Tamara needs a little help settling her rescue Labrador mix into her routine:
“We recently(2 mos ago)adopted a 12 month old Lab mix from a neglect situation where he was crated 23 hours a day. Our dogs are routinely fed at 6:30 AM and again in the evening. This new dog begs to go out several times a night because he knows eventually after 1 of those trips out it will be breakfast time. We are getting up about 6 times a night to either let him out or give him attention. He sleeps with our daughters at night and we close their bedroom doors so that he can’t have free run of the house. How do we get him to sleep during the night and patiently wait until morning for breakfast? He was very thin when we took him and is gradually putting on weight. I am also concerned because I have never seen a dog eat as fast as this one. Thank you”
Time, patience and perseverance are the only real things needed here, Tamara.
It can take up to 12 months for a rescue dog to settle into new routines. The main thing you need to do is to not give in to his cries to be let out more than once through the night. One thing that may help is to have him sleep in a crate at night in your children’s room. Because he was used to being crated so long, it might give him the added security to help him settle overnight.
Once he realizes that he is always going to get fed at a certain time, he should be less frantic. making sure he gets plenty of exercise and mental stimulation will also help calm him down a little.
