todd725:hello all... my wife and I recently adopted a bulldog puppy. He is currently 18 weeks old and has been with us for about 7 weeks. We both work full time and he is crate trained (we come home at lunch to let him out for about an hour). He is great during the day and in the evenings... he let's us know when he needs to go outside, etc.
The issue we are having and don't know how to combat is that every morning, he wakes up, poops in his crate, then wakes us up. He knows we come down and clean it. He doesn't quite get the idea of waking us up then going potty. Any suggestions would be very helpful.
thanks,
Todd
Likely this started because he was desperate and couldn't hold it any longer, then he made a noise because he was upset at having soiled his bed (which dogs generally do not like to do). And then you came down and cleaned it up.
You are the adult and the intelligent species, so it's up to you to be proactive and set the scene for how you want this to go. In short, an alarm clock is in order. YOU wake HIM up to go outside and go potty - not the other way round. A nighttime toilet break as suggested by FIC would be very very wise at this stage and he would be cleaner at night faster. It's a drag, but there you go, the joys of puppy ownership....
Praise and reward LIKE CRAZY when he gets it right. It won't take long to fix.
"Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life." (Pratchett, Jingo)
"I used to look at [my dog] Smokey and think, 'If you were a little smarter you could tell me what you were thinking,' and he'd look at me like he was saying, 'If you were a little smarter, I wouldn't have to.'" - Fred Jungclaus