I adopted a puppy a few weeks ago. I obviously did loads of research for months beforehand to make sure I was ready to welcome him in the best possible conditions! I've read pretty much everywhere that you have to get up during the night to take them out so they learn to be house-trained more quickly.
I wanted to ask today if this process is actually useful or even necessary? My pup (11 weeks old) seems to have a very tiny bladder: he wees every 45 minutes to an hour during the day, and the longest he's held it at night is 2 hours...
I’ve been getting up every 2 hours to take him out since day one, just like I was advised. I also read that puppies should soon be able to hold it for a bit longer at night and that these night-time wake-ups would only be needed for a few days or weeks.
My puppy is still doing just as many wees and can only hold it for 2 hours max at night; even then, most of the time when I come downstairs, he’s already had an accident in the living room (poos as well...). He’s starting to understand really well that he needs to go outside, because as soon as I take him out (day or night), he goes straight away in the garden. So, we're on the right track!
I’m starting to get really tired from such broken sleep. Getting up every 2 hours is becoming harder and harder to manage for my own wellbeing and exhaustion levels, and I can’t even imagine what it’ll be like when I start my classes again next week!
That’s why I was wondering if I really need to keep getting up to train him, or if it isn't actually essential in the end. I obviously know what I signed up for when I adopted my little one, so if this is truly necessary for house-training, I’ll keep doing it, no problem!
Thanks in advance for your replies 🙂
Translated from French
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That’s exactly how I see it, yeah – you just shouldn’t get in nature’s way. But this whole business of praise and scolding, honestly, it’s all a bit beyond me.
My first dog, on the other hand, took a full year to house-train. And I honestly think it took that long because we weren't taking him out often enough. We were taking him out at fixed times and just cleaning up the accidents. I think that by not making it easy for him, and not letting him follow his natural instincts (to go outside) because we stuck to a rigid schedule rather than his actual needs, we basically "untrained" him. After that, we really struggled to get him house-trained again. I'm not even sure if we were the ones who finally taught him, or if it was just a "second wave" of instinct—a sort of safety net nature provides for us slow learners who fail to make the most of a puppy's natural urge to go away from where they sleep. It's that adolescent stage where the instinct to mark their outside environment kicks in, which can finally push them to want to go outdoors even if they've got into the habit of going inside.
To my mind, the advice about getting up in the night is really about that: putting the dog in the best possible position to keep that natural drive to go outside. That impulse is so precious, and house-training can be much harder once you've broken it—once you've completely untrained the dog to the point where they’ve started, for example, actually soiling their own bed because they haven't had any other choice!
Sadly, because of the conditions they were bred in, many dogs never got to fully develop that natural instinct to go outside. This makes house-training much more difficult—turning it into a proper training process, in my opinion—and it goes way beyond just the physical issue of them being too young to hold it.
I really noticed the difference between Léon and Basile.
Léon was a spring/summer puppy who lived in a kind of big shed with constant access to a little patch of garden, surrounded by his mum and siblings. I went to fetch him when he was 3 months old.
I didn't actually have to house-train him; he already was. He naturally wanted to go outside rather than indoors whenever he could. We made sure he had the chance, so for the first few days, we slept with the patio doors open (it was summer) so he could go out to do his business. As he was already 3 months old and could hold it in quite well, we were soon able to close the door at night and get him used to waiting for it to open in the morning and at regular intervals. We even put a little bell on the door to teach him how to ask to go out.
Basile was a winter puppy. He grew up with his mum, his aunt, and his siblings in a house, with limited access to the outdoors because the breeder was worried they’d catch a cold. She used puppy pads for them. I got him at 2 months old. The training process was longer, even if it still happened fairly quickly. For a while, I let him keep the puppy pads he was used to so he’d use those instead of getting any other even more problematic ideas, which he did quite naturally if he couldn't get outside. It felt much more like I actually had to train him. I had to take him out very frequently (even during the night) so he’d get into the habit of going outside rather than just on the pads, and give him plenty of praise. Eventually, we got a real conditioned reflex going; we’d say, "Wee-wee? Go wee-wee," and he’d go while keeping an eye on the hand holding the treat. This reflex meant we still had a house-trained dog fairly quickly (by 4 months), despite starting with the pads which made going outside feel slightly less natural for him.
Lorna, you're right about house-training not being a "learned" skill, but that only applies to a puppy or dog that hasn't already "unlearned" how to be clean—or rather, been taught not to be, if we're looking at it as an instinct rather than a skill.
For a puppy that’s grown up in a kennel or a flat with no access to the outdoors, it can be quite tricky. I reckon puppies naturally have the instinct (or at least it’s a natural process, perhaps guided by the mother) to move away from their living area to do their business. But if that instinct is stifled, they might have learned to go right where they sleep! In that case, you do need to step in with some proper training (which might involve praising good behaviour) to help them relearn what should have been second nature.
Well, no... My dog didn't "learn" that it was "good" to go outside; that’s exactly the misunderstanding I’m talking about :-) A dog will naturally go outside rather than in its own living space, quite simply when given the chance. A dog can't function normally if they're forced to soil themselves or stay in a dirty crate, that's for sure... It's not because they haven't "learnt" but because they weren't able to!
How do you explain then that, to begin with, my dog was constantly going indoors even though he had the chance to go outside?
I’d explain it simply by his natural stage of development.
With a very young puppy, there is almost no bladder control... Which means as soon as the puppy moves around a bit or gets their system going by eating or drinking, it just comes out.
Then, week by week, they start to develop some control and the puppy is more and more capable of making it outside to do their business (provided you open the door, of course).
Well, no... My dog didn't 'learn' that it was 'good' to go outside, that's the big misconception I'm talking about :-) A dog naturally prefers to go outside rather than in its own living space, quite simply whenever it’s given the chance. A dog can't function properly if it's forced to soil itself or its crate, that's for sure... It's not because they haven't been 'taught', it's because they simply weren't able to!
How do you explain then that, at the start, my dog was constantly going indoors even though he had the chance to go outside?
In the middle of the Australian Outback, Aboriginal people don't bother "house-training" their dogs, and I’ve never yet seen a dog that prefers to do its business on tiles rather than on grass or soil—provided, of course, that they haven't been held back by being kept cooped up.
My little Labrador pup (3.5 months old) is now fully house-trained (including through the night – 11:30 pm to 6:45 am).
No "happy wees" or fear-related accidents to report so far.
I never actually got up in the middle of the night to take her out (pure laziness on my part, I’ll admit... between work, looking after my daughters and everything else, I just wouldn't have managed).
In the beginning, if there was an accident, we just cleaned it up without saying a word or making a fuss, and that was that.
We were quite lucky though, as she was already pretty much house-trained when we got her at 9 weeks; the breeder had already done a lot of the legwork. We just carried on with her training by taking her out regularly.
I think going outside is instinctive for a dog, provided they don't have any physical or behavioural issues.
The only sticking point still is the rugs. We don’t dare roll ours out yet because they’re so plush that she thinks they're grass. That’ll be the next (and final) hurdle!
Well, no... My dog didn't "learn" that it was "good" to go outside; that’s the big misconception I’m talking about :-)
A dog will naturally go outside rather than in its own living space, quite simply whenever they have the opportunity.
A dog can’t function normally if they're forced to soil themselves or go in their crate, that’s for sure... It’s not because they haven’t been "taught", it’s because they weren't able to!
Mind you, even if house-training isn’t exactly "learning" in the way you mean—since it’s mostly physiological—it’s still a matter of the dog understanding the logic: I need to go => the door is open => I have to go outside. It’s only been a few days since my dog finally clocked that when he needs to go, he has to do it outside if he’s got the chance.
It’s not about whether they can hold it in or not. That’s actually why rescue dogs are rarely "house-trained" when they first join their new families; they haven’t learned to go outdoors because they’ve often been forced to go inside their kennels (even as adults who are physically able to hold it).
I’ll reconsider the middle-of-the-night wake-up calls then, as they don’t seem to be doing much good at the moment anyway. Your input has been really reassuring 👍
