When we first got Flynn our cav for the first three weeks he slept through the night till about 6.30am.  He woke us up one night but we thought he was asking for attention and ignored him with the result that he pood in his crate so we now get up to him.

He is now 16 weeks old and seems to be waking us up at least twice a night to go to the toilet between 2 and 3 and again between 4 and 5 o'clock.  This isn't every night but more often than not.  He always goes to the toilet so we don't think it is attention seeking.  If we leave him during the day for a while the cage is always clean when we come home so we know he can hold on.

Can anyone suggest anything?  His feeding routine has not changed at all and he seems well so we do not suspect a urinary infection or anything like that.

Help someone we are sooooooooooooooooooooooo tired.

Thanks

Hi.

Harvey, our CKCS pup went through a phase of getting us up in the night to toilet but I later found that it was due to overfeeding and he was basically pooing out all the surplus food that his body didn't require. How many meals is he on now and what times do you feed him? Harvey's on 3 meals a day now fed at 8am, 1.30pm and 6.30pm and I don't give him anything after his last meal.

Hayley

I would feed him his last meal earlier too and toilet him just before  I went to bed.

Roni

Puppies, and dogs too, can get themselves into the habit of needing to go out in the middle of the night.  Not much fun!  Changing the feeding routine is worth a try.  Also, are you very matter of fact with him?  If mine do this to me in the night, I just let them out, then straight back to bed, I don't even talk to them as this rewards the behaviour.

Thanks for all your replies.  Flynn is fed at 8.00am, 1.00pm and between 6.00pm and 7.00pm depending on what clubs the kids are doing. 

When he wakes us up we take him out and basically ignore him whilst we are doing it and he does not get any rewards at all.  Last night we had no poos just two enormous wees. 

Do you think we should try and ignore him when he does it next?  We know he has good bladder control when he is left on his own during the day.

hi melster

our pup (19week lab) is doing exactly the same.  she wakes at 4am, then sleeps til about 6.30.  its like she just wants to know you're there.  i dont give her any attention at 4am (i suppose going to see her is attention) just make sure shes ok, then leave.  She has a crate but dont lock her in, I have the kitchen door shut.  She is house trained in the day and does it on paper at night.  When she does wake at 4am shes normally already pood or wee'd.  We are very tired too.  Its hard to ignore at that time as I dont want her waking the kids before school.....

Hi lab lover,

I am glad to see we are not alone. LOL  I too am worried that if I leave him to bark and cry then he will wake everyone up.  We also have two cats, three guinea pigs and a parrot all of whom can be very very vocal when they want to.  So if wakes them up everyone will be up.

I am not sure what to do about this because although he always wees and/or poos when we take him out at this time in the morning I am sure that he has enough control to wait till 6.45 am when we get up anyway.

My husband has suggest cutting his water right down in the evening and only giving him a drop to drink during the night instead of a whole bowl.

Hopefully we will work this out before we all get very very crabby

Whatever you do, don't cut his water down! I know it's an absolute pain being woken in the night but dogs should have unlimited access to water.

Ok I won't I didn't think I should but my hubby kept suggesting it.  His water will remain and hopefully his routine will change soon.

i dont see a problem with taking his water away at 11ish then giving him it back at 6ish.  Its not like its hot weather and if his last meal is early enough he will have enough time to drink as much as he likes up to then.  I suspect if your leaving down water and most mornings its still there I would think about taking it away.  My pup is  a little older though

i take the water away after my dogs been out for last pee at 11pm ish and put back asap in morning.

Dogs, like us continue to make urine whether given water or not, if fluid is not available in response to thirst it is taken from the tissues and the dog starts to get dehyrated.  Mild dehyration can mean the urine starts to get more concentrated and the dog is more susceptible to urine infection, which of course will make housetraining even more difficult because holding urine becomes more painful in either instance.  More serious dehyration, which is obviously more of a risk in a puppy, can lead to low enough blood volume to drop the blood pressure sufficiently to risk damage to the kidneys. 

Melster, this is a bit of an emotive subject on the forum, but personally I crate my dogs at night and they do not have access to water from 11pm-8am.  This is mainly to avoid wet bedding (spilling water in their bed), which is what happens if they have water in their crates.  If they were really thirsty, I would expect them all to make a beeline for the water bowl in the morning, but this never happens.  Their wee is not too concentrated.