I have a new 8 week old puppy. She has a small gated area in my kitchen with a pee pad in it. She also goes outside and pees and poops right away on command. I have been crating her when I go away for a ew hours during the day with no problems. She loves to be near me but has gotten better at being a little less needy when I am out of sight. The problem is at night. I understand that she is young however she has to go outside every two hours all night. If I don't let her out immedietly she will pee and has pooped in her small crate. I feed her 4 hours before bedtime, remove her water 3 hours before bedtime. Yesterday I ordered a puppy playpen in desperation. I don't know if she is too young to be crate trained. I never had a puppy pee or poop in a crate before. Would I be better off keeping her in a playpen with a pee pad at night until she is older? Any suggestions would be appreciated. We are not first time dog owners but this has me stumped and a bit worried. She came from a reputable breeder that had the puppies in a pen with newspaper. Thanks!
This is an unusual problem for a puppy who was kept in clean surroundings by the breeder. Usually they naturally want to keep their bed area clean. Have you talked to the breeder?
I do know that when Kodi was a pup, we set him up with an ex-pen and litter box so that we didn’t have to get up with him early in the morning, and it worked very well. But Kodi was already pretty well potty trained when we brought him home. He never soiled his crate. (The girls never had a problem waiting till a reasonable time to get up in the morning! LOL!).
I am wondering if this situation is associated with her age. You said she is only eight weeks old. That's still a little young. Hopefully, things will improve as she gets older and matures. Congratulations, she is a beauty.
Does your crate have a divider? If the crate is too big for her at eight weeks she may have enough room where she thinks she can potty in there too. I would not be surprised at eight weeks that she has to potty during the night. Every two hours seems excessive however. Is her crate in your bedroom at night? She may settle easier if she knows you are close.
You will likely hear a variety of responses so you will find out what works best for you. I received my pup at 9 weeks and was dedicated to getting him potty trained. For the first month I did take him out every two- three hours at night. It was in the winter and difficult to do, but in the end, he was potty trained by 5-6 months. As he got closer to 4 months I stretched the interval and by 5-6 months he could easily get through 6 hours. But every pup is different so do what works best for both of you. I tended to take him out more than less
Thank you to everyone for their helpful and encouraging advice. I agree that she is young, and maybe that is the biggest part. It always seems worse in the middle of the night 😐
Yes, she is young and it is really hard getting up in the night. The first year is very challenging. When you think about the challenges we place on them as a baby/toddler: being in a new/foreign environment, limited ability at best to communicate what we expect from them and in many cases without another dog in the home. She is precious! With time (albeit more than you might think) and your love, you will find the patience to get through it. Once you get to 10 months or so, everything seems to balance out.
Your puppy is darling! We got Scout at eleven weeks old and Truffles at eight weeks. That three weeks made a big difference in potty training. We did take both out every two hours. Scout was potty trained quickly. It took one year for Truffles to be reliable. We became best friends with Stanley Steamer. Scout will now find us and whimper or paw to go out. I still have to watch out for Truffles. She will just sit next to the sliding door when wanting to go outside. I always put a wee wee pad down for her when leaving the house because she will use one. Scout never would use pads. I never used a crate, but I did have a playpen for nighttime or when I would leave the house. It is challenging in the beginning. 😊
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