I'm in Charge

Emme has recently taken charge of her schedule. Up until a week or so ago, I took her outside on a regular basis and Emme cooperated by doing her business in the back yard. Recently she has been asking to go outside herself and I couldn't be more delighted. She goes to the kitchen door and either looks expectantly out to the back yard or whines to go out. If she is in another room, she dashes to the door to let me know that she has to go outside. She even whines if she is on the second floor and we go downstairs and outside. None of this sounds like a problem. Whenever she asks to go outside, I take her and she does her business.

The problem comes in the early hours of the morning. Emme has started waking up at 3 or 4 o'clock to ask to go outside. She hasn't done this since the first week she came to live with us. Since that time, she has waited from the time we go to bed about 10 PM until I get up about 6 AM. No accidents, no problems. Now she is waking up during the night and whining to go outside. Since I am trying to teach her to whine to ask to go outside, I don't want to ignore this, so either Ken or I get up and take Emme outside. That means of course that Rudy wants to go outside also. They both do their business and then we put Emme back into her crate and she sleeps until I get her up at 6 or 6:30. I know that she has the physical capacity to hold it all night long, but I don't want her to get the idea that if she whines I might or might not take her outside. I am not crazy about getting up in the dark with a wind chill factor of -20. Should I get up or tell her to back to sleep at 3 AM? I wish I had all the answers. At this point, I am getting up and hoping that this is a passing phase and we will get back to sleeping through the night. Raising a puppy can sometimes be very challenging.