Long Puppy Nights! HELP!- UPdate in last post

Wow, so the first night he pooped in the crate after going ballistic in the crate. Then settled down and only whined and cried every two hours.

Last night- whole other story. After going totally insane (sounding like a rabid dog!) he also pooped again. Then cried ALL NIGHT LONG. He would stop for about 10 minutes or so, and then fire right back up again.

He is crated in our bedroom.

Anyone have any tips?

He has a towel, a chew toy and a soft toy in there to snuggle. He did sleep a LOT yesterday, and I am wondering if he has his days and nights confused??? I know it is only day 2 but I don't know how many more nights like this I can take!

Message edited 8/12/2011 7:07:21 AM.

Re: Long Puppy Nights! HELP!

It has been a LONG time since I potty trained a puppy. But I had some thoughts and then did a google search. This webpage seemed to have good suggestions about the nigh time feeding/access to water, preventing him from napping before bedtime and the night time potty visits being strictly business with no chats/cooing/playtime.

Hope it helps.http://www.thehousebreakingbible.com/training/surviving-night.htm

Re: Long Puppy Nights! HELP!

i would take him for a walk before bed to tire him out and limit his water intake for 2 hours before bedtime. when Beau was a pup we had to get up 1 time during the night to let him pee. that lasted about 2 weeks. good luck!

Re: Long Puppy Nights! HELP!

Play with him before bed. No water for 1hrs at least before bed and if you hear him up at night whining or causeing a rukus it probably because he needs to go. Our puppy did this to us the 2nd night we had him so we took him out and all he wanted to do was play...back in he went and 5 mintures later he pooped in the crate. We jsut didn't give him enough time to actually go.

You don't want him going in the crate if you can help it.

Re: Long Puppy Nights! HELP!

Potty trainign such a young puppy is very hard and will take alot of time and patience.

He WILL need to go out at night. When my pups were that age, I took them out every 3 hrs, at least once overnight. They always went. Rule of thumb, they can hold it as many hours as months old. So if he is 3 mths old, take him out every 3 hrs, and gradually increase that to see how long he can hold it.

They will poop in the crate at this age b/c they just do not have the control. Plus he is nervous, anxious, in a new environment and it will all take some time. But you def need to take him out OFTEN, reward or praise when he goes outside, and keep doing this. Eventually when he gains bladder and bowel control (like a toddler of course), he will know where to go and then begin holding it. KWIM?

You def need to offer him many bathroom breaks outside, even overnight. For us, our dogs started learning to hold it around 4 mths. I think I took them outside at night for about 2 mths. Then one night my male dog just refused to get out of the crate, was too sleepy, and then I knew he no longer had to go outside. And that was that re night training.

My male became fully trained by 5 mths. My female...took a year. She had poor bladder control, and I was taking her outside 12, yes, 12, times a day b/c she just could not hold it. She finally gained control and from that point on, they would go out about 3-4 times a day. Now at their age, only 3.

Any other ? ask away. It is going to take alot of patience. If you dont take him out enough, he will poop in his crate or in the house. Also..whatg we would do is whenever they would have an accident in the crate or house, we would run them outside just so they got the idea, this is where I go. This does work, just always reinforcing the going outside thing (even if its time consuming, it pays off in the long run).

My dogs NEVER go to the bathroom in my home. Never, or even other peoples houses. I credit this to the grueling work I did taking them out so often as puppies.

hth

Message edited 8/8/2011 2:20:53 PM.

Re: Long Puppy Nights! HELP!

also, make sure the crate isnt too big for him. when we first crated Beau he would poop in his crate then i read online to use the divider and only give him enough space to turn around and lay down. this stopped the pooping/peeing issue!

Re: Long Puppy Nights! HELP!

I'm pretty sure he poops from anxiety. Especially since he poops within 10 or 15 min of being in the crate in the dark. He is able to hold everything else all night.

I plan to walk him tonight before bedtime to see how it goes.

His crate is divided so it is the right size for him.

He is doing great with housebreaking though. Say prayers for me that he does better tonight!

I did leave him 2x in the crate alone today to drop and pick up my kids and he did not poop. It was not dark in there though.

Re: Long Puppy Nights! HELP!

leave a radio on with a talking kind of show, like 1010 wins or something. the sound of voices will make him feel like hes not alone

Re: Long Puppy Nights! HELP!

Message edited 8/8/2011 5:10:04 PM.

Re: Long Puppy Nights! HELP!

he eats at 5 pm. but had not been pooping afterwards the 1st 2 nights. today we went for our first real walk after he ate, and then he pooped when we got home (outside). so i am hoping! plus we excersized him tons today.

Cross your fingers ladies!

Re: Long Puppy Nights! HELP!

Oh boy do I feel your pain! I have a six month pup and potty training is tough! I would move the crate out of the bedroom. Chloe cries whenever I put her in her crate but stops after she doesn't see anyone for a few minutes. I would make his space smaller if he is pooping inside. Dogs don't want to sit and poop in the same place. Then as he gets better you give him more space. As he gets older he will be able to sit longer through the night. Chloe doesn't wake me up now until 6:30 or 7 vs 5.

Re: Long Puppy Nights! HELP!

First off, it does get better! I agree with what a lot of the other posters said. First and foremost at this point I would walk that puppy for a good 20-30 minutes right before bed and maybe toss the ball around too afterwards but only if the puppy seems like he isn't tired enough. You don't want to exercise a very young puppy too much. The longish walk before bed should stop that crate pooping. It is really important to prevent a pup from pooping in the crate for house training purposes. Also be sure to make the crate a happy place. If you are dragging your pup in there each night and he isn't going in on his own, I would change things up. Start feeding him in the crate, play games with the crate teaching him to go in and out with small treats to make it fun, also have a special toy that he only gets when he is in the crate. (For my boy it's the Kong with something special in it.) Also make sure to ignore bad crate behavior and reward good crate behavior. Never walk up to the crate and start yelling, comforting, or talking to puppy when he is being bad. Contact is a reward. When he is being good is the time to talk to him and give him a small treat. Also, never ever take him out while he is whining or barking. Even if you only get 5 seconds of quiet, wait for it and take him out then. Reward the quiet, ignore the noise! Hope that helps! Good luck!

Re: Long Puppy Nights! HELP!

You must remember that puppies almost act like babies. They are attention craving and constantly pooping, night long crying and whole day sleeping babies of dog. The only way to treat such dogs is to treat the puppy like a baby.

Re: Long Puppy Nights! HELP! UPDATE

Hi everyone. Thanks for all the advice. 2 nights ago was the first night he slept thru the night. He did again last night. He gets up pretty early to pee and poop, but I can deal with that.

He has stopped acting like a rabid animal when we put him in the crate. He will go a little nutty for about 20 min, then he settles down.

The lack of sleep really wore me down though! Wednesday I couldn't stop crying all day long, was totally irrational, and was really considering giving him back b/c we made a mistake! It is amazing what sleep deprivation will do (and I have 2 kids, I should know better!) DH made me go to bed at 7:30 that night and I went to bed at 9 last night and I feel like a new person today.

Overall I think he is settling in thank goodness!

Re: Long Puppy Nights! HELP!- UPdate in last post

Re: Long Puppy Nights! HELP!- UPdate in last post

It took 4 or 5 nights for our puppy to settle down at night. She screamed like a banshee for the first few. I swear there were moments I thought there was more than one dog down there.

We had one night where she pooped, probably from stress, and then stomped all over it so by the time we gave up to check on her DH had to give her a bath and I had to scrub down the crate.

As PP said use a crate divider in it will help stop the pup from soiling the crate.

We cut off food and water at 6pm. She got a long vigorous play session and a long chance to go out and do her business right before bed.

Hang in there, it gets much easier, very quickly.

Re: Long Puppy Nights! HELP!- UPdate in last post