Hi all

As some of you may know I have two pups - now 16 weeks - which I kept from my last litter.

They are both clean and dry during the day now and have taken to their crates for sleeping really well. My problem is that the little boy - Milor -  just can't hold on to his wees after 4.30 in the morning !. He goes to bed @ 10.30 and always goes out for a wee beforehand.Every morning he wakes me up with frantic barking and by the time I've got downstairs he's already weed in his crate - he just can't hold on any longer !. Xena - the litlle girl is fine and will wait till I let her out. Is this just an immaturity thing ? or is there some thing I can try and do to make him last just a bit longer - these early starts are SOOO tiring !

Yvonne W

I would suggest that, as you know the approximate time at which the pup needs to go, you set your alarm clock for half-an-hour before, i.e. 4.00 a.m.

Take him out on his lead, let him pee, bring him in and you can both go back to bed.

They are still very young and are doing well to hold on for as long as they do. We kept on with dawn pee breaks with our dogs until they were about 6 months old.

I would suggest the same; i have a Terv girl and as a pup she slept in our bedroom after being taken out at about midnight by my other half, and then i took her out at about 6 am because she was bursting to go.

(He's a night person, i'm  a morning lark!! :D )

Lindsay
X

I've tried putting  him back in his crate and going back to bed for a few hours but neither pups will settle again once they've woken up and howl and bark until they're let out. I don't want to turn them off the idea of being in a crate as they've been so good at other times when I've needed to crate them. It is just a specific problem that happens first thing in the morning - at the moment they sleep in the kitchen - I may try bringing them upstairs and see if they will settle back to sleep next to me - worth a try !!.

Yvonne W

If you wake them up to take them out before they start screaming to go out then chances are they will go right back to sleep.  Once they're wound up from asking they're probably too awake.

Set clock for 4 am for a week, then bump it by half an hour every few days.  Chances are in a month you'll have them sleeping through the night.

Wendy

my pup is 6 weeks younger then yours, but she does exactly the same thing, i know how you mean with how tiring it is so i sympasise with you. my pup sleeps in her crate in my room, and the signal for her to go to sleep is turning the light of, so when i take her outside at 4:30am i praise her but dont talk to her again until the morning and just put her back in her crate. dont know whether this would help becuase she is by herself and not got another dog to play with at that early time

Thanks Keisha

My problem is further aggravated by the fact that my hubby has to get up for work at 5.30 a.m - if they can only hold on that extra hour it would really help !

In all other respects they've been the easiest pups we've ever had - I guess I'll just have to be patient a bit longer

Yvonne

The purpose of using a crate is so that the pup does not wee in it. By leaving the pup till it is desperate and and pees in the crate, you are creating a big problem...pup will think it is ok to pee in crate. Unfortunately your pup is asking too late.
The answer is to recognise that pup cannot last all night, and wake the pup BEFORE it gets desperate. Can you remember the last time you were desperate for a wee? Could you sleep in that state? Of course not! 
Anticipate your pups need to wee, by setting your alarm for the middle of the night, when it is still dark, maybe 3 am. ( I did this with my pup) . Get pup out in the garden on a lead for a wee when it is still groggy, its amazing how much wee they need to do even at that time. By waking the pup yourself, it remains sleepy enough to go back to bed easily....waiting for it to half burst allows it to get agitated and less likely to go back to bed. Gradually your pup will get a bigger bladder capacity and will last longer....

If your pup always wakes at the same time is it possible that something is disturbing him ?. Milkman, neighbour going to work etc. I know when our dog was young he woke at 6.30 every morning - turned out it was the neighbour banging his garage door.

Val

Hi there,
My new little Belgian, now 11 weeks old was the opposite!  He only once peed over night.  He is not crated overnight and wakes me up, usually at about 6am to go for a pee. (clever boy!!).  I had more of a problem during the day, when he was crated (for no more than 2 hours) whilst I went to work.  I'd come home to a total mess in the crate, he'd pooed and smeared it all over the place!!  I discovered that I was using too big a crate and when I moved him into a smaller crate, the problem was solved.  I think you're problem is that they just can't hold on that long, it does seem an awful long time from 10.30pm til you get up!!  I make sure I go to bed at 11pm and he's been to the loo.  Then he's fine til 6am.  Once they get a bit bigger, (and have bigger bladders!!) then they should be able to hold it in a bit longer!

Good luck with your 2, and are you going to show them??
Sarah.

Hi mali fan

Yep I certainly am - we bred the litter and have had Belgians for 20 years. Did you get your Malinois from Jan ? - are you going to show as well ? - hope so we always look forward to welcoming new people into the breed.

Thanks to everyone for their advice - he's actually been dry the last couple of mornings so hopefully the problem has solved itself as he has matured.

Yvonne