hello how old should a puppy be before it is clean through the night ous is 5 months old and shows no sighns of being clean at all he goes outside before bed at 11 pm and goes out again at 7.45 am but every morning he has pood and weed in his cage .is this normal for a puppy of his age.?

Dogs are like children, they all learn at different rates. Give him a little longer.
In the mean time, try and get hold of some puppy training books that give in depth information on house training. I hear "the perfect puppy" is very good reading and could help you out quite a lot.
I see no reason for him messing in his crate, usually they keep their sleeping area clean and tidy unless they are afraid of it. If it is a fear of the crate maby you could start associating the crate with "nice" times, for example feeding him in there and leaving the door open.

Hi Guest,

In part it could be due to how late you are feeding him too ;)  By 5 months most, but certainly not all, puppies have reasonable control of their bladder and bowels - like humans they are all different though.  It could be that the time scale you're leaving him for is just too long for him - almost 9 hours overnight.  Perhaps you could stay up an extra half hour at night and get up an extra half hour in the morning and see if it makes any difference?

I always leave youngsters a maximum of 7 hours overnight (not literally left though, they share the bedroom with us :P ) and gradually extend it as they become more reliable.

It's probably worth trying to ascertain WHEN he's actually soiling his cage - since it could be he does it almost as soon as you leave him and is actually caused through anxiety at being left.  Why not join - then you can answer members' queries and with more info from you others will be able to provide more detailed help.

Regards, Teri :)

i would try to adjust his feeding times.

Hi Guest, as Teri says, could you try and ascertain roughly what time he needs to go during the night.  I am lucky, all my dogs have been clean during the night from an early age,  but Bailey could never hold on as long as the girls.  He was never dirty but did shout during the night to be let out. always around 2.30 - 3.00 am.  I just let him out, he did what he had to do and went straight back to bed until around 6ish, when they all get up.  Week by week I noticed his 'needing to go' times got further apart, but it wasnt until he was around 8months before he stopped asking. It wasnt playtime, he did go straight out and straight back to bed

If you can take him out just before 'the oops its too late stage' during the night and extend the time by a 15mins or so week by week. I know it means less sleep for you meanwhile, but has to be better than cleaning up every morning :D

9 hours is a very long time to hold on at that age. He is still quite young.