Emma's driving us crazy!

[diane silver]

I don't know if anyone else has ever dealt with this before but every night lately, Emma cries to go out and she just wants to sit on the front lawn.  She sometimes will bring a cookie or a chewy out with her!  Since we have coyotes in the area, I'm very nervous and won't let her stay outside by herself, so I have to watch her and then bring her in after a couple of minutes.   She is on a long tether, but I still don't feel comfortable with her outside alone at night.  Does anyone have any suggestions about how to "break" her of this habit?  Eventually, she'll settle down, but it's very annoying and she will do this three or four times during the evening when we're trying to relax and watch TV.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

A doodle's job is to drive us crazy!  Seriously though, I don't know what you might do to curtail this. She must love the outdoor scents. Perhaps you could feed her as one distraction period?

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

Sorry-no advice except to keep your eyes open for the coyotes. Hopefelly it's just a phase.

[Adina P]

I would train her to quiet on command.  Or make crying result in going to her crate or being confined behind a baby gate. 

[Jen, Lachlan, and Declan]

Lachlan does similar, although I have a fenced yard. He'll bang the dog bells until I get up and open the door, then pick up a toy and carry it outside and flop down on the lawn to play with it. I have no clue why he does that.

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

Gracie Doodle does the same thing.  We are totally fenced in and we just leave the back door to the kitchen open while DH is sitting there watching TV.  Gracie loves to go out on the cool (cold) grass at night and lay down or chew on a toy.  With the heat on now we just leave the door almost closed and she pushes it with her nose when she is ready to come in.  We never "just" leave her out there.  Always checking and of course she comes in when we go to bed.  Funny, her doggie door goes to the patio and garden so she has the ability to go outside 24 hours a day but she loves laying on the grass which is outside her fenced patio area. 

[Phoebe's Mom]

We went through a period like this with Phoebe when she was a puppy.  She would want to go outside all the time and when she whined and I could not tell if she really had to go, I would take her out each time and drive myself crazy when she would just sit or lay down outside.  I finally just stopped taking her out --only when I 'knew' she could not possibly need to go out again, that is--and she learned that she could go out when I wanted her to go, not just when she wanted to go.  It was hard because I felt awful about doing it but after a day or so, I realised she had really just wanted her way.  She realised that she was not going to 'win' and she gave up...just like that.  I wish you luck!

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

Oh yeah.... Oliver does this (19 months old).  He is a outside type of guy, he would live outside if I let him !!!   Oliver will bark at the back door, I let him out and he will stand on the patio survey the back yard then lay down !!!  I really think he just wants to be outside!!  Depending on what type of door you have... and this has worked for me, I would open my inside door so he can lay at the back door and look out, my ouside door is a full glass door so what I have realized is that all he wants to do is look outside and watch the brids, squirrls and anything else that my wander into my back yard.  

 

I too would be nervous about letting her outside because of the coyotes, I have a fenced in backyard and both my doodles are on e-collars as well (double security), the e-collar is to keep them out of my koi pond.

[Traci -Bexter & Maggie]

Ha!  Bexter sounds just like these outdoorsy dogs!  He loves it outside.  When we let Bexter out (when we know he just wants to be out there), my DH always says, "He's surveying his territory, Traci!  Leave him alone."  That does look exactly like what he's doing (as with Oliver).  He will sit up really tall on the edge of our back deck and just look around and then when satisfied will plop down.  He is in heaven when he finds a stick from our big tree and just lies there on the deck chewing it.  What's funny is...In the summer, Bexter HATED to be outside.  He would whine to get back in the house.  I think he just LOVES the COLD.  Anybody else's doods like that?

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

Oliver like being outside whether its hot, cold, raining, snowing, hurricane, blizard...  In the summer when its really hot outside, I try not to let him stay outside too long because he his black and I don't want him to overheat.  Both my doodles like the cold thou, I have crate liners for the winter to make their crates soft and cuddly... both of them push them in the corner and lay on the crate tray !!!  Sasha will pick the coldest corner to lay in and she is perfectly happy. 

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Yes, Bella does this, and at first it's hard to not let her out, but once you figure out the length of time she can hold her bladder, I just started telling her No, not now. Or sit and wait. And certainly don't allow cookies or chewies. It's for business purposes only to go out at night and not play time. She has gotten a lot better, still tries us every other night or so if we are sitting on the couch, but it used to be every ten minutes when she was younger. We have coyotes here too, so I understand your concern. We just have a really big yard with 7' high walls around it so it's unlikely a coyote would scale that to get in, but we are watchful. Bella would be the first to want to go greet him if it came to visit!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

I think Emma is related to our Vern. He does this sometimes in the middle of the night. I hate to ignore him when I think he needs to go out, but I look out a little later and he is just lying there in our driveway happy as a clam. Vern is two and we still have this problem. I hope someone can give you a good solution.