Staying up with a puppy at night? I'm reaching breaking point, help!

Just like Marine, my dog sleeps in my room and wakes me up if he needs to go out. It’s easy for me as I’ve got a door that leads straight into the garden.

But I’ve never taken a puppy out every two hours, whether that’s during the day or at night.

I think the most important thing is making the puppy understand that going to the toilet happens outside. Once they’ve grasped the concept, they’ll start asking to go out by themselves when they need to. You have to be really quick at first though, and the way they ask can be quite subtle. It all comes with time.

But don’t worry, your puppy is still very young; they’ll end up house-trained eventually, just like all the others. There’s no reason why they wouldn't.

For me, I spent a month getting up once a night. I slept in the same room and she’d wake me if she needed to, but I never set an alarm to force a toilet break.

What also really helped was getting to know her and learning to spot the signs that she needed a wee or a poo (sniffing, circling...) so I could take her out.

I completely agree with what you’ve been told.

He’s a puppy, so he won’t be house-trained straight away—far from it!

Hang in there, stay patient, and get some sleep!🙂

Same here, I slept right through every night without worrying about any puddles we might find.

She’s fully house-trained now; even if we’re stuck indoors, she refuses to go inside unless she’s poorly. When she is sick, we don’t say a word; we just act like we haven't seen anything.

If a puppy can’t hold it, you can get up as often as you like, but they’ll inevitably have accidents because they physically can’t hold it in yet—it’s just biology.

I doubt that giving them a bit of time delays house-training. Don’t get too fixated on it; as long as you’re providing quality walks and taking them out at strategic times during the day, they’ll have no trouble understanding that outside is best.

Hi there,

House training can take a really long time. It depends not only on how quickly your puppy learns, but also—and more importantly—on their physical development, as their sphincters won't be fully mature until they're about 6 months old. So, until then, it’s perfectly normal to have the odd accident...

That said, puppies usually get the hang of staying clean at night more quickly. At two and a half months old, she’s still very young, and you’ll definitely see some progress over the next few weeks, especially if you're taking her out during the night. However, a rhythm of 2-3 toilet breaks a night might be enough rather than every 2 hours; you can then gradually reduce this to one, before eventually just doing a late-night let-out and an early-morning one.

Do remember to give her plenty of praise whenever she does her business outside and offer some tasty treats to encourage her to do it again. If she has an accident indoors, it’s best just to ignore it.

I hope this helps,

Have a lovely day,

Mathilde

Hi there,

I've always slept through every single night and all my dogs were house-trained by the time they were 3 to 5 months old. Just pick her up and take her outside if she has an accident in the house during the day; that'll help her understand that she's meant to go outside.

Best of luck!

Ah, brilliant, thanks!

So you never actually stayed up with the puppy and he just became house-trained on his own? I don't mind cleaning up, but I just want to be sure she’ll get there eventually :-/ I’m probably stressing out a bit too much, yeah... so around 5 months seems about right to you?? Thanks... if anyone else has any advice or experience?? Thanks..