Please help.  We have a 7 month old puppy and we love her to bits.  She is housetrained during the day but not at night.  She was fine up until about 2 months ago when she started peeing and pooing in the kitchen over night.  We let her out at 11pm and she wakes us up at about 5.30 - 6am.  When we come down she has soiled in the kitchen.  I know that there is not point in punishing her in the morning but I am at a loss as to what to do to stop this.  I would be very grateful for any help as she is great in every other way.

When you come down to her is the mess fresh? What I mean is, does she only start making enough noise for you to hear when she's so desperate she can't wait any longer? If so you could try a baby alarm so that she wakes you sooner, or setting your alarm for earlier than she usually wakes you so you can take her out before she's bursting.

You shouldn't be waiting for her to wake you up and "tell" you that she has messed inside.

If you know she is going to mess inside, it's up to you to set your alarm clock for the middle of the night, get up and take her out.

You might also want to consider crate training her, because dogs will not soil their bed (in almost all cases) and will hold on as long as they can until you take them out.  It is cruel, however, to make her hold it for longer than she can yet, so even if you use a crate I would still take her outside in the middle of the night.

http://www.ddfl.org/behavior/crate-train.pdf

IS she OK when left alone as well?

When you say that she been ok up to a couple of months ago, has there been any change in the house or her routine at all?
Have you checked with the vet to see if there are any underlying causes that could be taken into consideration. It is unusual for a dog to be housetrained in the night and then for some unknown reason start to mess in the house.
Have you changed the dogs food or the feeding routine at all?
Sorry to ask so many questions just trying to work out why she would all of a sudden start to mess at night when you say that she was trained before/

This started I think after she had an upset stomach.  While she had a upset stomach she was messing a few times in the kitchen overnight but we knew that that was as she was unwell.  Her stomach is now better but she is still weeing and pooing I can't think of any other change to her routine.  She is fine when left during the day.

She has started a "bad" habit - originally due to having a bad stomach, but the habit has now been created and you need to break it.

The only way to do this is to get up in the middle of the night and take her out, preventing her from needing to go on the floor and thereby starting a new "good" habit which you want.

Does this not get her into the habit of needing to be let out in the middle of the night?

No. But it will reinforce the knowledge that outside is the place to wee and poo. She's quite old enough to hold on through the night but if she's got into the habit of not bothering then she simply won't bother!

No, not if you set the alarm clock and YOU decide when she goes out.  The pattern is - YOU decide, not her.  But you keep your "decision" to a time limit that she can manage to hold on for and don't ask for the impossible (ie all night).

Of course, if you wait for her to bark and wake you up, then yes, you will be rewarding the barking and the waking in the middle of the night.

Just a thought here.  I would advocate crate training but I would also get her up at 5am not the middle of the night, gradually extending this time until you know she is able to wait until getting up time.  If she has already messed then you will have to get up a little earlier until you catch the time when it happens.

It could also be that her hormones have kicked in and she is being stimulated to evacuate because she is feeling odd inside.  Some people may say this is nonsense but experience tells me that some bitches do go backwards with the toilet training on the first season.

Thank you for your help we will try and get up in the early morning and let her out.  Hopefully this will work and break her bad habit.

I hope that this works out for you. The crate training is very good though as dogs don't like to mess where they  sleep. The crate is like a little safe place that belongs just to the dog and they do feel quite safe in it I put mine in during the day with the door on the cage open so that they can come and go as they please. In the night maybe close the cage door for a little while until you decide to get up and let her out, that may help.
If you don't want to try the crate, then as others have suggested you will have to get up a little bit early and let her out, Hope you can sort it as its distressing for you as well.