Our puppy is now 19 weeks. He is really a great joy, he has done so well with potty training and would say he is fully pt since he hasn't had accidents for at least 4 weeks. However we have 2 other areas that need some help. First is we can not for the life of us get him to sleep in in the mornings. Some mornings he is awake at 5 am some 5;30 some 5:50, we have tried numerous things. My husband usually takes him out his last time before he goes to bed about 11:30 -Midnight, we have tried taking him out at 5 when he awakes and put him back in his crate and he goes back in fine but he will start barking about 15 min later, we have tried waking him up earlier around 4 and take him potty but he still wakes between 5 and 6. We have been just letting him bark which seemed we were having a little success over last couple of days but today he was awake at 5:05 and barked pretty much until 5:30 with a 5 or 10 min break a couple of times. I don't know what else to do. The moment one of us gets up with him and take him out potty he comes in and crashes on our lap. We have tried the alarm thing nothing works, I don't know what else to do. So any advise on that would be great, The second issue is barking, he just recently starts barking at every dog he hears outside, on tv, computer, or even if he sees an animal on tv he starts barking. We are working on the quiet command and he seems to do ok in training and other barking situations but not those. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Could the sunrise be a problem? Maybe he thinks the day is started with the birds and the light so early. I got a crate cover and really darkened the room my 14 week old pup is in. Its helped and picking up food and water 2-3 hours before lights out helps as well. If you find anything that works with barking please let me know, the fact you said it just started makes me think I should prepare myself for something similar happening. One thing you could try is purposely show pictures of dogs and give him a treat before he barks, (I think its called desensitisation) then build it up and maybe when he sees a dog instead of barking he'll think if I don't bark I get some good treats? I'm a complete amateur so it's just an idea I'm not sure whether it would work or not
For the barking that's a great idea to start with, also you can play you tube clips of dogs barking and reward when they don't react. When out for a walk if another dog is going to pass you I stood into the side with Luna and if she didn't move then she was rewarded with a treat, if she moved then nothing. She now will only go right up to people if they show an interest in her. Luna is 1 in a couple of weeks and this did take the longest to train her as she is so friendly and sociable. She still has times she will try and pull to see someone but if she does, no reward. Persistence, practice and patience are the key to any training.
