Crate training question - please!

[RosieLig]

My pup is 10 weeks and is up a lot crying at night. She pooed in her crate last night. On the first night I let her out but she refused to pee or poo.

Am I expecting too much of her to go through the night without a pee or poo (from around11.30/12 to 6)? Friends say should leave the door open and use newspaper on the kitchen floor if she needs.

I'm confused! Please help.

[littlewhitebag]

We used to get up in the night to let our pup out of her crate to pee/poo. Probably every 3 hours or so but she whined to let us know she wanted out. We spent hours wandering the garden at night! She never pooed or peed in her crate.

I am no expert but i think letting her go on paper might be confusing when you really want her to go in the garden. I would persevere and get up during the night to let her out.

Try using a command word when you see her go during the day. Each time she does something say the command word so she associates it with going. We say 'be clean'. Then you can use that command to encourage her to go quickly.

[Cavort]

We had our pup at 9 weeks and used to get up twice per night to let him out at first, then dropped this to once per night and then not at all. We still had the occasional incident until he was about 5 months but it was thankfully rare. We didn't shut his crate door at night until we were certain he could hold it for that length of time as didn't think it was right to force him to mess in his bed.

[moosemama]

Most people go out with them at least once a night at this age.

My pup came to us as a rescue at 10 weeks and we were out with him twice a night for the first week-ish, then once a night after that (when he was going from about 11.30 to 6.00 am).

All pups are different and some are able to hold their bladder/bowel younger than others.

If you think how often they go during the day, when we are taking them out after every feed or bit of activity, plus other toilet trips just-in-case, it's a lot to expect them to go longer than 3 hours overnight when they're very young.

[Marne]

I used to take mine outside in the night, he didn't really go through the night until around 16-18 weeks without a accident, in the end we used a crate to toilet train him (had to do it in a hurry as my dd2 has ASD and will pick up anything and put it in her mouth, couldn't risk he coming into contact with poop), we toilet trained him in a week using the crate and taking him outside every half an hour to begin with (than a hour, then every couple of hours).

[milkybarsrus]

Yep, sorry I think it's too much to ask for such a young pup to go round til the morning. We used to go to bed late (about midnight) which killed us when we had to go to work the next day, then up once or twice to let him out. This was strictly a no playing, no cuddles, no eye contact thing, no lights on, etc. many nights stood outside with pup on the lead with dressing gown or coat on and boots, just waiting for him to 'be quick'. The only thing we did do was quick praise, then straight into his crate. Job done. Sorry, I would like to say he went through the night quickly, but.......he didn't. Sorry.

[mygrandchildrenrock]

My puppy is now 5 months old and is crate trained. She cried so much at night for the first 6 days, than totally stopped overnight! I thought she would cry less and less but she didn't do it that way at all.
She is always clean and dry in the mornings now, but we get up early so she is in her crate from 10pm - 6am and until 7 ish at the weekends.
She did poo in her crate frequently at night for the first few weeks, possibly even longer, but she never wined or fussed about it.
I know lots of people do get up in the night with their pups, but I equally know lots of people who don't. I think you have to do what works for you.

[RosieLig]

Thanks all- very helpful! She did 11.30 til 4.45 last night, went for a pee and a poo but then wanted to play! My poor husband had to go and sleep on the sofa downstairs.

Progress though... and I left her in her crate 9 til 10 this morning and she was fine, very chilled when I came back.