Housetraining at night advice --- again !

[BJ's Mommy]

Hi again.

Sorry to keep going on about the overnight housetraining but Bella & Bailey (4 months old) still have access to a 'toilet' area in the crate. They do get me up about once or twice a night to go do a wee and sometimes a poo. But if they are crated in the day (if we have to go out ) they sometimes wee in the 'toilet part' of the crate/pen.
As in a previous note I said that they shredded puppy pads and then the newspaper. So following advice from a couple of you on here we used a shower mat. This worked for a while but guess what they started to chew that. So I tried the newspaper again. One night was ok but tonight they have started shredding that again. I'm worried they will eat it ( would it harm them?)

Is there anything else I could try ?
Maybe sawdust ?

I know some of you may say take the toilet area away and hope they don't mess their bedroom area but I don't trust them not to.

Please help xxx
Nicki

[Hannah77]

Our 6 months pup stays in the crate with no toilet area when we go out , we had a few accidents  to start with (only a  couple  in the beginning)... She has been clean for ages but We still make sure she goes outside  (and does something ) before she goes in though.

[wendall]

Honey never had a toilet area in her crate. She sleeps in my bedroom, so when she woke in the night I was able to get up quickly and take her out when she cried. I know all dogs are different, but she was going all night at 10 weeks.

[dieselboy]

When we got diesel at 9 weeks old we decided to try him all night in his cage and well to this day he has only done 1 pee in his cage and that was day time and can't really remember why he did it.he is still a pup at 8 month so we are ok with that.  I'm glad we did it as he is very good at sleeping at night and never makes a noise. He has no toilet area in his cage either.

I wonder if you should maybe just see how you get on for one night without the toilet area. They may surprise you.

Charlene

[BJ's Mommy]

Ok so I bit the bullet and took the toilet area away and just had the crate.

They have not soiled it - good news but I was up at 1am, 3am and 5am ! 
They both did wee and poo at 1 & 5 and just wees at 3.

I'm hoping that will get better and that they will go longer before a wee.

Nicki.   

[dieselboy]

That's great news. 
Long may it continue and you can start to cut out getting up at all hours

Charlene and diesel

[Mudmagnets]

I think that is a good result - 4 months is still very young and if they are controlling it till they get outside at this age, I would say REsult

[chrisp]

Good news!  I was going to say, I never had a toilet area in the crate and never used paper/puppy pads.  Just always took Mollie straight outside.

The times between wees/poos will get longer.

[its.sme]

Bea would wake me up every two hours when she was in her crate, then annoyingly go into the crate during the day to wee etc

That was it, I took the crate away puppy proofed my bedroom and settled in for our first night out of her crate, we both had 6 hrs of un interrupted sleep and we never looked back

I was so glad to sleep in my own bed, I was sleeping on the sofa to try to keep her clean of a night, this resulted in a bad back but a clean puppy.

I think she just hated her crate

[mattlevic]

Hi all,

I have a 17week old WCS Millie. Reading posts on this forum makes me laugh as I can relate to them all I've been lucky with Millie as she seems to have been a relatively "problem free" pup until this week....
For the last 3 nights she has pooped in her crate having never done this before?!?! She's been in there and dry since day one so I am at a loss. I'd say she's well exercised and stimulated. I'm out at work during the day but I have a dog walker taking her out with other dogs for an hour.... Any suggestions?

[elaine.e]

Hi and welcome to COL mattlevic 

If you haven't changed her food or feeding times it might just be that her toileting times have got a bit out of sync for a few nights. You could try taking her for a short lead walk before bedtime to see if that helps her to go then.

Just a note of caution about her exercise. The general rule of thumb for exercising puppies is to limit their walks to about 5 minutes per month of age. So at 17 weeks her walks should only be about 20 minutes or so. The reason is to avoid potential damage to joints and growth plates, which can be caused by too much exercise. If your puppy is having 1 hour walks with a dog walker, presumably with other dogs and doing lots of running round with them, she's doing way too much and is potentially at risk of joint problems from a young age.

[mattlevic]

Thanks!
I acknowledge the "walking" advice I am very aware. She has a play session basically in a park or field which I am led to believe is fine....