Crate wetting at night

[Smckenry]

Hi Guys, So far little Luna is doing great. She is a fast learner, but is also learning fast how to ignore us 
Anyway need help 'brainstorming this'.
She's in her crate all night, and from the start we have not come down at night at all.
I also haven't heard her whining at all (but maybe we're heavy sleepers)
Some nights we've had no wet patches by morning, but some nights we have- maybe 60-70% of the time she's had a little wee in the crate.
If I continue to just leave her- will this undo all her toilet raining you think? Should I start settin an alarm to take her out?
During the day we usually have no accidents inside and she sits quietly by the back door when she would like to go out 

[Archie bean]

I prefer my sleep and don't mind a bit of cleaning up in the morning so have never used a crate. As I understand it, if you are crate training then yes, the idea is to set an alarm and get up to let her out. When I read up about them that seemed to be the point of using a crate as a toilet training tool. I might have misunderstood though.  If it were me, I would put some paper on the floor in front of the crate and leave it open (in a pen if you prefer not to give her full run of the room she is in) That way might save her bedding. It sounds as though she is doing really well on the toilet training front so I don't think it will be too long before she can hold it all night.

[sodpot2000]

Just like having a new baby in the house I'm afraid! Broken nights getting up to attend to ablutions. Little pups just can't do a full night straight through.

Sorry!

 

[Smckenry]

That's what I thought! I'm just not sure as our breeder said to leave her overnight, and to be fair there are some (not many) night when she doesn't wet the crate. I guess I can deal with washing the bedding everyday, but my biggest worry is that peeing in the crate will ruin the 'relationship' she has with it long term?!
I'm not even 100% sure that washing the bedding gets rid of all the smell of pee...?

[GeoW]

We crate trained William and got up during the night for the first few weeks, and we had no accidents in the crate. He was taken outside and brought back in with the minimum of interaction.

My understanding is that puppies are naturally taught by their mothers not to foul their bedding and we were advised to make the crate only sufficient size for the pup to sleep in with no added space for the pup to leave his bedding.

It didn't seem to take long for him to be able to hold himself thro' the night, and  by then he had got the idea that he went outside to pee etc.

As he outgrew his crate we moved him to his playpen to sleep, before eventually dismantling that around nine months of age when we were sure he was passed the chew stage.

M.

[Smckenry]

Thanks GeoW- at what stage did you stop going down in the middle of the night? How old was your pup before he/she could hold it all night?

[GeoW]

I've had a look back at my notes of William's puppyhood, at 11 weeks he was sitting by the door and barking to go out.

At 14 weeks I noted he slept thro' to 6.00am. We put William to bed at around 11.30pm and initially I would get up at 2.00am and again at 4.00am and gradually extended it to just 3.00am.

The 6.00am 'cocker' alarm went off regardless, and it wasn't until seven months that he started to sleep thro' to 6.45am. At this point he was moved out of his crate into his playpen.

By five months he was fully house trained.

Of course all cockers are different, and the circumstances in which they live. We were retired when we had William so didn't have the added pressures of work schedules etc; With George our previous cocker who wasn't crate trained, the process took longer because he was left for 4hrs or so each morning, but they all get there in the end.

Enjoy little Luna, this period doesn't last that long really, although sometimes it certainly feels as tho' it's never going to end.

M.

[KeresleyKate]

I'd say that each puppy is different, you have to find  what works with them. Also it can keep changing. We had lots of problems with our boy. First he was in a pen and would wee on newspaper overnight. Then at 4 months he started barking after he wee'd and we crate trained him and  he was fine until when he was about 6 months when he started peeing in the crate so we left the crate door open and confined him to the kitchen, no problems. We opened the crate because I read that research on dogs showed they get up for a wonder in the night and then go back to sleep so I thought he might be getting a bit stressed in the night. A lot of getting up trouble this time of year is because dogs are naturally most active at dawn and dusk so they will wake for a wee when it gets light.  Good luck