shiftlft

Ever since we got George as a puppy over a year and a half ago, we've always brought him/let him outside to do "his job" when he asked to. We were under the assumption he needed to go so we never wanted to deny him. Now that he is nearing 2 years old, he continues to ask/whine/bark to go outside many times per evening. By the time we get home at 5pm and go to bed around 10:30pm he usually will have asked to go out 8+ times.

We always watch him if we let him out alone to make sure he's really going and coming back in, or we'll take him out on the leash. He will always pee some amount and can take up to 2 poops per night depending on his amount of activity. I've spoken to other dog owners who tell me they let their dog out 3 to 4 times max per night and it's when the owner tells them to go outside, not the other way around.

As George will continue to whine loudly, park, and harass us until we give in and take him outside, are we just playing his game of controlling us? As he goes the entire night while we are sleeping without going out and can go the workday without going out, going 8+ times in a ~5 span seems excessive and unnecessary to us. If he needs to go then we are happy to let him but most of the times they are very very quick pees and don't seem necessary.

Just curious about the bathroom behaviors of other boxers on here. Is it just that he's still somewhat a puppy and this will change? Is this uncommon? Should we do something to try to prevent/stop this? Saying no or denying him, as I mentioned, does not go well in the end. Not to mention we don't want to associate asking to go outside for the bathroom to be a bad or negative thing.

Mom2Jax&Bay

They train us pretty easily. I wouldn't think he needs to go out that much. If he can hold it all night etc he is just bored and wanting to go ouside. Mine do it often during the day when I m home. Once we taught him to use the bell on the door now they do it for fun.

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Lone Star Boxer Rescue volunteer since 2010

jessmke

Sounds to me like a boredom behaviour, he probably doesn't have to actually go to the bathroom nearly as often as he asks to go outside. Does he get a walk in the afternoon/evening when you get home from work?

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Jess
Mom to Aspen

shiftlft

We always say he's just bored, but regardless his loud whining and barking is hard to ignore. We walk him almost every night unless it's raining or overly cold out. He also plays for several hours inside the house every night as well. Most nights he won't shut his eyes from the moment we get home until around 9-10pm.

Future

I don't take any of my three dogs out in the middle of the night. They never bug to, we take them out before we go to bed then again when wake up

shiftlft

Oh he doesn't ask to go out during the night when we're sleeping. I'm talking about between 5-10:30pm in the evening.

rncohelp

My boy Reuben (10 mo.) does the same thing. I'm talking immediately after he comes in and you sit down, he goes to the door and rings the bell. Sometimes we'll take him out and he doesn't do a darn thing. Last night was especially annoying. He gets plenty of run time and played with lots, but I think he is very high energy & just does it to see if it will work. We take him out right before bedtime, he sleeps all night, he does fine in his crate when we work, so there is no physical problem. He is just a big adolescent hunk of smart trying to see what works. I also wonder if not being neutered yet is a factor.

shiftlft

That's exactly like George. Each time he'll act like he's about to explode with pee and needs to go out, but he'll trot outside, squirt a small bit, and want to sniff things. So we are quite sure it's not an actual need to go out but rather just a want. However we'd like to figure out a way to curb it so we aren't opening the back door 8 times a night.

2manydogs

He sounds like he needs more stimulation. The alks just arent cutting it. Do you take him to parks where he can fetch a ball and run off leash?

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**Proudly Raw fed since 2010**

shiftlft

Trust me, he has enough stimulation. We have no children so he receives our energy all day long. Walks, park. In Western NY it's been under 20 degree with 3 feet of built up snow for weeks so it's not always possible to take him to the park but we have a fenced in yard we play fetch with him in, several hours of ball play a night, etc. On average we spend 2-3 hours each NIGHT (from 5-10:30pm) with him. It's not quite possible to spend more than that and have any sort of normal life.

Again I'm looking for suggestions/tips on curbing the behavior.