Pup still waking at night - why?

[holmessweetholmes]

We have a 4 month old German shorthaired pointer puppy who is wonderful, but still often wakes in the night and barks. When he was very little, I used to let him out for a wee if he barked in the night, but I have stopped doing that as he should surely be able to go through the night now? He often manages to go through until 6 a.m., which is fine. But sometimes he barks for a while some time between 2 and 4, then goes back to sleep. When he has done this, I sometimes find that he's weed in his crate.

Is he still too young to go through the night without a wee?

The other possibility id that we are letting him sleep too much in the evening - he's very full-on in the day time and lies around and dozes most of the evening. Should I try and keep him awake a bit more in the evening?

Any advice appreciated!

Maybe he just needs to go. Sometimes I wake up in the night and need a wee, I should probably have grown out of it too!

Most likely he just sometimes need to wee in the night.
Am assuming you let him late as possible before you go to bed? We've always done this for our two dogs, routine of last wee then a biscuit before going to their beds.
My lab never really needs to go but he always manages to squeeze a few drops out because he wants the biscuit .

Yes he always goes out for a wee right before bed. I just wondered if maybe he wakes up because he's not tired enough because of sleeping a lot in the evening. Whereas he can maybe go through the night without weeing if he actually stays asleep, iyswim. Ah well - hopefully he'll get over it soon.

A family members dog is 4yrs and still forces the owner up at 5am as she needs a wee......and a play......

What time do you go to bed ? Is he getting disturbed by something and that's why he's waking up and hence then needs a wee .

We go to bed about 10.30. It's possible he might be woken by the cat coming in and out of the catflap, but I doubt it tbh - I think she stays in all night at this time of year! We leave the radio on quietly as that seems to help, and maybe mask background noise.

I think I'm going to try keeping him awake a bit more in the evening, and maybe move his second walk of the day to late evening.

Thanks for the replies!

Can you describe his sleeping arrangements?

He sleeps in a crate (which he's fine with - he happily goes in there) in the kitchen.

My 14 week old pup frequently wees in the night. We have a fairly large Savic dog house in the kitchen with bed at one end and puppy pads/newspaper at the other end. She doesn't wake us, but it's clear from the newspaper that she sometimes wees in the night.

Thanks. I was advised not to put newspaper in his crate as it would encourage him to wee in there.

Holmes - Ah OK.

Ours would also cry and I would come down to find her looking like she was going to burst bless her. She would be lazy in the evenings and try not go out for a wee, so now at around half 7 we try to do a bit of training with her and get her playing. Seems to have helped she doesn't cry now and we have taken away her cage (no accidents yet) she still wants to go out first thig but it's more around 7ish now which is great xx