LindseyM
New Member
Hello!
So here is Bruce's story. Bruce is a 120 pound mastiff mix (my best guess: bullmastiff mixed with neo? He's got a ton of adorable jowls). We adopted him about 9 months ago as an adult (he is about 5), so he has only been neutered for about 10 months. We don't really know much about his background. The rescue agency found him and an intact female wandering a range road (in January, it is VERY COLD here in January, like -20 to -30 degrees celsius), looking very skinny. She had clearly had a ton of litters. Their best guess is they were breeders and when they stopped breeding they were abandoned.
We decided to kennel train him so that when he is loose in the house he is always supervised. We don't want him to hurt himself or accidentally turn over the kitchen table or something. Also, he still marked (he was intact for 5 years).
The kennel training went pretty well! When we started he would be very reluctant to enter his kennel or flat out refuse (good luck forcing a 120 pound dog into a kennel...). Once in he would whine and bark and paw at the door, etc... But with positive reinforcement and feeding him in the kennel and giving him high reward treats only in the kennel he now has no problem. Sometimes I don't even have to tell him to go to bed. I walk over to the kennel and he runs right is cuz he knows it's bed time.
My problem now is that he is happy going to bed initially. He will eat his treat and then go to sleep. But consistently every night he starts fussing around 4:30 in the morning and doesn't stop until we get up for work. (He doesn't have to pee. He goes outside for a pee before going into the kennel and doesn't have water in there overnight). The trouble is, I think he fusses until we get up for work, and we HAVE to let him out before we leave again. So he is getting what he wants when he whines overnight. When I get home from work to let him out he is usually just sleeping. If I had unlimited time and no job I would just ignore him until he was calm every morning and THEN let him out with a ton of praise. But we all have to work, so that isn't going to happen.
As you can imagine, I am getting VERY tired of having no sleep.
(I should point out his kennel is more of a 16 square foot play pen with a water dish, a memory foam bed and toys. He is spoiled...)
Does anyone have any suggestions to help me get over this last kennel training hurdle?
Dog Tax:
So here is Bruce's story. Bruce is a 120 pound mastiff mix (my best guess: bullmastiff mixed with neo? He's got a ton of adorable jowls). We adopted him about 9 months ago as an adult (he is about 5), so he has only been neutered for about 10 months. We don't really know much about his background. The rescue agency found him and an intact female wandering a range road (in January, it is VERY COLD here in January, like -20 to -30 degrees celsius), looking very skinny. She had clearly had a ton of litters. Their best guess is they were breeders and when they stopped breeding they were abandoned.
We decided to kennel train him so that when he is loose in the house he is always supervised. We don't want him to hurt himself or accidentally turn over the kitchen table or something. Also, he still marked (he was intact for 5 years).
The kennel training went pretty well! When we started he would be very reluctant to enter his kennel or flat out refuse (good luck forcing a 120 pound dog into a kennel...). Once in he would whine and bark and paw at the door, etc... But with positive reinforcement and feeding him in the kennel and giving him high reward treats only in the kennel he now has no problem. Sometimes I don't even have to tell him to go to bed. I walk over to the kennel and he runs right is cuz he knows it's bed time.
My problem now is that he is happy going to bed initially. He will eat his treat and then go to sleep. But consistently every night he starts fussing around 4:30 in the morning and doesn't stop until we get up for work. (He doesn't have to pee. He goes outside for a pee before going into the kennel and doesn't have water in there overnight). The trouble is, I think he fusses until we get up for work, and we HAVE to let him out before we leave again. So he is getting what he wants when he whines overnight. When I get home from work to let him out he is usually just sleeping. If I had unlimited time and no job I would just ignore him until he was calm every morning and THEN let him out with a ton of praise. But we all have to work, so that isn't going to happen.
As you can imagine, I am getting VERY tired of having no sleep.
(I should point out his kennel is more of a 16 square foot play pen with a water dish, a memory foam bed and toys. He is spoiled...)
Does anyone have any suggestions to help me get over this last kennel training hurdle?
Dog Tax: