/go to the toilet and I am definitely guilty of giving him what he wants I used to get up and give him breaky and block the doggy door so he had to stay out until I was up again. This worked well for months, but then he decided he didn’t like it anymore (probably because it's been so cold) and would bark endlessly until I let him back in. I refused to wait it out because I didn’t want to disturb the neighbours. So then I was getting up and letting him out, but leaving his door open so he could wander back into our bedroom. Most days he would go back to sleep and wait for me to get up again. That started to take a toll on me, so I thought, bugger you dog, it's about time we started doing things my way! So, for the past few nights we've tried sleeping with our bedroom door open so he can let himself out, and now we have the problem I knew was coming! Every morning I wake up to a big puddle by the lounge room door!!

I know it might help if we stopped using that lounge door all together but that's now the only door I can use to get outside myself. (doggy door is a panel insert, meaning the door has to be dead bolted shut at all times). I just don't know if he's lazy, confused, or whether he does it because I'm not watching him :S

[Olivebaby]

I don't really have this problem as i don't have a doggy door but my 4 1/5 month old lab sleeps in the laundry. We use to wake every morning at about 5 or 6 to her banging against the door and crying. Also a huge puddle of wee! I had the clever idea of alfoiling the laundry window so now she always thinks it's night... Even when it's not! She no longer cries in the morning but waits patiently in her bed. And no wee either! So maybe you could get him to sleep in the laundry and do that! Then you could open the Dog door in the morning and lure him to the toilet with a treat through the door! Don't know if it would work but thought I would offer a suggestion :-) good luck anyway