# Sleeping through the night?



## keeperofthezoo (Sep 13, 2016)

I want to start training our puppy to sleep through the night, but at 11 weeks, she's still waking up a few times to go to the bathroom. If her last bathroom break is at 10pm, then she'll wake up again at 12:30, 3am, and 5 am for bathroom breaks. I wouldn't mind one or two trips before her wake up, but currently, we're waking up about 4 times in the night to go. She doesn't have any accidents but neither of us have gotten more than 4 hours of sleep in the last 3 weeks. 

I've hear advice that we should cut off all food and water 2 hours before bed time, but when we tried that last, she would vomit up bile at about 5am. Right now, she'll have her last meal at about 9-9:30 pm and then her first meal at around 6:30 am. 

Any ideas?


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## eddie1976E (Nov 7, 2010)

I think I cut mine off at around 8 PM. He was fine, and I remember waking up several times a night till he was about 13 weeks old. By 13 I expect him to hold it. He never messed in the crate. You may have to deal with it another week or two. Or just deal with clean up.


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## Deb (Nov 20, 2010)

All puppies are different, so all start sleeping through the night at different ages, just like human babies. I've had a few that slept through at 8 weeks, others that were closer to 12 weeks. Enya is 10 weeks and goes 7 to 8 hours. It just takes a lot of patience and sometimes lack of sleep to get to that point. If I have to go out in the middle of the night I do the same as someone in another thread said, puppy is carried out, put down, ignored and brought back in. There is no playing or attention given to them. It's not a fun time to get out of the crate at night, it's about doing their business and that's all.


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## LuvShepherds (May 27, 2012)

Over 5 months for our male puppy. Our rescue puppy who is now older was night trained at 4 months. The male needed a larger bladder.


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## JunYue97 (Aug 17, 2016)

I totally feel you. 

My female puppy can sleep through the night at 16 weeks (whew) now. At 8 weeks she needs to go every 2 hours or she would soil the crate. At 11 weeks she still needs to go two times during night. At 13 weeks it was reduced to two. (She was not happy those nights when I made the switch.)

I would say just force her to stay in her crate longer since she does not soil her crate. If she soils her crate just go back to the original schedule. 

Though the problem with increasing time interval really fast is that my puppy needs to go RIGHT AWAY first thing she gets woken up. Like, if I wake up and the noise wake her up and then I go wash my face etc, by the time I am finished, she would soil her crate. However she is now pretty good, and I have time to search for my shoes instead of going out in slippers etc.


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## Shooter (Nov 19, 2016)

Ha! Im my own worst enemy in that case. I cant go all night anymore. So when I get up... my boy starts with the I gotta pee whine. Oh well, the joys of getting old with a young pup.


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## zetti (May 11, 2014)

I'm going to be smug. Raff, at now just 9 weeks is doing incredibly well sleeping through most of the night. I'm the one with sleep issues.

He went to bed last night around 10 pm and made it through till 4 am, which is fine because I'm always up at 4 am.

His only odd potty issue is the re-pee. Whenever he goes potty, it never fails, he will,have to do one very short little re-pee before he's done.

Important to know that so you don't bring him in the house prematurely.


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## zetti (May 11, 2014)

JunYue97 said:


> I totally feel you.
> 
> My female puppy can sleep through the night at 16 weeks (whew) now. At 8 weeks she needs to go every 2 hours or she would soil the crate. At 11 weeks she still needs to go two times during night. At 13 weeks it was reduced to two. (She was not happy those nights when I made the switch.)
> 
> ...


We keep a plastic bin right next to the door, containing our potty shoes for easy access. May be a decorating faux pas, but it works.


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## BigHemi45 (May 10, 2016)

Having only had my puppy for a few nights, he's 11 weeks, I am reminded of when my daughter started teething and this is a piece of cake! Its frustrating but just tell yourself "This too shall pass." Only a couple more weeks and you'll be good to go. With that being said, my guy went out at 11 before I went to bed, again at 2:30 and at 5:30 when I got up for work. I also only give him a very limited amount of water after dinner time and before bed time. Maybe that helps.


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## Thecowboysgirl (Nov 30, 2006)

Make sure nothing is rewarding for the pup in the night time potties. For examle, I had to keep a leash and collar by my pup's crate because prior to that I would carry him out and he would kiss my face along the way. I stopped carrying him so that I could avoid interacting with him and so he wasn't getting any reinforcement for being out other than being able to empty his bladder. When he was pottied I would just say a very quiet praise, I usually would not touch him other than to put the leash on and take it off, back in the crate with no fan fare.

Once I eliminated all the other rewards he was getting for getting out of the crate (kissing my face, grabbing toys on the way tl the front door--I had to put all the toys in the basket at bedtime), all he got was a quiet boring trip to the potty. So if he really had to go he knew he could get taken out to go but that's all. From that point he very naturally progressed to holding it longer and longer u til he could sleep through the night but he was still needing a potty break at 11 weeks I am pretty sure.

For a pretty long while he couldn't make it past 5am, but by then I was getting like 7 hrs of sleep and that felt like heaven.


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## henriZA (Dec 15, 2016)

Mine is now almost 12 weeks and we take him out twice at night. Also it's only his 2nd night in the crate. Tonight I am hoping to take him out only once at 2h30 am.


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## mlvernon44 (Dec 10, 2016)

Mine is 11 weeks. We thought he was sleeping through the night in his crate at about 9-10 weeks but turns out he was just not whining to go out any more! We have since set alarms for 5 hours after the goes to sleep and the scheduling pottying has minimized accidents. So we go out once in the night but also wake up by 830am on days we don't have to get up early for work.


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## KaiserAus (Dec 16, 2016)

My little guy is now 10.5 weeks and he sleeps from 10pm to 5am without needing to go out.

We got him at 8 weeks of age. I would take his water away at 8pm. Take him to toilet at 10pm and go to bed myself. I set my alarm for every 3 hours to take him to the toilet. From the very start I noticed he didn't need the 3:30am toilet break - he would go out and just lie down. After a few nights I decided to stop with the alarm and just see if he would yelp to get out. Which he would do at midnight and then nothing until 5am. By 9 weeks he even dropped the midnight pee and now goes from 10 to 5.

When we go out for long periods (5/6hrs) I close him in the bathroom with his bed, food, water and toys. And we always come back to a clean bathroom (aside from him playing in his water bowl) he has never messed in the house.

If left unsupervised to roam around the house he will pee on the carpet instead of asking to go out... but I think that is because the carpet feels soft like the grass.
But we haven't had an accident on the carpet for over a week now.

Have you tried ignoring her for a bit longer to see how long she can hold for? It may just have become habit to wake you so often. Perhaps try setting your alarm for 4hr intervals and don't go to her before then?


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