Training lab to sleep inside?

Discussion in 'Labrador Training' started by TaylaB, Jun 1, 2020.

  1. TaylaB

    TaylaB Registered Users

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    Jun 1, 2020
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    Hi everyone, I'm new to this site and hoping to get some advice!

    My husband and I adopted a 14-month-old Labrador in November last year. He had never been disciplined or trained in any way, and was extremely badly behaved. Because of this, we had to keep him out of the house for the first few months while we trained him (he would go absolutely mental if he got into the house, snatching books off shelves, trying to eat cushions, etc). Luckily it was summer and very warm.

    We've worked on training him and he's now able to be inside the house with us during the day. (Having both of us working from home because of the pandemic actually gave us a lot more time to get him used to being inside). However, the weather is getting pretty chilly now and we want him to sleep inside at night too - I'm just not sure how to train him to do this.

    We've tried keeping him inside overnight twice, but both times he woke me up at about 2am by coming into our bedroom and licking my face. (He knows he's not supposed to come into the bedroom). He seemed agitated so I let him out, thinking he might need to do his business, but then he just wanted to play and didn't want to come back inside. Both times I ended up leaving him to sleep outside for the rest of the night.

    My biggest concern is that he rarely does his toileting during the day - he inevitably poops a few times during the night. This hasn't been a problem while he's sleeping outside, but we're worried we might wake up to a huge mess if we keep him inside and just shut our bedroom door so that he can't wake us up! So I suppose I have a few questions overall:

    1) Any tips or advice on training him to sleep through the night?
    2) Any advice on helping to teach him to do his business before he comes in for the night?
    3) Any advice on how to keep him warm while/if he has to sleep outside? (He currently sleeps on a fleece bed with sides, which we put on top of a thick folded blanket. He also has a fleecy blanket in his bed and a hot water bottle).

    Any tips/advice would be hugely appreciated, as having him outside in the cold weather is starting to worry me!
     

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