I need a plan of action to get our puppy dry at night

[Showerpuff]

He’s 6 months old. Fully house trained during the day. We didn’t crate train so for various reasons we’ve used puppy pads at night.

He now goes out for a quick walk around the block at 8pm (gets a much longer walk mid day and a quick one first thing in the morning too). He sleeps from 8.30pm until 6am. He’s doing one wee on the pad during that time. He’s been sleeping in the spare bedroom due to renovations on our house however we’re now able to move him into the kitchen at night.

Also due to the renovations we’ll be able to have him in the living room with us later in the evening so we won’t need to put him to bed at 8.30.

I really want to tackle this now that the house is finally sorted. I don’t know when he’s doing that wee during the night though.

Any suggestions? If we let him out at 10 or 11pm for the toilet do you think he’d managed until 6am? When he moves into the kitchen we’ll stop putting a pad down but any other suggestions?

The pad is a habit. Move it outside to a place he can reguarly pee and take him out to it before you go to bed for a few nights and then remove it but take him to the same spot.
At 6 mths he should be able to hold on for 8 hours.

Even though he goes for a walk c8pm he probably comes in and has a drink? Still a.puppy so probably needs a pee about 10pm or just before you go to bed.

Thankyou, he does wee on his last walk so we’ll walk him later in the evening and ditch the pad altogether.

So if he should be able to hold it for 8 hours, walking him at 10 and then taking him straight out at 6am shouldn’t be too long for him? If the pads not there and he’s in different room hopefully he won’t make that association 🤞🏻

Crate should work, wee last thing at night then crate until morning

I really don’t want to start using a crate now. We did have him in a pen and within a couple of months he hated the confines of it, I think he’d hate a crate.

I always put our puppy (9 months old) put for his last wee between 10-11pm in the evening, he goes through till around 8am the next day.

I would ditch the pads and put outside for a wee just before you go to bed.

Why not try leaving a crate in a corner with a bed tin it and see if he goes in? Leave the door open, they often feel more secure in a crate and its also safer for car transport

I just don’t think crates are for us. He had one in the car and hated it, as soon as we changed to a seat belt harness he stopped whining and howling and he just sits nicely now looking out of the window.

If we’re still struggling with it in a couple of weeks I’ll try but I’d like to avoid a crate if possible.

I think you're expecting too much - that's a long time to go without a toilet break.

I would keep him in with you until you go to bed and let him out for a last wee when you go up.

Mine will be completely dry and fine in the crate, I started leaving the door open once she'd been dry for a couple of months and then accidents started happening again!

I know that isn't quite helpful if you aren't wanting to use one for your puppy but just my experience

I think a last wee walk at 10 and he should go through until 6.

Can you not take him out just before you go to bed, even if it means waking him. So he's getting his last wee much later.