Sleeping outside

[FernandoBrenes]

Hi 🙂 I have a 4 month Husky puppy that likes to sleep outside at night in the yard. The yard is in the back of my house completely closed so it's not possible to scape. I believe he prefers to sleep outside as I live in Costa Rica and the weather is hot so he gets more air and is cooler. He sleeps all night without a problem, usually he goes to sleep at 9pm, the problem is at 5:40am he walks up every morning scraching the door, whining and barking. Some neighboors have already complained about the noise so at that time I can't ignore the behaviour so I wake up and open the door and put him inside of a playpen in the kitchen and go back to my room. 5min later he starts again whining / barking because he wants to go outside for a walk. I have tried also to put him inside of his crate next to me but it doesn't seem to help.

Given the fact that some neighboors have complain I really don't want to reinforce the behaviour but I'm not sure what to do at 5:40am to stop the behaviour.

After we go for a walk around 5:45am I put him back outside in the yard and he stays there without a problem until 8am when he starts doing again the same thing, so I try to wait as much as I can to avoid complains and let him go inside and then put it outside again. I can do this maybe 4 times between 8am and 9am, everytime I put him outside he starts barking and whining again so it's not consistent sometimes he wants to be outside and sometimes he wants to get inside.

The reason why he can't be inside all the time it's because I'm working from home and maybe he goes to the living room and play with the christmas tree, with the furniture, etc so I try to keep him outside with toys so he doesn't get bored but I believe this is the reason why this is happening.

Another problem is that I can't go outside of the house, even though there's more people in the house he starts whining / crying / barking for about 30min until he settles down or when I return back. I don't believe he has separation anxiety because if all of us are not in the house we come back and the dog is usually sleeping and everything fine.

We usually take him out 3 times a day for walks and usually follow the training 30min per day.

I'm afraid once we return to the office he will whine and bark very early and get complains from the neighboors 

Please let me know if you have some suggestions for the door scraching / whining / barking issue, should I let him stay inside during the day more time? And what can I do when I have to leave? He used to be ok with other people in the house but now he cries
even when other people in the house.

Thank you

[Adrienne]

Hello and welcome the forums,

With a behavior as such and neighbors complaining we certainly want to tackle this as soon as possible. I am afraid that, as the sun rises, your pup is in full awake mode and he wants to just re-unite with you, his family. Here are some ideas that come to mind:

Keep him indoors. At this young age, I would worry about the puppy eating/chewing things in the yard or getting in some type of trouble, on top of the barking and scratching the door. I know you said your fence is escape proof, but puppies just have this big propensity to get into mischief, even in the best puppy-proofed yards. If you believe he's hot in the home, you should see him panting and seeking cool areas in the home. If that's the case and you have abnormally hot weather, I wonder if there's a way to keep him cool inside? Sleeping in the bathroom with a tile floor? Turning on the A/C? Providing a cooling mat for dogs? I have had dogs who felt hot in Arizona, but an A/C and tiled floor often did the job.

The drawback: If you decide to keep him inside, you will need to keep him crated at night and take him 1-2 times outside at night to potty. The advantage though is that you'll be potty training him faster than a dog who just goes potty on his own when he feels the urge and never gets to learn how to hold it. Here is a guide to train puppies to love the crate. Your pup may struggle though being crated now though as he has developed a taste of too much freedom so you will need to create lots of positive associations. 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/love-the-crate/

Postpone his bed time. If you can find a way to keep him indoors, it may help to postpone his bedtime. Going to bed at 9 is quite early and can be the reason why he wakes up at 5:40. That's more than 8 hours of sleep and the sun light showing tells him it's time to wake up. If you can get him to go to sleep later, you may get him sleeping longer gradually day after day. You can also trick him into thinking it's still night by keeping the room he is in quiet and dark. 

Install a doggy door. This may be a future project.  Many owners of dogs who tend to get hot in the home have found a good compromise with a simple doggy door. This way, the dog can go out and in as desired. However, it takes some time to train a puppy to use one and it's best introduced once a dog has learned to hold it (potty trained). 

Provide mental entertainment. When he scratches to come back inside, it may help to provide something to keep your puppy occupied until you can re-establish a new routine. You can provide him a stuffed frozen Kong (look online there are many recipes), a Kong Wobbler with his meal inside or a Licki mat. Right now, he's gotten used to going on a walk that early, so his circadian system is not only used to awakening early but also going on walks so he will now always come to expect it until a new routine is gradually established. 

If your puppy is destructive when you are working, you need to confine him in a puppy proof area such as an exercise pen. Provide safe toys and have other family members engage him in several short training sessions/brain games scattered throughout the day which can be tiring as much as exercise (and some say even more). 

For the behavior when you leave, it helps to have family members engage him more and take over a bit in caring for him such as maybe walking him, feeding him and training him and keeping him busy and happy when you are away. Have them teach your pup that great things happen when you are not around. Start with brief absences.  Have them give your pup a stuffed Kong or edible chew you have kept on the shelf (but that your pup could see so you can build a bit of anticipation) right when you walk outside without him.  When he’s done eating, (have your family give you a signal) return. 

Here are also some exercises for clingy pups:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/following-owners-around-house/

I hope this helps,

Let me know if you have any questions.

Best,

Adrienne