our 10mth old black lab is developing a worrying habit of waking us up to go out to the loo at various stages through the night, most frequently at 2am, 5am and 8am. As we had a lot of trouble housetraining her in the first place (only got her at 6mths from kennels) I'm reluctant to scold her for waking us when she wants to go out, but obviously keen to get a good night's sleep too. At the moment she's getting daily hour-long walks on the beach about 4pm....any sugestions gratefully received....

The question is does she really need to go?

What do you do when she wakes you up?

If you let her out and then put her straight back to bed then hopefully it will get better, but if you give her alot of attention when she wakes you up then maybe she is just doing it for that.

Then again it may be something medical, though I am no expert.

As this is new behaviour, I would take her to the vet to be sure she does not have a urinary track infection (assuming she gets up and wees). Also, I would worm her if she has not been wormed recently.

If she checks out okay, if you have a crate I would leave her in her crate at night. Take her out the last thing before you go to bed and the first thing when you wake up. Take her out once to begin with, but ignore her the second time. After a week of that, ignore her completely until morning.

A ten months your lab is a teenager - they do tend to get demanding and even revert to puppy behaviour at that age. Raging hormones and all that :)

Stacey