Puppy toilet activities

[Mrs B]

Cinders is now 4 months old and sleeps in a crate at night.  This past week, she has started waking me (I hear her whining and barking in the kitchen) between 3am and 4am to go out for a poop.  In the past she has slept right through until about 6.30am - 6.45am (no lie-ins for us at the weekend!!).  However Hubby and I have noticed that after she has been fed at 6pm she will go out for a wee, but not a poop.  We go to bed between 10pm - 10.30pm (sometimes later at the weekend), so the last 10 mins before we go up are spent sorting out Cinders; making sure she goes out in case she needs the toilet, sorting out fresh water and getting a treat ready for when she goes into crate for the night.  We are just concerned that she could get into a routine of waking at silly o'clock needing to go out - she is good and won't mess her crate, so we are very pleased with her for that.

We wonder is it worth giving her slightly less food for breakfast and more in an evening in the hope that her bowels will work a bit earlier in the evening (LOL!!!) before we all lock up and troop to bed?  We take her out for a walk as soon as we (usually me) gets in from work at about 5.15pm - do we change this routine instead?

Any advice would be greatfully received!!!!

A very tired Mrs B & full of bean Cinders
xxxx

[ElaineH]

We used to take Morgan for a little walk around the block about 10pm, the walking always stimulated him to poop, it meant that he was really comfortable when he went to bed.

[Anita D]

I would agree with ElaineH - it certainly would be worth giving it a try so that you can get a bit more sleep!  :

[Mrs B]

Yeah - think I will give this a go tonight.  Someone at work has suggested just ignoring her when she barks, but I can't do that if she is letting me know she needs the toilet!! Or changing her routine and giving her her tea before we go for a walk and leaving it about 45 mins before I do take her out.  Knowing how Cinders is though she will expect to be fed again once we get back from her walk!!!

I think I'll try a little walk around the block before bedtime!

Thanks for the advice!

xx

[MaggieR]

I would try that first as well - you don't really want to be filling her up at the back end of the day rather than the start when she's likely to need more energy...

[black taz]

my two tend to have a "mad" 15 minutes around 10am after which Kira has a poop, so i suspect the walking option may work.

Kira is still waking me at 5.50am for a wee (she goes in her crate around 10.45pm) so at 4 months i think she does really well to hold it that long.

[waggytails]

I used to throw Hattie her ball in the garden to get her bowels moving if she had not been before bed time.

[Jenna]

Would also reccomend a walk before toilet time- This is the only thing that has helped with Saffron. If she doesn't walk, she will wee and then play but that's it. We take her for a short walk and everything is OK. She is getting better by the day- the walks seem to be getting shorter and shorter before producing... uh... results. 

[Little-Miss-Molly]

Poppy who is also 4 months seems to have to run around to build up to a poo  We have been quite lucky in having Molly to help show Poppy where to go to the toilet, we trained Molly only to go on the flagged area round the side of the garden and also to go on command, now I just open the door and tell her to hurry up in a light quick tone and Poppy seems to be picking it up quickly because of having Molly to learn from  I would agree with others that have already said try a walk before bed, hopefully that will do the trick 

[Ninasmum]

Yes i also think a little walk before bed time may help.    If possible i would feed her last meal of the day earlier than 6 p.m. and it may also help to make this meal slightly smaller.    How many meals per day is she having?  At 4 months of age they usually are on 3 meals per day.    I expect she will settle down again in a few days, she is still only quite young.

[Mrs B]

Thanks for all your replies - sorry I haven't been on sooner!

Since I first posted, we have tried the going for a walk just before bedtime and it seems to have produced some good results!!  Tuesday evening I have never been so pleased to see dog poop in all my life - how bizarre!!  A quick walk around the estate (making sure she sniffed around all the grass verges on the pavement)  soon produced a poop - I was mega pleased!!  Since then (quickly touching something wooden in the office) we haven't had any 3am or 4am toilet calls.  She usually manages to hold on until about 6.30am (from 10pm the night before).  I obviously panicked when I first posted thinking early morning toilet duties were going to start being part of my routine with Cinders.  We keep forgetting that she is only nearly 5 months old still, but doing extremely well.  We have definitely being spoilt with our first ever Cocker puppy - the guy who had her before us has partially house trained her and was only feeding her twice a day before she came to us.  It is amazing how quickly she has settled into our family and got into her own little routine.

Thanks again for taking the time to read and reply!

Mrs B & Cinders xx

[ElaineH]

  Sorted!

[MaggieR]

Excellent news!