II Chronicles 7:14

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Doggie Troubles

We have an issue with Kinley (our 1 year old yorkie) that needs to be dealt with. I'm curious if any of you have any ideas. This is the deal:
If we put her in "her bedroom" a.k.a. the laundry room at night, she won't go potty on the floor and she sleeps in her crate with the door open. The problem is that she barks ALL. NIGHT. LONG. off and on. It is beyond FRUSTRATING. I can not sleep while she is barking. I've tried "white noise" such as the radio playing softly, a big box fan blowing loudly, the dryer running...and nothing blocks it out enough for me to sleep. The only solution is to get up out of bed and let her outside for about 5 minutes. The problem is...we have to do this every night...sometimes 5 or 6 times PER night! It is making me EXTREMELY cranky and I'm not getting any good, solid sleep. I keep saying we might as well hve another BABY for crying out loud if I'm gonna have to get up that many times a night!
On the other hand, if we leave her out in the house (to roam freely) throughout the night, she never makes a peep. I sleep wonderfully and all is good until we get up and find pile upon pile of doggie doo-doo and step in puddle after puddle of doggie pee-pee!
She is completely "potty trained" during the day and she NEVER goes potty in the laundry room (where we put here when we're not home) even if we're gone for 8-10 hours. So there is NO REASON she can't hold it while we sleep at night for 6-8 hours.

Last night we put her in her room and she did okay until about 4 am. I got up and let her out and then instead of putting her back in her room, I left her out in the house. When I got up at 6, there were TWELVE poo-poos to clean up. Little teensy tiny ones polka-dotting my dining room floor. How can an 8 pound dog make 12 poo's in 2 hours? And it's not like we feed them late at night. We feed them at 6 pm every night without fail. They always use the bathroom several times before we go to bed.

I am just at the end of my rope. At this point, the only option I can think of is to 1. Put her in her crate somewhere far, far away from my bedroom where I can't hear her bark--which probably means in the COLD garage or maybe even inside the van-inside the garage...??
Or 2. Buy a muzzle...?? That just sounds HORRIBLE-to have your mouth strapped shut...but I really don't know what to do.

I just KNOW I cannot go on like this. I either lose sleep all night letting her out, or else my house smells like a gas-station mens room from all the poo and pee spots on the floor.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm desperate!

7 comments:

*Ashley Lou* said...

I say keep her locked up all night and borrow one of Rene's shockers to use anytime she barks...she'll get the idea that barking isn't acceptable =)

Kuckie said...

When we first got Scout, he would bark and whine all night in his crate. I called the lady from the rescue where we got him, and she said to put him in his crate outside in our van for a week and he'd eventually get the picture that no one is coming until YOU decide to go. It worked like a charm. He never makes a peep at night, unless he is sick...and we quit crating him at 7 months old. Good luck!

Rene' said...

I recommend the garage too, we sometimes do that with Lucy. I even made her sleep outside for about 2 weeks straight because I was tired of finding pee in the morning. She barked at first, but when I went out there with a stick to swat her butt with, she scurried into her dog house and was quiet the rest of the night. She then got in a little routine, when I opened the door with stick in hand I didn't even have to swat her, she RAN for the doghouse! I don't know though, I'm not the best one to take advice from since Lucy is still driving me nuts with potty issues. I do feel for ya though!

Rock Chef said...

You could try putting a child gate across her bedroom door. That way she won't be closed off in the room but won't be able to poop all over the house. Worth a try?

Anonymous said...

Try feeding her first thing in the morning and see if all the poop can work it's way out of her before night time. Otherwise the van thing sounds like it worked for others too. ;)

Tammy said...

How can such a tiny little dog make all that noise and leave all that poo?! Geesh .. no wonder you're exhausted. I would have said bump up the white noise in your room to block her out. She'll eventually learn no one is coming until morning. But that van thing sounds pretty good too ... and it actually worked. Good Luck!!

KC said...

Coco sleeps in her crate all night. The vet told us not to let her roam free, without supervision, or otherwise she will think our house is her potty playground.
So we put her up at night, she sleeps in her crate all night, and then I take her out to potty when I get up in the morning.
I feed her first thing in the morning, and then around 1. The vet told us not to leave food out all day, so that she would learn to eat, when it's time, and still have time to go potty plenty of times before bed..then she can last all night without having to go outside.
Good Luck! That sounds soooo infuriating!