The good, the bad, and the ugly. (Think I messed up)

[Abigail *George & Juno*]

The good: we have had George for only a few days and so far we have no accidents. She will actually walk to the door, sit down, and wait for someone to open the door. We still watch her obviously as she is so young, but she hasn't failed to let us know when she needs to go out. (Which is a lot!)

The bad: even though George goes right to bed upon being put into her crate at night and usually sleeps for a good 3-4 hours... After that she whines to go out anywhere from every 1-3 hours for the rest of the night. I think she legitimately needs to use the bathroom, when you take her out at 2 am (or whatever time it happens to be) she uses the restroom, then walks back to you, you pick her up, put her back in her crate and she falls right back to sleep. This would be good, but it is happening every 1-3 hours...which isn't bad, but how can she go that often? We pick her water up a few hours before bed and her last meal is an hour before that. We go to bed at 10, she gets fed around 7, then water comes up at 8 pm. We try to wear her out from 8-10.

The ugly: in the mornings, we will take her for her last restroom break outside about 5:45...she will sleep all of 15-30 minutes in her crate before she starts whining to be let out. This is not a "I need to potty whine" it's a "time to wake up!" Whine... Here's where I'm the bad parent- this morning she started her "wake-up!" whine and I REALLY needed my extra 30 minutes until my alarm (you know how it is when you're sick and sleep deprived) so she's whining and I'm talking to her (she's in our room) trying to get her to be quiet for "just 15 minutes" she has no mercy. So after about 10 minutes of whining to wake up I grap her out of her crate and lay her on top of our quilt and comforter between my better half and I. She is restless, but no whining. I can see her looking at me wide awake, but she's quiet. I sleep another 20 minutes and then get up and feed her breakfast....

Now I'm wondering if I've created a monster. First of all, is there any way that she needs to use the bathroom that often?! And second...does this mean she's going to expect to lay around in bed with us in the morning?! I'm really happy she lets us know, except when it's 2 am...

[Abigail *George & Juno*]

We have talked about picking up her water earlier, but don't want her to deprive her of water. You guys have helped ease our minds so much. We really appreciate it. She's been very good at potty training, tonight after DH got home he text me that she walked to the kitchen patio door, sat down, made a short wimper noise. He let her out and she took herself a number 2. She is so smart and easy so far. Hopefully we don't pay for it later! :)

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

Abigail, she will get used to the time of "the last call" for water and will be fine. It's worth a try. Maybe put the water out earlier in the morning so she has water longer during the more wakeful hours? Just a thought.

[Breanna]

When I got Crush she was 13 weeks old and went all night without going potty. She did, however, do the "wake up" whine at about 5:45-6:15 a.m. I would just get up with her because it was summer (I don't work summers) and my sleep schedule wasn't that important. She eventually started sleeping in later and later and now she will quietly wait for us to get up in the morning. We've slept in as late as 9 a.m. (which is rare!) and she let us. 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I think things are exactly normal.  As far as the bed thing.  With both of our Springers, the magic  of getting them to sleep through the night was putting them on our bed.  Ned was fine crated, but woke up early - luckily it was summer vacation.

[Abigail *George & Juno*]

Funny, DH just suggested letting her sleep at the foot of our bed tonight. He really thinks she can make it through the night (11-12pm to 5 am, sooners are playing tonight!) if she is close to us. I think we will try it. :)

[Jess & Stewart]

Stew went from 11:30 until 3 am, then 3:10 until 5:45 am. I'm hoping that he just gets used to holding it all night and stops the potty breaks.

I should probably let him cry it out more as he doesn't really love his crate. Won't go in on his own or during the day when I'm home. He prefers to be out with me & I feel bad putting him in the crate when I'm home. I still feed him in there & he gets treats & love when he goes in. I'm at a loss-maybe he'll just only be able to tolerate the crate while I'm at work & go in at night, but won't love it & have it "his" place.

[Lori, Quincy & Frankie]

Quincy is 18 months.  He has never gone into the crate as his "quiet place" but goes in willingly, along with a Kong filled with cream cheese, when I leave for work.  If we are home, he wants to be out sleeping at our feet or trying to get us to play.  It works!  

[Jess & Stewart]

Thanks Lori, that makes me feel better! He's started to catch onto when I leave, even though I usually have my purse & coat on during play, last potty break to desensitize him. Hopefully I just need to keep rewarding him when he's in there & he'll start going in before I give him a treat!
Now if I could just get this growling & mean biting under control!