Once she goes, wait a minute or two before you bring her back to her bed or crate. That just makes the puppy more eager for you to haul yourself out of bed at an ungodly hour. The day has not begun yet, so don’t be tempted to feed the puppy or play with her. Do NOT do anything but take your puppy outside for a bathroom break. For the typical puppy who does get this right most mornings, you can be low key about it).Ĥ. (If you are having serious trouble with housetraining and your puppy rarely eliminates outside, then you should make a really big deal of her success. If your puppy really wants to go outside to potty, the relief of emptying her bladder along with a good treat is enough. Use treats to reinforce her for urinating or defecating outside to keep housetraining moving along, but don’t have a party over it. Keep your dog on leash so she can’t frolic joyfully all over the yard and have fun while you try to collect her again. Leave your personality in bed where it belongs at this early hour. That is not good for you or your relationship with your best-friend-in-training. If it is exciting in any way, you will increase her motivation to act like a rooster and crow at first light. (This morning, we failed to do this, but we had success on other days.)ģ. The sooner you respond to her cues that she is ready to eliminate, the less you risk teaching her that screeching is the way to get you out of bed. If possible, DO take your puppy out before she is frantic. Housetraining should definitely be the top priority, which means that your sleep, regrettably, is a distant second. DO take them out when they need to go, no matter how early it is. Here are some guidelines for navigating this challenging stage.ġ. It’s a tricky balance with puppies to take them out in the morning when they need to eliminate without teaching them that they control when the fun begins each day.

(I’m concerned enough about teaching her that whining and yelping will make us get out of bed, but since she really had to go and we are still working on house training, I’m choosing to let that go for now.)

I’m convinced she was ready to start the day, but we are having no part of teaching her that she can wake us up to play or to feed her breakfast whenever the mood strikes her. The puppy took care of business immediately when I took her outside, and then came back in to finish the night. The high-pitched sounds indicating her distress were impossible to ignore, and both my husband and I shot awake with uncharacteristic haste.

Puppy wake up time