We have two bassett hounds that share a large crate at night. For the last week, one of them as been waking up at 4:30 every morning. She wakes her sister up and barks until we let her out. This morning she barked for 30 minutes until we finally gave in. We let her go to the bathroom and put her back in the crate. She continued to bark until we gave in a feed her over an hour earlier than normal. We are exhausted and don't know what to do! Please help!

First of all, by feeding her early you are actually training her to continue this behavior, but we'll get to that in a minute.

How old is she? Have you ruled out medical reasons? It sounds like she may have a bladder infection and therefore needs to go out more. I'd rule that out and then go from there.

Make sure that the water dish is put up at least an hour before bed and that you walk her for at least a 1/2 hour before settling in at night.

Let me know what the vet says, if there are no physical problems I'll post steps to retrain her not to wake up in the wee hours of the morning.

Good luck.

She is about 15 months old. We just took her to the vet yesterday and no bladder infection (we thought that might be the problem). As for feeding her, believe me, we tried not to. But after 5 days of this we gave in. She barked for an hour this morning!

I still haven't heard back from you and we are still waking up early. Please help!

What time do you feed her in the evening. Have you tried feeding her a little later. Also make sure she is getting enough exercise time before she goes to her crate.

I still haven't heard back from you and we are still waking up early. Please help!

I'm sorry, I've been sick, haven't been online much.

By giving in you've trained her to continue, it's like dealing with a child, you have to be consistent.

The method I described will work, but not over night, so yes, you will have a lot of mornings of barking where you want to give in, don't do it!

You dog needs to learn who the pack leader is, that's you, not her.

Have you thought of putting her kennel in a different room so that you don't hear the barking?

I'm fairly sure she's just doing this because she can, not because she's starving or desperate to go outside.

Keep at it, don't give up, consistency, leadership and patience, lots of love and lots of praise when she does what's expected of her. You'll get there, I promise! :)

Good luck.