I'm looking for some dog training advice, and where else would I turn but to Dogs of the DMF?
Here's the issue: In the past three or four months, our two dogs have gotten in the habit of waking us up three or more times a night begging to go out. It started with Fluffy, our 7-year old female Husky/Shepherd/Whatever mix developing a urinary tract infection that meant she HAD to go frequently, but after two weeks of antibiotics & rechecking a couple of times she's got a clean bill of health and should be able to go the night without going outside.
I'm pretty sure the pattern goes like this: Fluffy wakes up, she's bored and wants company, so she goes and wakes up Ruffles, the 15-year old male Shar-Pei who's mostly blind, mostly deaf and counts peeing on things as one of his greatest remaining pleasures in life. That, and killing the skunks that occasionally get into the back yard at night (last Saturday was the first in a long while, and the memory lingers on both dogs despite multiple washings). Once he's awake, he'll start barking & scratching at the bedroom door & won't let up until one of us gets up & lets them out.
We've got to find a way to break the pattern with one of the dogs; unfortunately a dog door isn't an option because of the indoor-only cats who've never had to deal with the neighborhood coyotes & because Fluffy's a big girl and any door big enough for her to go out is more than big enough for an ill-intentioned human to come in.
Any ideas?
BRAD
Don't let them out to run around and have fun on their own at night.
If they ask to go out, take them out on a leash. Stand in one place until they go, or until a fixed amount of time is up (for example 3 minutes). Bring them inside. No attention, no petting, no treats.
They think the nighttime outings are fun. You have to make them boring.
They'll probably give up after a couple of days.
