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This thread is not only training, but also health related..

I'm hoping for some experienced guidance on this one!

Hubby and I thought we'd test Jessie this week-end and let her sleep out of her crate at night (she's been sleeping in her crate every night since we got her). Saturday night was fine - no accidents. Jessie woke me up, licking my face, at our usual time (good alarm clock lol! ), let her out to pee, etc., the world was lovely and the planets aligned, BUT..... This morning? UGH! She wakes me up, usual time, fantastic.. The moment I hit the stairs, I knew - the aroma of Jessie poop in the air. And it wasn't just a couple little hard plops - we're talking three major diarrhea dumpings and a few extra dollops here and there in various areas of our carpeted main floor. I spent 40 minutes cleaning it up. Thank GOD for Oxy pet stain remover LOL! Needless to say she'll be back in her crate tonight lol.. It's less about the poop, and more about her not asking to be let outside.

Any tips on this? I would love it if Jessie, when she wants to potty in the middle of the night, just simply woke us up to let her out... Is this something that may come in time naturally? Or, how do you train for it?

Since moving here to rural-style suburbia, Jessie's been eating alot more crap - grass, sticks, slugs, moths, sod, mud, you name it. Typical Lab lol.. Just after we moved, I got into the gardening pretty damn quick since there were mushrooms all over our yard. I've heard that some mushrooms can be toxic for dogs to eat, so pulled them all up. I worry about all the junk she's been eating, which is why she's been getting more diarrhea lately. We're still feeding her kibble, about 2 - 3 cups a day. She's almost 6 months and weighs about 50 lbs. It would be great if she was a 'Chef Ramsay' dog, with highly discriminate eating habits... Not going to happen LOL..

During all the time she's spent the night in her crate, has she ever woken you up , by barking or whatever, to tell you she needs out?
Keymo has a particular bark when he's in the car, crate, etc. that says "I need out - hurry"
Last eve he was in a time out, when he had that bark. At first we just thought it was his complaining about his time out, then we realized it was THAT bark and we took him out - in the absolute POORING rain- you KNOW he HAD to do something to go out in that!

Mind you - he has barked in the middle of the night and I've been SO dead asleep that it took him a few times barking until we woke up.
Could you have missed her trying to wake you up?

The only thing she does in her crate is quietly whine in the morning, around the time we normally get up with her, but that's it. I WISH she had a special bark - that way we'd know, and would wake up if we heard it.. She'll normally paw at the sliding door to ask to go out, but this is only when we're in the sitting room where the door is. I don't want her to get into the habit of thinking that it's o.k. to poop inside if she's/we're not near the sliding door when she needs to go...

How can one teach a dog how to communicate their needs better? Sounds funny, but seriously lol... A trainer might respond, 'no - it's YOU who needs to read HER needs better', but that's not the case with this. I'm able to read her pretty good, except, well, when I'm asleep LOL!

When you see her at the patio door because she needs to go out, start her with barking maybe ?
Say " do you need to go out? BARK ! "
and when she does, say "Good girl - good Jeesie - let's go out"

That's what we did with Keymo and now he walks to the front door (usually sits) and barks.
Sometimes, when we "just don't get it" because, maybe he's been barking a little bit already in the house, he'll come over to us then walk back to the door and do it again.
We usually get the message .

Good idea - that's what hubby just suggested. We won't let her out unless she barks to go out. She'll bark to come IN if we're not near the door, but not to go out, so she knows it's something that gets our attention lol.. The only problem is, she may pee before she barks - we'll just need to keep at it with her until she does. Thanks!

No problem - I find it really helpfull to get suggestions that worked for other dog owners, who are in the same situation as I am, at times.
Sometimes the answer is right in front of us, but we doubt ourselves, or are thinking so hard about it, we don't see that the answer is easier than we thought.

I tried teaching the bark to Scout when she was about 6 months old. We had moved into a split level duplex and she was having accidents AT the door because I didn't see her go down to it.

Anyway, I was doing a bark myself to try and instigate a bark in her. She was an essentially silent dog except when riled up to play. Anyway, the little turd got signals mixed and started to clack her teeth rather than bark.

Her whole dang life she clacked her teeth at the door to be let out.

I let the lesson go after a couple of weeks when I could see she wasn't understanding what I wanted. Then several months later tried again and she did learn to "speak" on command but never at the door.

"CLACK CLACK"

That's hilarious Scout6! LOL My pup is just about 5 months old now and has been very quick to learn most things. She's pretty close to being completely house-trained, but I don't think I'd trust her loose in the house at night yet. Maybe your little guy is still a bit young to give you clear signals 100% of the time. Our pup is on raw now so she is peeing a lot more than before and needs to go out regularly. She'll go to the door and sit there and will sometimes scratch the door if it's urgent, but she hasn't been barking. So if I was somewhere else in the house and didn't know she had to go, I have no doubt she would let 'er rip inside. She whines softly in her kennel if she has to go and will whine more urgently if she has to go really badly. This morning, she had a runny one (tried out a new meat this weekend and it gave her the poops) so I'm glad she's in her kennel in the same room with us, otherwise I would have spent all morning cleaning as well! I have friends who have taught their dogs to hit a bell that's hung by the door and that has worked for them. Right now, my dog would think it's a toy so it probably wouldn't be the best for us, but it's an alternative to the barking.

Clack Clack ROFL! That's so cute lol...

We got Jessie to bark a few times today, but I had to go outside for her to get worked up enough to bark lol.. But when she barked, we opened the sliding door and praised her. You're right, prairiedoug - although extremely bright, she's still very young but will eventually get it. My sister's Border Collie didn't sleep out of her crate until she was a year old, so we probably did it prematurely. Until she gets the 'bark to go potty' down, she'll stay in her crate for a few more months. Thanks for the help!

Cheers - enjoy Canada Day guys!