Hi,
We have a 6 month old labrador/pointer cross bitch. We tried unsuccesfully to train her to sleep in a crate at 8-9 weeks. She went through a stage of sleeping in the kitchen on her bed with the door closed and I let her out during the night to toilet. We had a short spell at about 4 months of going through the night while left closed in the kitchen and thinks seemed to settle down. She then started to whine. I have two young children and she was disturbing their sleep. We reverted to letting her sleep down stairs with kitchen door open and access to kitchen and living room. Next problem was coming upstairs. I took her back down and gave her the option of going out to the toilet which she did. I am back on disturbed nights again for toilet and taking down stairs. In the last week we have allowed her to come up and see us in the morning and then downstairs rest of day and night. There is no door at the bottom of the stairs.
She can be a bit of a winey dog if excluded from somthing you are doing, otherwise generally good in the house.
She is round folk most of the time except when I go to work where she is walked for a good hour in the morning then spends two 2 1/2 - 3 hour spells in the car broken by a walk at lunch for 1/2 - 1 hour. She has settled into this pattern well.
Need help to re-establish routine of sleep at night in kitchen for at least 6-8 hours for the good of my mental health and for the rest of the family.
Thanks for any pointers
Fiona
