Will bad habits form if...

[CardsFan]

We let our puppy out in the middle of the night to eliminate? Our little guy is almost seven months old and weighs about 35 lbs. The vet says he probably won't get much bigger. Some nights he'll sleep until early morning, but others he'll begin whining to go potty. By letting him out in the middle of the night, are we promoting this habit to continue? Would it be better to see if he can fall back asleep and hold it, or is this a phase that he'll outgrow either way? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Charliesmommy]

That's a good question! Charlie grew out of going out at night right around 7 months, but I don't know if most dogs do. I always got up to take him out whenver he whined and then one night he just didn't and from them on he didn't go out at night anymore. Every once in a great while he will still get me up at night to go out, but it's rare. I would think, if you take him out right before bedtime, and you don't sleep more than 7 or so hours, he would be able to hold it. Only way to know is try it and see! I only sleep about 6-7 hours so Charlie has no problem with that but if I slept longer he would definitely be getting me up!

 

[bubbatd]

That is a toughy .... to me a pup this age should be holding it all night . It can get to be a habit . I think it would be a case of wanting attention rather than needing to go . But , I don't know habits of small breeds .

 

[StunnedMonkey]

What's the "middle of the night" and what time is the puppy crated? At 7 months I'd expect that the dog should be able to hold it several hours in the crate. I certainly don't know your puppy, but I'd suspect that it might be more of an attention-getting ploy.

Start with the longest period that the pup has proved reliable. If that's 6 hours (and say you want to sleep until 6 AM) then take the pup out for his last pee at midnight (even if you have to rouse him) and don't get him up again before 6 am even if he whines. If he holds it reliably over a few days then start increasing the time, either taking him out for his final pee a little earlier, or leaving him crated a little later (whichever fits your lifestyle the best) until you've reached a suitable period.

I started doing this with my pup (11 weeks old...I recently started a thread titled "pup turns into screaming demon at 3 AM" or something similar) a couple of weeks ago, and it's worked great. We started with midnight - 5 am and now we're at 11:30 PM - 6 AM...and no whining or crying. When we get to 11 PM to 7 AM I'll start to feel like a human again.

All dogs are different obviously, but this seems to be working for us.

 

[Brattina88]

Maddie did this to me! I'm not a good sleeper, and she knows it and takes advantage of it sometimes still to this day. But that's because I don't really mind. If I'm not asleep by that time I might as well do something productive anyway

 

[Spiritus]

By this age, a puppy shouldn't really "need" to go out in the middle of the night, but sometimes, on that last potty of the night, they don't both pee and poo, or maybe the pup had a more active evening and had too much to drink before bed.

With my dogs, when a pup of this age starts whining at night, I wait until they insist they need out NOW. Usually the whine progresses to a quick, shrill yip or bark. When I hear that, then I know the pup REALLY needs to go out.

 

[squirtsmom]

Maybe just for attention I think. Are you in Missouri too?