Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
The doghouse

If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.

Original poster

Dog pooing overnight

9 replies

LN25 · 05/09/2025 06:42

We have a problem with our dog (who’s now over 1 year old) pooing overnight. He’s always slept in the hall at the bottom of the stairs - we tried crate training but he absolutely hated it so gave up with that. We take him out to the toilet last thing but still most mornings there’s a poo waiting for us in the hall.

I realise we’ve brought this on ourselves as when he was a puppy we didn’t want to get up in the night to let him out for the toilet so put put puppy pads down in the hall. He now seems to think it’s ok to poo there even when puppy pads not there. He doesn’t do this during the day just overnight.

Any ideas on how we can resolve this??

OP posts:
PersephoneParlormaid · 05/09/2025 06:47

Are you cleaning the area with the correct product ?
Then you need to look at why he’s doing it. The obvious answer is to set an alarm and get up in the night to let him out, go back to training him, but if he’s doing it because of anxiety at not wanting to be alone, then the answer is to have him him upstairs with you.

Ylvamoon · 05/09/2025 06:54

How many meals does he have per day?
And what time is he fed?

Original poster
LN25 · 05/09/2025 07:04

He has 2 meals a day - evening one at about 5pm

OP posts:
tumblingdowntherabbithole · 05/09/2025 07:04

Get up in the night and take him out to the toilet - you need to break the habit.

I’d also look at his meal times and how much exercise he gets.

AcquadiP · 05/09/2025 07:13

I'd move his 5pm feed to lunchtime and skip his teatime meal.

tumblingdowntherabbithole · 05/09/2025 07:16

OP admits she didn’t take the dog out in the night as a puppy so this is likely to be habit rather than anything else. If you leave a puppy overnight with no access to the toilet then it has no choice but to go inside and is going learn to do that until taught otherwise.

Nobody likes waking up in the night but unfortunately it’s part of toilet training.

SpanielsGalore · 05/09/2025 09:40

Does he poo before bedtime? If not, could you take him for a short on lead walk to encourage him to go?

AnSolas · 05/09/2025 09:45

Yep another vote for back to basics retraining.

FYI If its beside the exit door this is indicating that the dog tried to get outside.

muddyford · 07/09/2025 11:51

I started to give mine two thirds of his daily food in the morning rather than for his supper, and it definitely helped. One accident since January.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page