I let Ollie have the run of the house at night since he's locked up while I'm at work during the day. This has never been a problem in terms of potty training except for the last two nights. Yesterday morning at 5:30 Ollie started to bark, I got up to check on him and he was not barking at anything ( not looking at the window or towards the door), he hust kept barking and racing in front of me, his normal greeting when he is happy to see me. I went to put his muzzle on, which is What I do when he barks excessivly just for the fun of it or bites and he prompty peed. I assumed this was a submissive pee to say, "Sorry Mom, please dont do that". I felt really bad thinking maybe his bladder wasn't growing as fast as the rest of him and took his muzzle off. I took him on a quick walk to see if he really had to go and he didn't go pee or poo at all. Thinking that I had most likely reinforced barking to wake up Mom with a bonus walk I tried to go to bed. This morning we had pretty much the same story at 4:30 a.m. barking and dancing, happy to see Mom, this time I just let him run out back so it would not be as much of a reward and he didn't want to come back in. I'm afraid he'll be stolen if I leave him out so I made him come in after I watched for quite a while so see if he had to go potty and he didn't. Just a wee little bit when I went toward him with the muzzle. Am I being duped? Please give me some feedback as to if he's my new alarm clock or what is going on in his little sheepie mind. He doesn't normally have that reaction to the muzzle and I haven't had to use it much lately. It is only used for oral offenses-bitting or excessive barking. I never do it for barking at things like a noise outside or a dog walking nearby. Thanks, Ollie's Mama |
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| I'd guess he really does just have to pee, but I think it is submissive peeing because of the muzzle. You may be training him to not bark when he needs to go out to pee. I would take up his water a little earlier in the evening, and ignore him in the morning when he barks until you are ready to get up. If you do get up, I would let him out to pee, and praise him if he does, and ignore him if he doesn't. Either way, I would go back to bed with minimal fuss so he doesn't decide 4 am is now the beginning of the day. |
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