Hi.

I would be very grateful for any advise. We have a 4 month old golden retriever bitch who is fantastic in every way,the only problem being that she has started barking once during the night to go out for a wee,I put the lead on and she goes straight out and wee,s and then runs back to bed. I wouldn't have a problem with this but for the past month she has slept from 10pm till 6am with only the odd night of waking. I am just wondering should I be ignoring her or am I doing the right thing by just letting her out(no talking etc)and hoping that its just a phase!!
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Four months is very young to go all night - I would continue to take her out if she barks to let you know she needs to go out and praise the perfomance as  you have been doing. She sounds as though she is doing really well with her training :-) She lets you know when she needs to go out and then returns to bed without a fuss which is exactly what you want her to do so continue with the good work and it sounds as though it won't be that long before she is able last all through the night without needing to go out again :-)

Hi.

Thanks so much for that it has put my mind at rest that we have been doing the right thing. She is such a fantastic puppy and we have only had 3 accidents indoors since we got her at 8 weeks and I would hate to get it wrong now and set her back.

I have a Golden Retriever as well and he is a fantastic dog :-) The fact that your pup asks to go out is a bonus in my opinion as my smaller dog's "ask" is not a vocal one - he stands by the french doors looking out and I have to be very vigilant about making sure he has enough opportunities to go out for a toilet break - as long as your dog doesn't get too vocal a bark to let you know is great :-)

My GR will give one woof to go out and repeat it in a few minutes time if I haven't been able to respond to his request. My other dog can be very vocal but barking to go out isn't in his repetoire - probably just as well with him :-)

I followed the same regime as you with housetraining for my GR puppy and he only ever had one accident indoors and that was because I didn't believe him when he asked to go out - he had just been but obviously that time he needed a two stage tiddle :-)