Hello, First, if it's been at least eight hours since she last went potty, you will need to take her potty when she wakes even though she could probably have held it longer if she had just stayed asleep. Once awake pup's bladder capacity will decrease though. When you take her potty though, I suggest taking pup potty on leash and don't feed, snuggle, play, give treats, or make the trip fun and interactive in anyway. Keep the trip calm and boring, then right back to the crate after they go so freedom from the crate doesn't keep motivating her to wake early. When you return them to the crate, she will likely cry. You have a couple of options at this age. 1. You can either ignore pup barking until 7/8/9 (whenever you normally want to get up). This is the route most often tried that works for some pups, but since it sounds like your pup is one of the more persistent ones, I recommend one of the below options instead. 2. A second option is to correct the crying once you return pup to the crate after the potty trip. To correct pup, first, work on teaching the Quiet command during the day using the Quiet method from the article linked below. https://wagwalking.com/training/train-a-shih-tzu-puppy-to-not-bark Second, during the day practice the Surprise method from the article linked below. Whenever pup stays quiet in the crate for 5 minutes, sprinkle some treats into the crate without opening it, then leave the room again. As she improves, only give the treats every 10 minutes, then 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour, 1.5 hour, 2, hour, 3 hour. Practice crating her during the day for 1-3 hours each day that you can. If you are home during the day, have lots of 30 minute - 1 hour long sessions with breaks between to practice this, to help pup learn sooner. Whenever she cries in the crate, tell her "Quiet". If she gets quiet - Great! Sprinkle treats in after five minutes if she stays quiet. If she continues barking or stops and starts again, spray a quick puff of air from a pet convincer at her side through the crate while calmly saying "Ah Ah", then leave again. Only use unscented air canisters, DON'T use citronella! And avoid spraying in the face. Surprise method: https://wagwalking.com/training/like-a-crate Repeat the rewards when quiet and the corrections whenever she cries. When she cries at night or early morning, after you take pup potty and return them to the crate, or pup cries before 8 hours (so you know it's not a potty issue), tell her Quiet, and correct with the pet convincer if she doesn't become quiet and stay quiet. Don't give treats at night/morning though - practice during the day proactively to help pup learn that quiet is good, since you don't want to encourage pup to stay awake in the early morning with food, but to go back to sleep instead. Pay attention to her evening routing too, making sure she isn't falling asleep and sleeping for more than an hour in a row without wake breaks, eating less than two hours before bed, drinking right before bed, or not taking pup potty right before crating (such as an hour before crating rather than as the last thing before crating for the night). Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden

Dec. 5, 2022

Hello, Is the area he is sleeping getting light at 6:30am with the sun? It may be the sun that's letting his body know its time to wakeup. If that's the case, having pup sleep somewhere that gets less light in the early morning may help push back pup's schedule. I would also pay attention to what time pup s going to sleep at night in the evening. Even if pup isn't being put to bed until you go to bed, often a dog will go to sleep earlier in the evening somewhere like the den. Naps are fine, but it pup is sleeping for longer than an hour at a time in the evening, try keeping pup up until the official bedtime by giving something like a dog food stuffed kong or other fun activity to practice before bed - just don't give too much food so they don't need to poop - something they have to work at getting a little bit out at a time. Even if pup wakes up early, I would also withhold breakfast until it's the time you want pup to begin waking up at - like 7:30am. You can't control when they wake up immediately, but you can move pup that direction gradually, address how they behave once awake, and ensure that their internal food clock it's continuing to wake them early because their stomach expects food at that early time. I would also work on teaching the Quiet command during daytime hours so that that can be used to address the demanding behavior when needed in the early morning, or at other times pup may bark or whine Quiet method: https://wagwalking.com/training/train-a-shih-tzu-puppy-to-not-bark I would work on bedtime, breakfast schedule, darkening the room, and teaching Quiet, while also continuing to ignore the barking for a couple more days - it will take up to a week of ignoring it, as long as you don't have neighbors who will complain to a landlord, like in an apartment. If pup doesn't improve, then you can also correct the barking. I would try changing what I mentioned above for a few days first though if you want to go the gentlest route you can. If things don't improve, you can submit a new comment to me with the latest update on what you have tried and how pup is doing, for additional steps on using a correction. Once pup isn't getting what they want when they wake in the early morning, most dogs will start going back to sleep when they wake too early, allowing them to hold their bladder and not need that early potty trip also. You may have to take pup potty on a leash - keeping things as boring as possible with on treats or breakfast or play or excited talking, then returning pup to the sleeping area and leaving pup there until 7:30am - so that they whining is only due to wanting attention and food, and not needing to go potty, and it will be easier for you to outlast pup until they learn how to go back to sleep when they wake early. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden

Aug. 15, 2022