Is this normal of a 6 month old?

[Taylor&Me]

Taylor will be 6 months on 9/10/07. There are some things I'm concerned about...if he's on the right track or behind on things.

1) He still goes pee every hour or two hours at the most when he's out of his crate. He lets me know by quietly sitting by the door. If I ignore him, he'll drizzle a little by the door. He doesn't squat...it just comes out as if he doesn't have control over his bladder (is this right?). He can hold more than 10 hours at a time in his crate. He is maybe 13 lbs now. What is the average for small dogs?

2) I don't know if it's coincidental, but he's more prone to accidents when it's thundering out.

3) He still occassionally nips my leg/butt when I try to ignore him. I continue to ignore him, but shouldn't this already be corrected?

And 4) I put him to sleep in his crate at night around 10, but he starts whining and barking around 1:30am without fail. I then bring him to bed with me. I eventually want him to sleep in his crate throughout the night or on the floor bc my bf doesn't like the dog on the bed when he's over. I tried ignoring him but he'll go on forever...and I can't have that b/c I live in an apartment. I tried leaving him out of his crate and free in my room, but he whines to be up on my bed. So I let him up because I'm afraid that he'll make a mess on my floor. But he won't by my side. Is he too young to have his own bed on the floor by my bed? How do you transition him off the bed?

Just want to know how your dogs behaved at 6 months. Please share!

 

[bubbatd]

To me something went hay wire along the way .....but I've never raised a small dog . To me , I can see it with thunder . I hope others can help .

 

[malmo]

10 hours is a VERY long time to be crated, especially for our little guys. If I were you, and this is just me, I would get him checked by the vet. Holding it for such a long time may impact his bladder and he may have developed some kind of infection. My understanding is that puppies should only be crated for as many hours at a time as they are months old -- so in your case he should not be crated longer than 6 hours. This caps out at around 8 or 9 hours, in my understanding. Milo and I have a deal -- I structure my life to let him out every 8 hours (or less) and, in exchange, he holds it and doesn't potty in the house. Period. We both have to uphold our end of the bargain.

I would reduce your puppy's crating, if possible, and increase your supervision of him with a little more independence in the house. It's a bigger commitment from you, but on the other hand your dog IS trying to let you know when he needs to go out (by sitting at the door) and you are missing his cue. He needs to be watched more closely.

I would look at some of the recent housetraining threads where we discuss "bell training" so that the dog can let us know he needs to go out. Seems like your dog is TRYING to hold it, but you are not getting the message. Give him a better way to communicate with you -- something you're less likely to miss.

Ignoring his nipping may not be sending a strong enough message. When my dog would bite me, I would yelp and walk away. This was the opposite of what he wanted -- my attention. The yelp let him know that he had pushed it too far. Some things dogs don't learn on their own. You may have to help him get the message.

I don't know much about the thunderstorm thing, sorry.

Regarding the night time thing, it's clear that he wants to sleep with you, but you are the one who makes the decisions around here. Honestly, I'd try to train him with my responses. When he makes noise at 1:30, I would get up and take him outside. I'd try to send the message, "Whimpering in the middle of the night is for dogs who need to go potty." Then, back into the crate. You can make sure the crate is near you, but I don't think you've built up the reliability with his potty yet to let him be unattended and out of a crate. As difficult as it is, you're probably going to have to let him cry it out for now.

He's sending the message -- "I want to be with you." At 1:30 each morning, you respond. "Okay, come be with me in the bed for tonight. But, at some point in the future, I want you to stay in YOUR bed all night." Dogs don't get "at some point in the future." That point has to start today. Each time you let him up on your bed as a reward for whining, you are ensuring that he will never stop whining. There will be a few rough nights where he'll have to cry it out, or you'll end up taking him out potty in return for whining. I'm sorry. It'll be temporary. If you are serious about him sleeping off your bed, you have to show him that you're serious.

The good news is that your dog really seems to be trying to learn to communicate with you. What you have to teach him now is how to send cues that you BOTH understand and can tolerate.

 

[girlbuffalo1]

Yes you giving in at 1:30am means he will do this every night forever if you don't break him of it. Really the only way to get through it is to get up--let him go potty bring him right back--in the crate you go--let him cry it out. I understand you are in an apartment but this really is the only way it will work--unless you want him to sleep with you forever.

Perhaps you could stay at a friends house a few nights or you could put the crate in an inside room ect where the noise won't be as loud?

Wrigley is 16 lbs and can hold it 10 hrs too no problem--although I don't generally make him wait that long. At 6 months though I still never left him unattended even though he was reliable not to go in the house for a month or so before that---I would say I didn't really trust him to even go in another room without my watching until he was 8-9 months....

 

[Taylor&Me]

Thank you for your feedbacks. I bought some ear plugs yesterday and let him whine and bark it out.... overall, I think he did okay. I got him out at 5:45 and took him outside to potty. I gave him a blanket on the floor which he used for about 20 minutes and he cried to be up with me on the bed. So, I caved! My mistake...but I can't handle his soft whimpers, it's so sad!!

 

[malmo]

I'll sympathize with you -- but you're right. YOUR MISTAKE. I'm dealing with this right now with a cat who insists on being in the bedroom, under the covers at night when I sleep. I wouldn't mind this, except it means that my allergies will be all haywire the next day which, for me, is unacceptable. Therefore, she has a very cozy, warm bed to sleep in the living room.

This cat is the loudest, most vocal cat I have ever known. You can't imagine her in the middle of the night, yowling to get what she wants. After about 2 weeks of ignoring her, she mostly stopped. It was great! She'd yowl a bit at the beginning just to make sure I was serious... but once she decided that I was, she'd just go to bed. I had about 3 weeks of good sleeps when suddenly, for no reason, she started up again. I was baffled. This wasn't what the training books said would happen.

Well, then my roommate confessed that for about a week, she had been going against my wishes. When the cat would make her first nighttime yowls, give up, and go to bed, my roommate would follow and take the cat to her room to spend the night cozily under the covers. Then, though, the roommate had changed her mind and decided not to have the cat in her room anymore.

The consequence? The cat is back to yowling all night long. And why? Because now she knows -- sometimes the yowling works. Sometimes it does not. Even MOST TIMES it does not. But, in her brain, it MIGHT work so it is worth trying. Worse? It doesn't work at first, so maybe if she does it LOUDER, then it will work. It is a way of the animal bossing us around. That's not a very good relationship to have with a creature that YOU'RE supposed to be protecting and caring for. You know best. Set rules and stick with them.

Milo is the same way with the whimpers. They're totally pathetic. He has mastered the teddy-bear face and everything. However, in the language of our house, a whimpering dog is a dog that needs to go out and go potty. Milo would whimper for treats, for affection, for jumping up on the bed, for you-name-it. But, he did get sick of me leashing him up and taking him outside EVERY TIME HE WHIMPERED. We'd stand there for 10 minutes with me saying, "go potty." He couldn't play. He couldn't have the treat or the bed or whatever he wanted because he was on a leash outside with a maniac potty lady.

The flipside of that is that he is 100% potty reliable in the house. If I am not home to whimper to, he doesn't potty.

This doesn't mean that your dog can never ever be on your bed for the rest of its livelong days. Dogs are so cuddly! They are great bedmates. What it means is that for now, no bed. None. You are training him that the bed belongs to you, and you set the rules about who gets to be on the bed. Once he stops pushing and coercing you into getting what HE wants, (what I mean by this is once you can show him that you are serious, consistent, and that you mean what you say), you can invite him up on the bed whenever you wish. You can also put him off of the bed whenever you wish and he won't protest. I have a boyfriend, too... My boyfriend loves Milo but there are times when it is, shall we say, inappropriate for Milo to be up there with us. Because Milo knows that I own the bed -- because he waits for me to invite him up on the bed before jumping up -- he does not protest when it is not his turn on the bed at any hour of the day. He knows he'll have another turn, and he just goes to his own bed.

I'd say it was 6 months of Milo not demanding to be let up before I started inviting him. It worked great for us, though.

 

[bubbatd]

My grand-dog Seger started out on their bed at 8 weeks .... when he woke up , they took him out . He slept through the night by 11 weeks and at about 5 months decided where he wanted to sleep ... some nights in his open kennel ...some times on couch .... sometimes with them again . He has a bed next to them . He'd LOVE to sleep with Nash , but then neither would get any sleep !

 

[girlbuffalo1]

Don't cave--me and hubby have a mantra around the house and that is "absolutely no whining aloud" it's not 'cute' or 'sad'--it's them trying to manipulate you the same way a crying child would in a store for candy. Then again--I'm kindof a mean-y