How can I stop 10 week old puppy pooing in crate every night

[Retreatbynameretreatbynature]

My 10 week old retriever puppy poos in his crate at some point every night. So far, we’ve tried not feeding after 5pm, waking at 4am for a middle of the night toilet trip, leaving a safe toy and bedding in his crate, leaving nothing apart from water bowl in his crate and nothing seems to work. Whether it’s 4am or 6am, I’m still coming downstairs to crate and puppy covered in poo every single day! I can’t divide up the crate to make his space smaller as some suggested so I’m really at a loss to know what I’m doing wrong with him.

He’s very young. You need to get up in the night with him and take him out.

Get up more frequently, mine used to need a 10pm, 1am and 4am let out.

4am is not the middle of the night!

More frequent trip outside. Puppies are harder work than babies imo.

You need to get up in the night - by which I mean around 2am I'm afraid, then expect to be up for the day at around 6ish.

Could you have the crate closer to you, or use a baby monitor so you can hear when he wakes - then you can take him out before he gets desperate?

If I get up in the night to take puppy into the garden, he’s so sleepy that he just sits on the patio without any inclination to go onto the grass for wee/poo. I’ve tried ignoring him once we’re outside so that he doesn’t think it’s playtime but that doesn’t work.

Sleep downstairs with him one night so you can catch him when he wakes to do this, then take him out.

Are you waiting until he wakes or waking him yourself?

When he stirs in the night - get up and carry him out. Yes, it might involve standing outside like a lemon for ten minutes at 2am but that's part of toilet training!

They soon cotton on but you need to be consistent. If they think they can get away with playing or being daft then they will!

Oh and take him out on a lead so he can't run about.

You need to sleep close enough to get him outside when he wakes and needs a poo. He can’t hold it.

I'd also expect to get up through the night with such a young puppy.

Mine at that age would have peed and pooed in his crate a couple of times over night.

If you are sleeping away from him then I suspect he wakes up, moves about and because he is young and can't hold it he just poos.

You need to be up and taking him out before he has had chance to fully wake. Either do as PP recommend which is sleep close to him so you hear him move and or get a baby monitor and be lightening fast to get to him as soon as he starts to stir.

I slept in the next room with a baby monitor until mine was dry overnight and it was several weeks. I really would try and stop this in case it becomes a habit.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I’m going to set my alarm for 2am, 4am and then get up at 6am. I’m also going to get a lead so that I can hopefully keep him focused (fingers crossed).

Good luck!

It is tiring but they grow out of it remarkably quickly. Mine slept through the majority of the time from about 4 months old.

We had him in our room so he could let us know when he needed to go out - it meant we weren't waking up (or waking him up) unnecessarily but it also meant he could go out.

He never ever had an accident overnight.

Thanks Adaline for the suggestion. I would love to have him in our room as my other dog already sleeps there but the breeder and vet have both advised us not to let him climb stairs whilst he is very young.

Can you move his crate into your room then? Part of this could be anxiety. Stick with no food after 5/6pm and make his pre-bedtime walk a longer one so he is running around and his bowls move.

Let him sleep in his crate with you all I'm same room so you can see him stirring and he can see and learn that at night he is supposed to sleep.

Good luck and be patient with baby floof.

If he is not used to a lead it may be best to do this first before you expect him to poo whilst on the lead

Consider his diet as well. Ours was pooing a lot until the trainer in our puppy class suggested cutting out dry foods (except treats used to train her) as apparently dry foods make them drink more, and also it swells in their tummy. We did that, now she only gets wet food and it's improved.

Is the crate very large? If he's going to be a big boy it's understandable to buy a big crate even when they're small. But if the crate is large, it means it's possible for him to wee in an area and then be able to avoid sleeping in it. Some crates you can expand them as they get bigger, a bit like a toddler bed.

Make sure you use a command when taking him out. I spent most of my puppy’s first few weeks saying “have a wee! Have a poo!” in a high pitched singy-songy voice. Then lots and lots of praise when they go. Don’t treat though, just lots of fuss. He’ll get there, he’s still so tiny.

Has he been wormed recently? We had this problem a few years ago, and turned out puppy had worms. Once wormed she could go happily through the night from 10pm to 5.30am.

You can't stop him, he's a baby! All you can do is train him not to go in the house but in a crate is a different matter. When he has to go, he has to go. I hope the crate days will not go on for much longer.

Slightly going against the other advice here but when our pup was very little he used to just lie on the grass/terrace when we took him out at night so we used to roll a ball around to get him moving, he would then start to mouch a bit, then sniff, then wee/poo. I know all good advice is to ignore/no play at night but that worked for us for the couple of weeks it took for him to stat to go on demand. And a command -we use 'hurry up'.

He is/was in our room too, 2 flights up! We just carried him up and down. Still do in fact and he's 16 weeks and 15kgs!

Like pp I was also going to say can’t you just carry him upstairs whilst he’s little .

He's still young, this won't last forever. With my retriever I'd take her out and put her straight on the grass and say "Go for wee wees" and she'd go to the toilet.

@Retreatbynameretreatbynature we carried ours up and down the stairs until he was about six months old - now he only goes up/down once a day.

Could you try that?