Olly we have had just 2 weeks, he is very good in the home and his manners. He is crate trained, but barks now at 5:30. When I go down to let him out he has wet in his bed and it is still warm.
We have got him in a routine as we had him barking and howling at night, but ignoring him has been achieved and now we are left with him wetting in the morning. As soon as I hear him barking I go down, but I think he is barking either to tell us he has done it or to go, but with excitement. Then he has already done it. Help.
By nancy marris from Dinnington Sheffield, UK
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If you stay up till midnight or later let him out the last thing before you go to bed. This might help to reset his body clock. Another thing you might want to consider is getting up at 4:30 to let him out.
I was going to make a suggestion similar to MartyD's. If Olly wakes you at 5:30 and he had already peed in his crate (it's still warm/fresh), why not set your alarm to get up at 5:00 and hopefully that'll be early enough to let him out? I imagine you're not thrilled at getting up even earlier (I wouldn't be!), but it seems this would be easier than waiting for him to wake you at 5:30 with a mess in his crate that you need to clean up.
If getting up a little earlier to get to him before he pees in his crate works, I wonder if you might eventually be able to gradually shift it later.
I didn't see mention of the dogs age, if he's fairly young, you need to step up potty training. Make sure he goes before going to his crate. If he's into his crate early, say before 10-11pm, you may have to give him a potty break during the night. If my dog wakes up when I got to the bathroom in the middle of the night, then i know she needs to go again. Getting up a bit earlier may help too
Everyone's advice has been good, but a few things haven't been mentioned. Perhaps your crate is too large for your dog. The whole crate training premise is based on the fact that a dog does not like to soil the place where he sleeps. That said do not allow him to get to a place where this becomes normal as the dog will get to the point where it won't be a big deal to urinate in the crate.
While crate training limit liquid intake to nothing 3 hours before bed time and depending on the age of the dog he should not be crated more then 8 hours at a time.
When my dog was crate training I would not leave him in his crate for more then 4 hours at a time during the process. I also found that having his crate in the bedroom with me at night made it much easier to hear and respond to his needs. A dog will not always bark loudly when needing to go out. A lot of the time it will start with little whines and whimpers. By the time they are barking and howling the need is great and they are very uncomfortable.
I hope this helps you. I read many sites with my dogs but the best info I got was from others past experiences. Good Luck.
Be sure to take him out to the bathroom before he goes to sleep for the night. Also be sure you don't keep him in the crate too many hours before letting him out again to go to the bathroom.
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