Our Experiment Failed

[LisaCC]

He is one year old - the average lab is still emotionally a teenager and will still be testing the limits for quite a while yet.

I would have drawn the line a lot earlier. Waking you THREE times for attention and cuddles in one night is not on. I would probably have locked him back into his crate after the first non-piddle excursion and not let him out until the usual time in the morning.

He has to earn the right to those "big boy" morning starts - eventually it will click that if he leaves his crate unneccessarily while you are still in bed then he won't have that privilege of joining you once you're up each morning.. But it might be some time until he matures to that level - and you are only going to find out by trying and being firm when he abuses the privilege.

Yea, pretty much this. I wouldn't mind if he physically gets out of his open crate though, just to say lay on the carpet. But if he gets out, starts walking around, comes and annoys you, is a general nuisance, put him straight back in the crate, lock it, leave him there till morning.

[Stressmagnet]

He is one year old - the average lab is still emotionally a teenager and will still be testing the limits for quite a while yet.

I would have drawn the line a lot earlier. Waking you THREE times for attention and cuddles in one night is not on. I would probably have locked him back into his crate after the first non-piddle excursion and not let him out until the usual time in the morning.

He has to earn the right to those "big boy" morning starts - eventually it will click that if he leaves his crate unneccessarily while you are still in bed then he won't have that privilege of joining you once you're up each morning.. But it might be some time until he matures to that level - and you are only going to find out by trying and being firm when he abuses the privilege.

Yup. I totally dropped the ball that first night. My only weak justification is that I simply cannot resist him - and I know that spells trouble. I need to treat him like I did my children as toddlers. Firm but fair. A spoiled dog is a pain in the butt not only for his owners but for everyone he meets.

If he just didn't do that "tilted to one side bug eyed soft ears look at me" that turns my resolve to mush.

I must be getting senile in my old age.

So the NEW me. Hardened to his soft face and woeful eyes. Back into bed you naughty boy!

[Nushie]

Jager used to sleep in his crate next to the bed. Now he sleeps on the bed. We taught him that the bed is a privilege and he would be allowed up when we went to bed. If he was calm, he was allowed to stay, as soon as he started to fidget or want to play, be it as soon as we went to bed or at 2am, he was back in his crate with the door closed. He learnt pretty quickly to just curl up and go to sleep = better then locked in a crate. Now he sleeps better than me and we are in the process of training Brandy to do the same.

I am sure the same principle will apply to open crate door. If he wakes you for play, then lock him away.

[Dogsfevr]

All my big guys sleep in my room ,they are crate trained as pups & then move onto big dog privileges,i am happy with sharing my bed but my boy has a big dog bed on the floor which he loves to sleep in .

I would consider your boy doesn't quite understand what is expected of him now

Do you nap during the day & if so where is the dog ??

[denali]

all of my dogs so far have slept on my bed since day one

[HazyWal]

all of my dogs so far have slept on my bed since day one

Same here including fosters so with two greyhounds and a humungous stuffed crocodile that Maddie won't sleep without there aint much room at the inn I can tell you. Good thing is greyhounds sleep like the dead, there's no wandering in this house except for me and my weak bladder and turning on the light gets a death stare from both of them :laugh:

[Pjrt]

all of my dogs so far have slept on my bed since day one

Same here including fosters so with two greyhounds and a humungous stuffed crocodile that Maddie won't sleep without there aint much room at the inn I can tell you. Good thing is greyhounds sleep like the dead, there's no wandering in this house except for me and my weak bladder and turning on the light gets a death stare from both of them :laugh:

Haha yeah it's the same with me and Gruf. I usually get up to pee at least once, and turn all night like a rotisserie chicken because of a neck injury. If I leave the bedroom or toss and turn, Gruf never moves off the bed. He probably wishes he could lock me in the laundry

[Dame Aussie]

I've never used crates. The dogs sleep on their beds from pups (sometimes up on our bed) and as there's no novelty in being free, they just sleep :laugh: sorry I'm no help.

Edited May 7, 2015 by Dame Aussie

[persephone]

I just use a leash/downchain to attach them somewhere I have done it this way for almost 40 years ..and never had any hassles :)

[persephone]

all of my dogs so far have slept on my bed since day one

Same here including fosters so with two greyhounds and a humungous stuffed crocodile that Maddie won't sleep without there aint much room at the inn I can tell you. Good thing is greyhounds sleep like the dead, there's no wandering in this house except for me and my weak bladder and turning on the light gets a death stare from both of them :laugh:

Haha yeah it's the same with me and Gruf. I usually get up to pee at least once, and turn all night like a rotisserie chicken because of a neck injury. If I leave the bedroom or toss and turn, Gruf never moves off the bed. He probably wishes he could lock me in the laundry

LOL!!

[BC Crazy]

This is hilarious. Between hummungus stuffed crocs & rotisserie chickens. Thought I was on the Master chef thread for a second LOL

[Stressmagnet]

All my big guys sleep in my room ,they are crate trained as pups & then move onto big dog privileges,i am happy with sharing my bed but my boy has a big dog bed on the floor which he loves to sleep in .

I would consider your boy doesn't quite understand what is expected of him now

Do you nap during the day & if so where is the dog ??

I do nap during the day. He's outside at this time - should I bring him in and start teaching him during nap time? I hadn't thought of this since he's usual cheerfully destroying a marrow bone, chasing birdies and discovering all the Kongs I hide.

Edited May 7, 2015 by Stressmagnet

[hankdog]

Baby gate your bedroom door? Then everyone else gets the night duty but don't forget it's there and smash your shins the first night????.

[Tassie]

To be honest, I would just go back to shutting the crate door when he goes to bed. At 1 he is still a baby but old enough not to need to go out to pee etc at night unless he is unwell. I believe I shut Rory's crate door at night (crate next to my bed) for maybe 2 years or a bit longer ... and if we're away from home in dog-friendly accommodation, it is ahut even now - both dogs are crated then .. and not necessarily in the bedroom - depends on size and house rules.

So my inclination would be to say - listen to what the experiment results told you, and just go back to the situation that was working ... for another year or so, I'd suggest. Your sleep is important :) .

As far as your nap time during the day goes - I personally would just do what you've been doing - it's good for him to know that he can do his own (safe) thing outside without your immediate presence.

[Dogsfevr]

All my big guys sleep in my room ,they are crate trained as pups & then move onto big dog privileges,i am happy with sharing my bed but my boy has a big dog bed on the floor which he loves to sleep in .

I would consider your boy doesn't quite understand what is expected of him now

Do you nap during the day & if so where is the dog ??

I do nap during the day. He's outside at this time - should I bring him in and start teaching him during nap time? I hadn't thought of this since he's usual cheerfully destroying a marrow bone, chasing birdies and discovering all the Kongs I hide.

If you want him to be free at night then yes i would train him during nap time or simply just spend time chilling on the bed or the spot you want ,If you want to go with the crate then just stick to that but some have mentioned age ,age plays no factor i have dogs more active than Labs & they now what bedtime means & all my dogs now what sleep in means .

[OSoSwift]

I would open the door when he wakes me up, in the crate and door shut. He will figure it out pretty quickly.

I teach mine to go to their bed as well and as babies will tether them and have rewards I can lob onto their bed when they stay there.

[Stressmagnet]

Ernie the Sneaky Smoocher is back in a locked crate for a while. I'll keep trying on weekends but he fails to realise that an overhanging and exposed foot is not to be lovingly lavished with spit. Also since I yell at him so infrequently, he chooses to interpret my morning 'f*** off' as 'come love me some more'. Funny, the kids don't have that confusion.

So during the week - locked crate but I will bring him inside for my chemo naps, since he's been perfect thru those - I suspect because they are only a couple of hours and that coincides with HIS naps. Nights are obviously too long for The Ernimator and therefore it is his job to get everyone moving with heaps of tongue licks and snuffles of joy. And I hate hate yelling at him - and my brain can't work out how to keep a positive reward going for 9 hours.

[huski]

Does he have a command to go into his crate? If he wakes you up during the night will he go back into the crate on command?

At 1 he's definitely old enough to hold it through the night too - my puppy at 10 weeks could hold it overnight. I definitely wouldn't be toileting him overnight at this age.

[Stressmagnet]

Oh I don't toilet him. He's fine at night. And yes, he goes to his crate when you say 'bed'. But he's exuberant as all get out when HE wakes up and by the time I've shouted it twice - I'm awake. For the next 2 hours.

So we will teach him that not everyone is as happy to greet the daybreak as he is -- on the weekends when I've got a chance to catch up should he mess up.

He wants desperately to please; it's just his mum who's a grumble bum.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

If my dog is repeatedly doing something I really don't like - I think about what I'm doing that is encouraging that.

Eg I had a problem a while back where she'd wake me up in the middle of the night, and bark like hell.

I think it was the freight train but OMG. And if I actually let her out to check the back yard for burglars (what was I thinking - I don't want her confronting a burglar or opening the door to let one in), I'd get more of the undesirable 3am wake up yells.

So I thought about what she was getting that encouraged the behaviour. Obviously she was loving the 3am garden patrol... gotta stop that. So just in case it was an emergency potty stop she needed (usually signalled by her getting up and doing the most pathetic quiet bark at the back door - makes me instantly awake like nothing else can). I put her on lead for the potty patrol - no more blasting around the back yard and acted boring.

So me putting the collar on in response to the barking - would shut her up and after not many days she stopped doing it. Didn't even need to take her outside. In fact that was generally a bad idea.