Hello,
after traling through backposts on the forum and getting some sound advice i'm a little unsure of what to do about toileting at night. I have a bully puppy boy who is 14 weeks old and very nearly has the jist of going out to do his business, like all young pups he still has the odd accident and cannot tell me yet if he wants to go out. But he is doing relly well and i am taking him out every 30 - 40 mins. What do people recommend to do at night. At the moment i put a little paper down in my hall and in the morning he has done all his business on the paper so i just fold it and put it in the bin. But i want to get him out of the habit completely of paper toileting shall i just remove it and clean up in the morning?? Is it just instinct not to do his business on the floor after a while or is there any way of training him??
thanks in advance for any advice
Matt :)

hi matt, i think there will probably be different oppinions on this one, I have a 6month old lab, he is completly clean during the day, even when im out, the longest being 5 hours, but during the night he still has a accident, but only the one. I do not put paper down because i think he may think it ok to use it and it will be harder later on. as you said he is only a baby, concentrate on daytime training, the night time will come in time, when you take him out to do his buisiness, and he does make a fuss of him, he will very soon let you know when he wants to go out. good luck with your boy and let us know how you get on

Hi Matt, I put the paper down in case but set the alarm for ~3.30am and take the pup out then. As the pup gets better at holding on I set the alarm for later & later until it reaches normal getting up time. If a pup doesn't have the chance to have accidents he won't want to.

Hi Bigmatt
Cazmar is is right you will get many varied methods on how to toilet train.What you have to bear in mind they are all individuals.Daytime toileting is quite straight forward with most puppies as you have found with your own.
It is during the night that most people seem to have problems with.I`m a `train to paper` breeder. I work on the theory that whilst a puppy cannot hold its bladder for the 6/8 hours during the night by putting the paper down I am giving permission for the puppy to use it.Then there will come a time when you get up to unsoiled papers and this will vary a lot .I have had a puppy dry at night at 3 months and another that went to 7 months.
When you are confidant that your pup can go all night by not putting any paper down you also take away permission to `GO` in the house.
Never get up tight about it as puppies sense this straight away and can easily become confused as to what you want from them.Patience is the watchword.
Regards Carole

Hi Matt,

I have just managed to stop my pup peeing during the day, i have never had a problem at night. I take him out at around 10:30 at night then get him settled down. he sleeps in his crate at night which is locked only at night. I have never had any accidents at all during the night. If he needs he will howl and get us up but that has only happened once since we got him.
He has now had 3 1/2 weeks sleeping right through the night.

David

i have this problem with my dog in the night and would like to know at what age they get out of needing to go in the night

There isn't a hard and fast rule, but I do think a crate helps an awful lot with night time training, as they learn to ask out which is the first step to not needing out, if you see what I mean. Even now if my dogs ask in the night I let them out as if you ignore them they could regress and stop asking. It's a bit like people some nights you need others you don't:-D
Anne

I follow the same principle as Anne for night-time training and it has worked very well. I had them both clean and dry at night from the off - I just had to get up with them to put them out:D about three weeks with Jasper and never with Buddy(but he was 11 weeks old when I got him). A crate of the right size does encourage them to hold on but if they are left/ignored for too long they will still go as they can only hold on for so long.

Thanks for the replies so far. I do have a crate for him, but dont like locking the door overnight as i tried it when i first had him at 8 weeks and he soiled in the crate.I have a big kitchen with a passage that leads outside, so i put the paper down at night in the passage. I have got it sorted for the daytime i just let him out every 30 - 60 mins and he always does his business. We are thinking of leaving the paper down for one more week then having a real thorough clean of the passage then leaving the paper for good. What do you think?
thanks
Matt :)