We didn't follow everyone's advice to have our new puppy sleep in a crate at night, we instead setup a room off our kitchen that he sleeps in. But he would get a bit destructive during the night ripping the plastic up that was on the floor... and that type of thing. So last night we made the big move and had him sleep in a crate and we were pleasantly surprised as it went really well, and he actually seemed to be much more calm when he was in his little safe space. I did let him out to go bathroom around 3am and he went #1 and #2 ( He didn't wake us, but I just wanted to check on him... so I'm not sure if he would just held it or not ) My question is should I stop doing this to prevent creating a pattern? He's coming up on 6 months old. Thanks, Kent
Would you hear him if he asked to go out? Or, would you mind if he did wet in his crate? I would start going to bed late and getting up early, in the hope that he will sleep through the hours in between. If he does, you can gradually extend this sleeptime period. I wouldn't tell him off if he did have an occasional lapse though - it is still early days. Go back a step if you are getting woken up, or if he has regular lapses.
It really helps if puppy is in the room with you. He can be in a crate if you prefer, but nighttime potty needs are easier to deal with if you can hear puppy fussing. It also provides comfort to puppies who have always slept with siblings and mama and are suddenly alone in a strange house. As @CaroleC suggests, going to bed later and getting up earlier can help minimize nighttime needs without having to get up in the middle of the night. With puppy in the same room as you, as long as you sleep light enough to waken to his fussing, you can try skipping the nighttime wake up call. If he wakes, take him out to potty but don't wake him up to do so. Figure out your preference/needs. For me, I don't do well during the day if I'm woken between about 3:30 and 6 am. So, I would rather stay up until 2 am and take puppy out for a potty then so I could then sleep until 6 am or later. As puppy handled that well, I would gradually go to bed earlier over several months until I was back to my "normal" bedtime. Then I slowly increased the time when we got up. For you it may be the opposite, you'd rather sleep between 1 am and 3 am without interruption. In that case, you would start with taking puppy out about 12:30 pm and then get up early at 4:30 am, gradually pushing back bedtime time until it's your normal bedtime time and then gradually getting up later until it's your normal get up time. If you cannot have him in the room with you during the night, whether or not in a crate, then I recommend getting a baby monitor or camera so you can check on him without waking him. Set a quiet alarm to wake you every 2 hours at first and see if he is awake each time. Do that for a couple days and you'll find out if he needs to go potty during the night and if so at what time. Then you can set the alarm to that time and take him out. Don't worry that you'll establish a habit. It is far easier to change a nighttime potty habit than to deal with an exploding bladder. Once puppy is grown, he'll adjust to your sleep pattern. But if he isn't able to go potty when he needs to, he'll always have accidents even as an adult. In my experience, most dogs will learn to sleep until you give the signal that it's time to get up. We have our usual get up time here. If I start moving around at that time, the dogs are bouncing around and being annoying. But if I am asleep during that time, the dogs won't get up at all. On the flipside, if they start whining and fussing before time, I know they need to go potty right now and let them out.
Oh, I wanted to add that you can also adjust feeding times to change poop times. Poop usually occurs on a schedule based on how long it takes their bodies to process meals. So if the dog is always needing to poop at an inopportune time, try moving their feeding time(s) up or back. So, if puppy needs to poop at 3 am every night, and you feed at 7 am and 5 pm every day, you might try adjusting his evening feeding time to 9 pm and see if that adjusts his pooping need to 6 am. Also, don't be surprised if potty training has a setback when the cold season next hits. It can take several years for a dog, especially small dogs, to accept that potty time is outside no matter the weather. Tornado-dog took 4 years to accept that he had to poop in the rain. First rain of the season and he'd try to avoid it and we'd go back to Potting Training 101...
Thank You very much! These are great suggestions! Yes he is close enough that we would hear him... We are at home all the time as well... so we keep a close eye on him. During the day he is in a gated area by our kitchen... Thanks again... Kent
Thank You so much for the great reply.... my wife and I have had several Pomeranians over the years, but It's been a while since we had a fresh new puppy! ha...ha.. so it's taking a little getting use to..... but we absolutely love this little guy ( Ernie ) We had our last pom for close to 16 years till his health took a turn. Thanks again! Kent
