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My lovely dog, a Lakeland trailhound we have had from age 2 to now nearly 6, has become very nervous at night. Where we always used to have an evening stroll for a poo and a wee, she now refuses to come out, and if I do drag her out she won’t ‘produce the
goods’ and just wants to get home. Unfortunately, this means that most nights now she wakes us up about 0100 to go out in the garden, busting for a poo. Firework fear was part of this I’m sure, but we’ve had that in previous years and it’s always passed quickly.
Any tips for an undisturbed night- my wife doesn’t do sleep deprivation as well as she did when the kids were little! She eats at breakfast time and teatime- should we change mealtimes to try and reduce overnight poo urges?
How is her vision?
Have you considerd a dog flap: I’ve had a few and they are all* useless at keeping the cold out but totally transform a dog’s life?
*well, apart from the petwalk but it’s £1700!
dogs tend to like a routine, so rather than drag her out to do her business, why not just get her in the routine of going out for a walk in the evening, that she'll enjoy rather than something to get over with asap. Does she enjoy walks at other times? Maybe she'll just then produce anyway as a side-effect rather than the purpose.
You can gradually stage it later and later if that makes any difference to her production capability.
Also - you take her out to do her business, she doesn't, and then wants to be let into the garden later. Any reason why you can't just let her into the garden before bedtime?
You can also train her to go on demand if you spend enough time on it (follow her round and when she produces add a word of command to it - "Be Quick!" for ours - and a treat. Then over time she associates the words with the act and then the treat and it becomes the command rather than a response.
And at the end of the day - don't get stressed about whether she produces or not, that transmits.
Also – you take her out to do her business, she doesn’t, and then wants to be let into the garden later. Any reason why you can’t just let her into the garden before bedtime?
You can also train her to go on demand if you spend enough time on it (follow her round and when she produces add a word of command to it – “Be Quick!” for ours – and a treat.
+1 - If you praise her every time she goes and associate the same words every time she should learn to go on command (if she needs). Ours knows that 'good' means he's getting a treat, so any time he does anything we want him to learn we say 'good XXX'. You do look a bit daft repeating 'good poo' to your dog in the park though!
encourage her with treats and make it a good experience rather then one she doesnt like, going to the door, going outside, walking with you. doing the deed. eventually you can lessen the reward and it will be habit
We've had the same with our dog after the fireworks. Lots of encouragement to get her outside then standing out in the cold freezing my bits off whilst she relaxed enough to do something and realising weren't going back in until then. All back to normal now.