I have just recently bought a white GSD puppy, she is lovely most of the time but at about 5o'clock in the morning she will sit at the bottom of the stairs and howl, whine, bark the lot. i understand that most people think its because she needs the toilet but she is nowhere near housetrained and is always happy to go where she feels like it (which is a pain in itself) so its not that. Ive tried showing her her water, giving her a snack, letting her out in the garden for a bit of a run but wenever i go back upstairs she just starts again. She has company at night as i have another GSD who she is quite happy to bounce around with and cuddle up to (despite his size). I have a 1yr old girl who keeps on being woken up, which means i have to get up and stay up, which is making me very tired (im not a morning person) Does anyone have any suggestions as to what the problem is and how i can solve it?

thanks <(^-^)>

Hi moonyrocks

you don't say how old your puppy is or how long you have had her :)  If she is a very recent addition, it may be that her body clock is kicking in at 5-00am because that is the time she was used to being let out (or possibly fed) by the breeder in which case over a couple of weeks she will have slotted better into your own routine.

In the meantime it sounds as though when you get up to her you're actually making things a little too interesting - for example,

>Ive tried showing her her water

Does your puppy always have access to fresh water, even overnight?   If not, perhaps she's thirsty which would be resolved by leaving a bowl of water for her to take from anytime.  If she already has easy access to water, then there's no need to "show her" - by doing so you're interacting with her which will wake her up more and cause her to fret more when left again.

Re giving a snack - again, counter productive to her settling down :)

>letting her out in the garden for a bit of a run

Better to clip a lead on, walk out to the garden with her, let her relieve herself without a huge fuss and quietly return her to her sleeping quarters. Don't encourage excitement :)

Re house training in general, I find it better to pre-empt the time my pups will need to toilet overnight so wake them and take them out as above then return them to their bed while still sleepy.  Even though this will involve breaking your own nights sleep it wont go on for too long and will speed up the house training as well as help form her personal "clock" towards a time that will be more family friendly :)

HTH, regards Teri

Hi

I think every pup Ive had has woken about this time in the first few weeks, remember they are just the same as a baby, and will wake up and cry etc... I would just put her out to let her go to the loo and maybe give her a bit of food etc then leave her a little if you dont want to get up, however the crying will probably drive you mad.
I know ive just got up and done early morning cleaning at that time and when the pup has got tired again about 9am ive gone back to bed then for an hour.

SHE WILL GET BETTER!  My pup at the moment who is now 12mnths will glady sleep in with me till 0930 now if ive been working late the night before, and he like your girl used to get me up at 5am everymorning whinging. 

Good luck with her

kim

PS I had a white german shepherd , he lived till he was 13years old and was a fantastic dog with the most superb temperament! I still miss him

Hi Moonyrocks,

Ahh nostalgia - I had Shepherds for many yrs :)

The first thing to do and break the cycle is to take her out every 2/3 hours during the night. This is what I have done with all of my pups and they are house trained usually within 12 weeks, (Shepherds are an intelligent breed as you know and don't take long to learn) when they can learn to hold their bladder and bowels. I know that it's a pain but it doesn't last forever although it seems like it at the time ;)

I usually take mine out at 11.00pm and when toileting is complete I praise and reward with a treat as I do during the day. The next time is 2.00am even if they are asleep, when taken out they will normally pee as it's straight after waking, this time I only praise and then put straight back to bed without talking or attention then the last one is about 5.00am doing the same as the 2.00am. Then it's on to the daytime routine.

I normally teach a phrase for toileting like 'go pee pee' and say it the minute I get them home in the garden as they are actually taking a pee so they come to associate the phrase with the action.

I would also think that this routine will break her '5.00am boredom' as she has been attended to during the night :)

HTH

Jo