When does a puppy stop needing the loo in the night?

[mum2seb]

Well, not the ACTUAL loo, obviously!! But I was wondering at what age their bladder/ bowel can cope with not needing to go to the loo in the middle of the night? I'm asking, because I DO have a crate for my Lakey, but I haven't actually shut him in yet - I had done so when we first got him, but it was a bit of a nightmare. I DO NOT cope well with sleep deprivation!! I think he's asleep until about 5am now, with no messes until about then. I can cope with 5am (it's when ds2 wakes up for the day -grrrr- and I think he disturbs the pup, hence the mess!).

Or is it a case of when an individual pup is ready?!!! To be honest, I think I already know what you're all going to say, but it can't hurt to ask!!

With our pup we used a crate but left the door open and enclosed a small area around the crate to allow her to pee (put newspaper on the floor). Then I think at about 4 months we just left her in the crate door closed and she stayed clean and dry all night (about 8 hours)
The crate really works because they don't want to dirty it.

In my experience it was different with Boydog and Girldog. Boydog (who is a beautiful and sweet dog, but not the sharpest tool in the box)was probably about six months old before he could wait until one of us let him out in the morning.
Girldog, on the other hand, came home at 9 weeks, we spent two days and two nights taking her to the spot in the garden where we wanted her to go, and that was it. She is three now, and she has NEVER soiled in the house, and still pees in exactly the same place in the garden.

We often wish that we'd not had Boydog 'done' before we got Girldog, because with her brains and his looks you'd have the perfect dog. But then there would also be the possibility of having one that looked like Girldog (she is a bit of a bruiser, with a smile like a shark)with the brains of Boydog.

Good luck!

My boy dog could do nights by about 9weeks (exept once when he would awful runs and he cried till I let him out - he managed to hold on though - [proud mummy]), however I think the expected age is around 5 months. You are right it is different for all of them, I would start using the crate and getting up in the night, if he manages the first night with a wake up call at, say, 2am get up at 2.30 the next night and push it back over about a week to 5am. This way you should give him every chance to get it right without to much opportunity for it going wrong.

I think it was about 4 months. We never shut our dog in his crate overnight either. We used to shut him in the utility room with his open crate for sleeping at one end, and some puppy training pads at the other end. We just then chucked out the dirty pads each morning until about 4 months when we were consistently coming down to no mess, then we stopped putting down pads for him.

Ahh, I never used pads myself.

We found them brilliant tbh. Plus we would have needed a baby monitor to hear our dog barking to go out in the night anyway as our house is long and we are the opposite end to the utility room.

I would have used them, my puppy wouldn't though, he went anywhere except on the pads so I used the crate and that was the end of that problem

I have had to move bedrooms too as I am 3 floors away from our utility. I am now too scared to move back incase he still needs me [needy mum emoticon]

rofl at going everywhere except on the pads

my puppy just chewed the pads up

We used to put paper on the floor and leave the crate door open but she is 5 months now and is crated all night (about 8 hours) and has never messed in her bed