Dog keeps asking to go out

[Groutyonehereagain]

Our miniature poodle is eleven months and in the evening she keeps asking to go out. We want her to settle, so we can watch a bit of TV but she keeps standing by the door. She gets plenty of exercise, two good walks a day, we don’t leave her and we play with her. She’s excellent with house training. She has chews and toys to play with and some of her toys are puzzles, which she loves.

Can anyone suggest how to deal with this please. We’re arguing about what to do. DH says we should just ignore her, when she’s already been out and can’t possibly want to go out again. I’m saying but what if we ignore her and she wees? I’m also saying, as she’s asking to go out we should take her whether or not she needs a wee.

Thanks for any suggestions.

What does she do when she’s out ?

I remember having to put mine on the lead at 9pm to get her to settle, or she’d constantly want to play.

We go out with her. We’ve starting putting her back on the lead. If she does go, then we praise her. If she doesn’t want to go we end up just standing there, and then we come back in.

That’s a good idea.

Mine is constantly wanting to go out at the moment. She stands by the door crying. It’s because there’s a fruit tree dropping in our garden and she wants to snack 😂

Is it that she wants to go for a walk or just into the garden?
My last dog used to like to go out sniffing round the hedges at night, I think there were hedgehogs around sometimes to add extra interest.

I don't understand why she can't go out and have a sniff or lie in the garden if that's what she wants to do?

Ours likes to go and mooch about the garden for a bit, why can’t you just let her out whilst you watch tv?
It warm enough to leave the door open, or you could just go and call her in after half an hr or something.

As she’s still very young, she’s still exploring everything and she will eat soil, plants, sticks etc., so she has to be supervised.

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Unfortunately that means someone has to go out with her every time then - unless you can puppy proof an area of your garden for her to have free rein.

Wanting a relaxing evening in front of the TV and owning an adolescent dog don't really go hand-in-hand unfortunately

I guess it depends on your dog and how you like to spend your evening. If my dogs tried this they would be told to go and lie down, because they would take the piss and I don't fancy spending my whole evening getting up and down letting them in and out! Evening is settle-down-time in this house, not play-time or have-fun-in-the-garden-time.

If it's not a problem for you, then let her out and go out with her. Otherwise, pop her on her bed, with a chew or a kong if that helps her settle, and set an expectation that it's time to chill.

Thanks @peppermintteagirl , that’s what I think really, dogs have to learn that sometimes they just have to settle down. We’re working on it.

Dogs do need to learn how to settle - of course they do - but you also need to be realistic.

At 13 months old she is still a puppy and she's not going to behave in the same way as a properly trained, calm adult dog.

If you're worried that ignoring her is going to lead to her peeing on the floor then the only option is to get up and let her out. You could try and make it boring for her - take her out on a lead so she can't play and can only toilet, but to be honest it's normal for dogs to want to be in the garden and sniff, roll and play.

Could you fence off a section of the garden that's safe for her to toilet in, maybe?