Do you wake up in the night for puppy wee break from crate?

[xxxJess123xxx]

Question in title. We are bringing home our 8 week old pup tomorrow and will be crate training. Did anyone who used a crate remember what they did overnight? Did you set an alarm and let pup out for a wee break?

I think we had the crate in our bedroom and woke we heard him get up in the night. It only took a couple of weeks until he was fully toilet trained in the night. Then we slowly moved the crate further from the bedroom as he got older.

We went to bed at 10pm. Set alarm for 2am. Dh got up at 6 anyway.. There is a chart available online to tell you at what age/length of time a dpuppy can 'last'.... Very informative...

Yes we set an alarm. 3-4 hours at night and every 2 hours during the day (as well as the obvious, after each meal, after nap etc). Only took a couple of weeks to fully toilet train this way.

We were able to hear our puppy and got straight up and let her out.

I wouldn’t set an alarm as it may well not coincide with when pup needs to go. Be close enough to hear when they want to go out. Also look up crate training on dog training advice and support on FB. It takes time and isn’t a case of put pup in crate on night number one and leave them.

The crate is in the next room. I was thinking of going to bed at 11 ish and maybe waking at 2ish then straight back to bed. Husband is then up at 5.30

We slept on the sofa with pup in his crate next to the sofa for a couple of weeks. Took him out every time he woke up whinging. It got less and less throughout the 2 weeks until he was sleeping through and we moved the crate from next to the sofa to the corner of the room and then we started leaving him downstairs. He cried blue murder the first night for hours (kids were at a sleepover). Ever since then he's slept through the night and happily pads off to his crate when we say bedtime.

I set an alarm and took him out for the first few nights, but then stopped and he never needed to go out during the night after that - my dogs always sleep in my room so I would have heard him anyway. He was quick to pick up toilet training though.

We didn’t crate train - instead we used a guest bathroom as the puppy’s “bedroom” with a baby gate over the door. Then had his bed plus a pee pad and his water etc in there. It sort of operated like a bigger version of a crate where he had space to use the pee pad if he needed to without being forced to sleep in his own waste. He rarely peed overnight but it was there if he did need to go. Never had an accident in the house and only ever used the pee pad overnight (we obviously got rid of it when he was bigger and he slept in his basket in the living room).

We used this approach as we lived on the 30th floor of a high rise in a country with frequent horrible weather - getting up in the middle of the night to take an elevator down to the public street where it might be a typhoon wasn’t an option!

Mine are relatively clean before they depart for homes - but I tell new owners that, by and large, they can hold for 5-6 hours. Most of the owners report their puppies waking up between 5-7 hours the first night.

TBH it also massively depends on the breed - something like a Goldie will hold for longer than a Frenchie tbh.

Remember, please, locking a dog in a crate overnight is not ‘crate training’ - crate training takes weeks to master.

Ours wasn't crated but he slept in the bedroom with us - we didn't set an alarm as he woke us up whenever he needed the toilet.

Never had any accidents overnight and only a handful during the day.

I don’t have space in the bedroom for a crate but do for her bed. Will she not just wander all round the room having accidents if we are asleep??

Ours never did - he slept on the bed with us though. Never once had a night-time accident and mostly slept through the night apart from needing a wee.

He's seven next week and will stay in bed until midday if given the chance

My pup woke me crying and I knew he needed the toilet , he was very easy to toilet train and didn't wee in his crate at all, but if you find they do and didn't try to wake you then yes definitely set an alarm

We had to get up twice with ours to avoid accidents for a few weeks.

We didn't crate train. Ours slept on a dog bed in the kitchen and we put puppy pads by the back door.

Had covered crate in kitchen, I slept on sofa so I could hear. When they woke for a wee, took them out with minimal interaction and no big lights on, put them back. Shushed them back to sleep.

After a week they were sleeping through from about 11-6, which got longer gradually. At that point I went back to sleeping upstairs.

If you go this route, be prepared for a dog sleeping in your bed for eternity.
Far easier to use a crate or pen downstairs and you sleep close by until the pup is settled into a routine. Also, don't expect to put the pup in the crate the first night and it curl up straight to sleep - wear an old sweatshirt or dressing gown for a few days and put that in the crate for it to sleep with, feed all meals in crate to start with, gently place pup in crate when sleepy in the day etc. You need to build a positive association with the crate from the minute pup arrives (there are Facebook pages with instructions for crate training)

We had a week downstairs with both of ours where we had easy access to the back door and hard floors but they both came upstairs once we were confident they were going to wake us if they needed the loo, we never set alarms. One never had any sort of accident in the house whatsoever, the other had a wee by the back door a couple of times (entirely our fault) but no accidents overnight. Labs though, who seem to be relatively easy to toilet train compared to some breeds.

Our boy came home at 11 weeks. We let him out for his last wee at 10, woke at 2 for another and then I was up for the day at 6. As he got older DH stayed up until midnight to let him out and I got up at 5. By nearly 5 months he could go 9pm-6am with no wees.
Our boy was downstairs in a pen. Was made to feel like a monster for leaving him on his own, but we just disturbed eachother all night when we tried to sleep in the same room.

I used a crate. My pup was very small but the crate was big enough for him to fuss around in. I toileted him every 2 hours because he had a bladder the size of a peapod. As someone said before, no fuss, no talking, no lights, took him outside to do his business and straight back to his crate. If there were any accidents cleaned up straight away. Wipes, fresh bedding ready to go so didn't have a whole operation ti go through in the middle of the night.

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We had our pups downstairs and using a crate as their safe quiet and sleep space.
The families who had the litters had replaced whelping box with door open crate so pups already used to sleeping and going in and out. I went down at 2am with lights off and minimal fuss so pup could toilet. Straight down in the morning too. They slept through after about a week.

She is used to sleeping in a crate at night as that’s what she does where I’m getting her from but I think she uses puppy pads and I don’t want to use them at all so want to avoid any accidents in the crate. I might set an alarm half way through the let and do a boring, low key toilet break for her. How do I know if it’s normal whinging or whining for a toilet!!

Our pup was 9 weeks when we got him. We were lucky in that he was trained and didn’t need to go out at night. We didn’t crate him either.